“Not helpful, Riley!” came Ember’s voice from somewhere below.

“They don’t want to kill us,” St. George replied. “At least, not all of us. They want Ember alive, to take back to Talon. That’s what Dante said.”

“Yeah, well, good luck with that,” Ember said defiantly, her feet thumping on the rungs as she climbed down the shaft. “I can’t believe Dante would set us up like this...again.” She sighed. “Dammit, who am I kidding?” she whispered, her voice nearly inaudible in the darkness. “If Dante knew we were coming here, he’d know I would want to talk to him. He made sure that I would see him, just to lure us in here. So this...this is my fault.”

“Stop it, Firebrand,” I growled down at her. “We all agreed to do this. We all wanted to know what Talon was up to, if they were planning anything shady. I think we sure as hell got our answer.” A shriek rang out somewhere overhead, and I shivered. “So now the question becomes, what can Talon do with an army of soulless clone dragons, and what’s that going to mean for the rest of us?”

“Nothing good,” St. George muttered above me. I couldn’t argue with him there.

We continued down the shaft in silence until we reached the last floor. Swinging myself onto the ledge between the drop-off and elevator doors, my legs nearly buckled and I staggered. Ember quickly grabbed my arm, pulling me back from the edge.

“We need to bandage those,” she whispered, her gaze going to my shirt, where I could feel the bloody fabric sticking to my skin.

“Let’s get out of here first,” I muttered back as St. George joined us on the ledge, also giving me a concerned look. I stepped away from them and wedged my fingers into the crack between the elevator doors. “We’ll call Wes, get back to the safe house and then decide if we need to build a giant underground shelter to wait out the next fifty years while Talon unleashes the dragon apocalypse. St. George, grab the other door, would you?”

He did, and together we pried them open, though I had to bite my lip to stifle a grunt of pain as we slid them back. The soldier leaned out and peered into the darkness beyond. “I don’t see anyone,” he murmured. “Looks clear.”

Silently, we slid out of the elevator and crept down the hall, which opened up into a spacious lobby with high ceilings, a large front desk and a few chairs and sofas placed strategically over the floor. To the right, an escalator led up to a second-floor balcony that overlooked the lobby, and straight ahead, maybe fifty feet away, were the front doors that represented freedom.

“Almost there,” Ember whispered, and bounded forward.