“Ember,” Riley began, but I brushed past him and stalked from the room. He didn’t understand. He didn’t have a sibling. None of them did. Dante and I were the only pair that had been raised together, the only dragon siblings in existence. Riley couldn’t understand because he didn’t have one, but Dante was family. Talon couldn’t have him.

“Dammit, Firebrand. Hold up.”

Strong fingers grabbed my wrist just outside the door, halting my angry storm-out. Bristling, I tried yanking out of his grasp, but Riley pulled me back into the room with him and slammed the door behind us.

“Just wait a second,” he snapped, but I was full-on pissed now and punched him in the arm. “Ow! Will you stop? Listen to me.” Grabbing my arms, he pinned me against the door, glaring down with angry gold eyes. My instincts flared, rising to the challenge, nearly bursting through my skin as he shoved me back. I barely clamped down on the impulse to Shift right then and pounce on the dragon in front of me.

Riley took a deep breath, as if he, too, was struggling to hold his dragon down. “Look, I’m sorry about Dante,” he said. “But we can’t help him right now. We can barely help ourselves. If you try contacting him now and Talon finds out where we are, we’ll be dead. Even if he doesn’t give our location away, the organization will be monitoring his every move, because he’s connected to you. They’re watching him, Firebrand. They know Dante is their way to you, and if they find you, they find all of us. I do not want to wake up in the middle of the night surrounded by Vipers.” His fingers gripped me tighter, his face intense. “It’s too dangerous to send Dante any kind of message, Ember. Promise me you won’t try to contact him.”

Defiance rose, egged on by the dragon, the surging heat inside. Of course, he was right, but… “I’m getting him out, Riley,” I said, meeting that intense gaze, almost seeing Cobalt peering out at me. “One way or another. I can’t leave him there.”