With a sigh, I placed my palms against the tile wall and bowed my head, letting the water beat my shoulders and run down my skin. I knew the answer, of course, why I hadn’t left. It wasn’t because of St. George, or Talon. It wasn’t because I owed these dragons my life, or that I felt I could fight the Order that raised me. It wasn’t even the guilt, the memories of blood and death that kept me up at night now. It wasn’t any of those reasons.

It was Ember.

I shut off the water, toweled briefly and pulled on my last pair of semiclean jeans, one of two pairs to my name. I’d need new clothes soon. Wes had gotten me the essentials while we were holed up in the abandoned house, waiting for Ember to recover, but I couldn’t count on him or Riley now. Especially since I suspected something had gone down with the rogue’s network; last night, he and Wes had been talking in low, angry voices, and this morning, when I’d ventured out for a soda, Riley had stalked past me down the hall, his face like a thundercloud. He hadn’t looked like he was inclined to share what had happened, and I’d known better than to ask.

Shirtless, I wandered to the window and stared at the glittering sea below. The sun was setting behind the distant mountains, and a haze had settled over the urban sprawl of Las Vegas. Where was St. George? I wondered. What was happening in the Order? Were they still out there, hunting for me?

And what am I supposed to do now?

A sharp rap on my door had me automatically reaching for a gun that wasn’t there. With a grimace, I snatched a
T-shirt from the bed and pulled it on while walking across the room. Peering through the eyehole, I felt a strange flood of both tension and relief wash over me, before I pulled back the lock and opened the door.

“Ha. There you are.” Ember grinned at me, making my stomach knot. She wore shorts and a loose tank top, and looked perfectly normal standing there in my door frame. Like any other human girl. “I was afraid you might’ve snuck out the window or something. Didn’t you hear me knocking last night, or were you already asleep?”

My heart beat faster as I faced that familiar smile. She was a dragon, I reminded myself. Not evil or soulless as I’d once believed, but an alien creature nonetheless. Not human. I stifled the urge to touch her, to reach out and ease the worry in her eyes, the exhaustion she was trying to mask. A memory of another room, another time when it had been just the two of us, rose up to taunt me. I ruthlessly shoved it back.