I swallowed, glancing at the phone lying innocently on the table, and my heart began pounding against my will. Ember, I thought, staring at the device as if I could sense her on the other side. Please, don’t do anything stupid. This is your last chance to choose the right thing.

Folding my hands on the table, I waited for the phone to ring.

Part III

PART III

Leap of Faith

Ember

Ember

You could cut the tension in the cab with a knife and serve it on a plate.

No one, of course, wanted to sit up front. Riley refused to have me and Garret in the back by ourselves, Garret wouldn’t leave me alone with Riley, and I certainly wasn’t going to sit up front so the boys could murder each other in the backseat. So we sat there, the three of us, myself in the middle, Garret and Riley flanking me on either side. And the silence was deafening.

Riley still looked murderous. He didn’t look at me or Garret, but stared out the window, one arm on the sill. I could feel his anger radiating from every part of him, as if the dragon hissed and raged just below the surface. It prodded at my own dragon, riling her up, making me twitchy and restless. I felt guilty, and at the same time, I was angry about feeling guilty. Riley was way out of line; we hadn’t done anything wrong. But his words still echoed in my mind, harsh and accusing, as if I’d betrayed not only him, but my entire race.

How long do you think he’s going to stick around? Where do you think you’ll be sixty years from now? A hundred years from now? Have you even thought about that?

He was being unreasonable. Of course I wasn’t thinking about the future; what sixteen-year-old—of any species—did that? I hadn’t been trying to piss Riley off tonight. I was just feeling bored, guilty, homesick and frankly pretty miserable, and somehow, Garret could bring me out of it. He made me forget the bad things for a while, just like he had in Crescent Beach. When I was with him, I could almost pretend I was normal.

My dragon snarled at me, disgusted. You’re not normal, she whispered, an insidious worm in my brain. You’re not human, and the soldier won’t be here forever. Riley will.

A slight brush against my leg jolted me out of my dark thoughts. I peeked over and met Garret’s eyes, worried and questioning, red neon lights washing over his face. His hand lay between us, the back of his knuckles resting against my jeans. A warm glow spread through my stomach and I gave him a furtive smile, even as my dragon recoiled with a hiss.