This time, the weapon dropped swiftly, and the girl stared at me with wide, stunned eyes. “You’re Cobalt,” she whispered, and all the tension left her, replaced with relief. The pipe fell from her fingers with a clank and rolled across the floor, but she didn’t give it a second glance. “You’re really here,” she whispered, grabbing a beam as if to steady herself. “We heard you might be in the city, but we had no way to contact you.”

I stared at her in surprise. “You were looking for me?”

She nodded. Taking a deep breath, she seemed to regain her composure. “Sorry about before. I’m Ava. A friend and I escaped the organization maybe two weeks ago. There were rumors that you were in Las Vegas, and we heard that you could help those who got out of Talon, so we came here to find you. But we had to hide as soon as we arrived in the city. St. George…”

I nodded. “You mentioned a friend,” I said, hoping the worst had not happened, that St. George had not already found them. “Are they still alive?”

Ava nodded. “Yes, she’s here. One moment.” She walked a few steps to peer around a wall. “It’s okay,” she called into the shadows. “You can come out. They’re not from Talon.” She gave a short, breathless laugh, as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “It’s actually Cobalt, of all the lucky breaks.”

“Cobalt?”

Another hatchling emerged around the corner, edging shyly into view. She was shorter than Ava by several inches and looked even younger than Ember. Her skin was pale, almost porcelain colored, and a mass of jet-black curls tumbled down her back and shoulders. Enormous dark eyes peered out at us with a mix of curiosity and fear.

“This is Faith,” Ava introduced, holding out her hand to the other girl. Faith blinked as she came forward, pressing close to the other hatchling. Ava put a protective arm around her, though she still spoke to me. “The day before she completed assimilation, she discovered that Talon was going to send her to ‘the facility,’ because she was unsuitable to be a Chameleon, which is what they had originally planned for her.”