Faith crawled out from under me and, as the flames around us burned low, started to shrink. Tail and neck retracted, scales disappeared and wings pulled into her body, until only a human in a black Viper suit remained sitting on the floor. She hugged herself and gazed up at me, looking like that scared, innocent girl I’d first met, though I knew better now. I folded my wings and sat down, clenching my jaw to keep from hissing in pain. No showing weakness in front of the trained Viper assassin. The last of the flames had finally flickered out, burning off with whatever flammable goo was in those drums, and now that the adrenaline was gone, I ached. Badly. The outside of a dragon might’ve been fireproof, but the numerous gashes I’d taken blazed with agony, burned and seared around the edges.

Great. I’m probably the only dragon in history who will ever suffer from third-degree burns.

“Riley,” I said, my voice a low, dangerous growl. “Where is he? Why were you sent for us? Tell me everything you know.”

Faith took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled slowly. “Mist and I were commissioned by Talon to find you and the rogue,” she began. “My orders were to bring you back alive and kill anyone else involved. Mist was to go after Cobalt, extract certain information from him and then dispose of him. Divide and conquer, then return to Talon with our objectives, that was the plan.”

I felt ill, but tried not to show it. “What information do they want from Riley?”

“I wasn’t privy to that part of the assignment,” Faith replied, and shrank back as I curled a lip at her. “Mist was the only one with that information,” she added quickly. “I had my orders. That’s all I was required to know.”

“So you have no idea where Riley is right now. Or what Mist is doing to him.”

“No.”

I growled in frustration, scraping my talons across the cement. The girl flinched, but I ignored her. Still no information on Riley, where he was, if he was still alive. We were no closer to finding him than we were when we left the hotel. Mist and Faith had set us up perfectly.

And then, I remembered something else.

“Where is Dante?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the other dragon. “You said you had his number on your phone. Or was that another lie?”

“It wasn’t.” Faith rubbed her arm. “Dante…is the one in charge of this operation. He and the rest of the board are standing by. I’m supposed to check in with him as soon as I take care of you, one way or another.”

My stomach dropped to the pads of my toes. “I don’t believe you.”