She started forward, stumbled and nearly fell, hissing in pain. Hurrying to her side, I gently caught a wing joint, making her pause and look back at me. “Hold on a second,” I said, wishing I knew a trick to get a dragon to lie down, especially this dragon. “Ember, wait. You’re going to hurt yourself.” She snorted and glared at me, and I sighed. “Stay here and don’t move,” I said, holding out an arm as I backed away. “Lie down if you have to. I’ll find it. I’ll be right back.” And I jogged into the maze without waiting for a reply.

I sprinted back to the place we’d first been ambushed, passing the bodies of several Talon agents, slumped in corners or behind crates. The majority of the group lay sprawled on the cement where the line had been, torched with dragonfire or shot with the gun Ember had tossed me.

The weapon she was supposed to kill me with.

My jaw clenched. For a bleak moment, I’d really thought she would. I knew she and Dante were close, that they shared a bond unheard of between their kind. Dante was a dragon, her brother and her only family; I was a human soldier she had known only a few weeks. She’d told me herself, she would do anything to get him out of Talon.

Why had she chosen me over her twin?

The ringing had stopped by the time I reached the area, but after only a few seconds of searching, it sounded again. I discovered the phone lying beside a pallet and snatched it up, bringing it to my ear.

“Wes?”

“Oh, goodie.” The voice on the other end, though heavy with sarcasm, was not Wes. “You’re still alive.”

“Riley.” I felt a strange mix of both relief and disappointment. Relief because, no matter what his feelings toward me, the rogue dragon was a competent leader and strategist, a soldier in his own right. And he obviously cared about the rogues in his underground, the hatchlings he got out of Talon, something I hadn’t thought dragons capable of a month ago. I hadn’t wanted him dead; I was glad he survived.

But at the same time, I’d seen how Ember looked at him sometimes, and I’d caught the protectiveness on his face whenever they were close. He was a dragon; long-lived, intelligent, and able to understand Ember in a way I never would. Jealousy was not something I’d experienced before. I despised how it made me feel. But it was there all the same.

“Where’s Ember?” Riley asked, making resentment flare up again, stronger than ever. I stifled my anger, knowing it was unreasonable right now, and answered calmly.

“She’s fine. She’s wounded, but she’ll be okay. We…ran into some trouble with Talon.”