“Now?” Riley said, his voice full of dark promise as he turned away. “Now we’re going to hunt down a traitor.”

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Dante

Dante

I stood in another small, cold elevator, Mr. Smith and another Talon agent flanking me, as the tiny box descended into what felt like the bowels of the earth. Gazing at my blurry reflection in the metal door, I thought back to the past two days and allowed myself a small smile.

After the disastrous meeting and phone call with Ember, Mr. Roth had escorted me into his office and closed the door, inviting me to take a seat. I had obeyed with a numb sense of dread, knowing I had failed, both the organization and my sister. Sinking into the seat before the desk, I waited for the ax to fall, to be reamed out for my failure.

“First off, Mr. Hill, I’d like to congratulate you.”

I had stared, unsure I’d heard him right. Why was he congratulating me? Surely this was a joke, though I hadn’t known any of the senior executives to kid around. “Sir?”

Mr. Roth smiled. “This operation with your sister was a test, Mr. Hill. It was the reason we put you in charge of returning Ember Hill to Talon. We wanted to gauge your loyalty to the organization, as well as your ingenuity and commitment to doing the right thing.”

“But…I failed, sir. I didn’t bring Ember back.”

“No, that failure was not yours, Mr. Hill.” Roth’s eyes glittered, though it wasn’t directed at me. “You performed exactly as we hoped, and suffice to say the company is pleased with the results. There will be…repercussions. Reign is not going to be happy with the loss of his people, but that is
Talon’s concern, not yours. You’ve proven you can be trusted, that your ideals are in line with Talon’s, that you value the safety of the organization above all else.” He leaned back in his leather chair. “So again, I offer my congratulations, Mr. Hill. You have passed your final exam.

“Now,” he continued as I sat there, reeling from the announcement. “We have business to discuss. As a full-fledged member of the organization, you now know how serious the rogue threat is. Your own sister committed a heinous act against one of her own kind, allowing her to be slain by a soldier of St. George. Such is often the case with dragons that go rogue. Without structure, they become violent and unpredictable, a danger to themselves and to the organization. Your sister has started down a very dark path, but we believe it is actually the rogue dragon Cobalt who is influencing her. He is an extremist whose hatred of Talon is well-known, and his tactics against the organization border on terrorism. Cobalt and his network of criminals must be stopped at all costs. How dedicated are you to bringing this about, Mr. Hill?”