* * *
The drive to the Arizona/Utah line was silent and mostly empty. Few cars passed us on the long stretch of highway across the Mojave Desert. Overhead, the moon peered down like a sleepy, half-lidded eye, surrounded by a billion stars that stretched on forever. Out here in the desert, many miles from cities or lights or civilization, the sky called to me. I thought of Shifting, of leaping off the bike, changing forms midair and soaring through the empty sky. Annoyed, I pushed all tempting thoughts to the back of my mind, willing my dragon to settle down. In a couple hours, we would be sneaking into a heavily armed base filled with soldiers whose main goal was the complete genocide of our species. There were more important things to focus on than midnight flights in the desert heat.
Garret. I hope you’re okay. Hang in there, we’re coming for you.
It felt like a thousand tiny snakes were writhing in my stomach, and I breathed deep to calm them down. Was the soldier going to be there when we came for him? Was he still alive? What would he say when we finally found him? I would think that a dragon showing up at a St. George base in the middle of the night wasn’t something that happened often, if ever. Would Garret be happy to see me? Would he accept help from a dragon, the creature he’d been trained to kill on sight?
Or would he turn around and alert the rest of the base to our presence, having concluded that dragons were the enemy after all and needed to be destroyed? It had been days since that lonely night on the beach where I’d almost died, attacked by my own trainer. Garret had saved us, but he was also a soldier of the Order. According to Talon doctrine, St. George couldn’t be reasoned with, accepted no compromise and showed no mercy to their enemies. Garret was back with his own people now. What if they’d convinced him that he’d been wrong after all, that dragons were the enemy, and the next time he saw one he’d put a bullet in the back of its skull?
Garret wouldn’t do that, I told myself. He’s different than the rest of them. He saw that we weren’t monsters. And he…he promised me that he was done killing. He wasn’t going to hunt us anymore, that’s what he said.
I had to believe that. I had to believe Garret would keep his promise, that the soldier who’d helped fight off Lilith and let us go was the same person I’d gotten to know over the summer. The boy I’d taught to surf, who’d played arcade games with me, whose smile could make my stomach do tipsy cartwheels. Who had kissed me in the ocean and made all my senses surge to life, who’d made me feel like I wasn’t a dragon or a human, but a strange, light creature somewhere in between. That person was not a soldier of St. George, a cold ruthless killer who hated dragons and slaughtered without mercy. No, when Garret was with me, he was just a boy who, at times, seemed just as uncertain and confused as I was. I’d seen a glimpse of the soldier on the bluff, when he’d pointed a gun at my face, his eyes hard and cold. But even then, he hadn’t pulled the trigger.
Would he pull the trigger now?
I sighed and pressed my cheek to Riley’s back, trying to stop my brain from looping in endless circles. Rescue Garret first. That was the looming issue at the moment, the thing I had to focus on right now. We could deal with everything else after we were clear of St. George.
Riley made a sharp left turn, pulled off the highway and headed into the desert. Startled, I tightened my arms around his waist, and we sped between rocks and cacti, following the van ahead of us. Abruptly, Riley flipped off the lights, as did the van, and we traveled in darkness for a while, only the faint light of the moon guiding the way. Finally, the van slowed and pulled behind a shallow rise, skidding to a halt in a billowing cloud of dust. Riley swerved, cruising beside it, and killed the engine.
Heart pounding, I sat up as the absolute silence of the desert descended on us like a glass dome. Except for my own breathing and the soft creak of the motorcycle, the complete absence of noise was chilling, and my dragon bristled. I didn’t like it. It reminded me of my old school in the middle of the Great Basin, the place my brother and I had spent the majority of our lives, learning how to be human. Surrounded by desert, open sky and a whole lot of nothing. You could go outside and stand for hours in the same spot, the sun blazing down on you, and your ears would start to throb from the eternal, looming silence. I’d hated it. Sometimes, it had felt like the silence was trying to steal my voice; that if I went too long without making any noise, I’d become as still and lifeless as the desert around me. Dante had never understood why I was always so restless.
Dante. A lump rose to my throat as I clambered off the motorcycle, and I forced my thoughts away from him. One problem at a time.
“Still up for this, Firebrand?” Riley whispered, jolting me out of my dark musings. With a mental shake, I nodded as my heart resumed its painful thud against my ribs. Riley gazed at me, then turned and pointed across the desert to where a scattering of distant lights winked at us in the darkness.
“That’s the base,” he said quietly as I stared at the glimmers marking our objective. Garret was somewhere behind those walls, and with any luck, we’d get to him and be long gone before anyone from St. George knew we were there. “We’re about two miles away,” Riley went on, “but we can’t risk driving any closer and having them see us. Stealth is our only chance to pull this off. From here, we walk.”
Wes slipped out of the van, ski cap pulled low over his head, and stalked around the vehicle to yank open the back doors. Riley joined him and dragged a black duffel bag out from under the seat. My heart lurched as Riley casually pulled out a small black pistol, checked the chamber for rounds and holstered it to his belt with easy familiarity.
I swallowed at the sight of the gun. “Riley?” I ventured, suddenly terrified and angry about being terrified. “Tell me the truth,” I said as he glanced over. “And don’t think for a minute that I’m backing out, but…how dangerous is this really going to be?”
Wes snorted. “Oh, sure, now she asks. On bloody St. George’s doorstep.”
Riley sighed. “Truth, Firebrand? I wouldn’t agree to do this if it was complete suicide,” he said, holding my gaze. I blinked at him, surprised, and he gave a weary smile. “Wes might preach doom and gloom, but trust me when I say I know what I’m doing. We’ll be going in when most of the base will be asleep. This particular chapterhouse is extremely remote and well hidden; they’re using isolation to deter unwanted guests, so security should be minimal. If no one knows where you are, why bother with a ton of guards and patrols? And trust me, two dragons sneaking into a St. George compound doesn’t happen often, if ever.