So I was. I thought back to when I’d actually had a plan. “I was hoping to lead them back to the park where they pissed off those faeries. They’d get caught in the trap, and then we could run.”

  A pause. “Not a bad idea, actually.”

  “I have them occasionally.” I managed to sit up this time. “You might have noticed we did a great job avoiding your people for years.”

  “They aren’t my people,” he said irritably. “How many times do I have to say it? I shot six of the bastards dead in the tunnels. That’s why the others ran when they heard you roar.”

  “Wait, what? Really?” I mean, I’d seen him shooting at them, but some part of me had thought he might spare the people he’d once fought alongside. Then again, considering how they treated one another, maybe not. Still, having this old argument was just what I needed to re-establish the boundaries between us. Necessary, necessary boundaries.

  “Try not to sound so surprised. You were there for most of it.”

  “I thought they ran because they’re cowards. This is the second time they’ve done it.”

  “Not the Elites,” said Astor. “You haven’t met them yet. If they came after you, you’d be dead, dragon or not. The only reason they weren’t there is because the League doesn’t send Elites on a standard raiding mission.”

  “Standard. Like arresting and killing people for existing is normal.”

  “Be glad they didn’t catch you. The witches they took in will be on their way to the Orion Stronghold by now.”

  My head snapped up. “The Orion Stronghold? That’s where—where they’re taking Cori.”

  His jaw tightened.

  “Do… do you know whereabouts it is?”

  He remained still, then gave one sharp nod. “I do. It’s notorious amongst us, too.”

  He’s hiding something. “Did you play security guard there?”

  “I didn’t need to,” he said. “It’s several levels underground with one entrance. The only time anyone goes in or out is when the guards change shifts. As for supernaturals, they never come out alive.”

  I’d heard the rumours. Icy cold sweat ran down my spine, washing away any trace of lust remaining. I pushed the covers aside. I couldn’t afford to delay any longer.

  “Please. You know how important this is. Tell me where the prison is.”

  “You’ll die if you go in there. Look… the way you’re going about this is all wrong. If you really want to challenge the League, you need more firepower. Aren’t all supernaturals under the protection of the Mage Lords?”

  “Protection?” I snorted. “They’re too busy trying to keep the faeries from killing off the government, not to mention keeping humans and supernaturals from murdering one another. Shifters are less than human to them, anyway.”

  Inexplicable rage welled inside me, both at my failure to catch up with Cori and the fact that the idea of leaving this unreliable dickhead of an ex-hunter behind felt—wrong. But it shouldn’t. He’d barely been on our side to begin with. The circumstances in which we’d met were nothing if not suspicious, whatever had happened later.

  And it was time to bring that challenge to the head. Whatever had happened between us.

  “Look,” I said. “We both know our alliance was temporary. But… I want to know why you were following the League to begin with. Why take the risk?”

  A pause. I thought he wasn’t going to respond, that I’d pushed too far. Why he was even still here was a mystery, and I had the sinking feeling I wasn’t going to like what I heard.

  “I heard the tip-off,” he said finally. “I was spying on them anyway, for my own reasons, and I heard… I heard that they were looking for a suspected case of an unknown shifter. A dragon shifter.”

  My breath stopped. “What? You knew, and they knew—what she was. You knew all along.”

  Which meant she’d never been to the other prison. She’d been in the Orion Stronghold the whole time.

  I was barely aware of moving until my claws were at his neck. I’d pinned him to the wall, moving far quicker than I ever had before. He breathed in and out, a bead of blood gathering where the tip of my claw brushed against his larynx. “You knew, you fucker.” Fire burned in my chest, demanding to be released. This time, not lust, but pure rage.

  A thin trail of blood ran down his collar. His heart raced—a reaction even he couldn’t hide. But why? Was he nervous I’d actually kill him, or getting some perverse thrill out of this? Anything might be true. Now I knew him to be a liar.

  “Ember,” he said. “I wanted to be straight with you, believe it or not. I didn’t set you up. The hunters did. By the time I caught up with them, it was too late. If you hadn’t ambushed me, I might have got close enough to get your sister back—”

  “Don’t lie. You’d never have saved her. Never.” My claw’s grip tightened. I could snap his neck easily. Still, he didn’t resist.

  “I didn’t know it was her,” he said. “They were talking about two sisters, and I remembered that day—two years ago. When I saw you shift. I thought it was you they had.”

  That, I didn’t expect. In place of the fire burning my throat, a wild laugh escaped. “Me. So you thought I needed a knight in shining armour to save me from the big bad, because you happened to be in the right place at the right time. You get points for being creative, but you’re full of shit.”

  “You want to know why? Because I saw you shift that day. You were human, and then… not. It messed with my head. I couldn’t forget the way you looked at me. I was already considering quitting the League, but that’s what sealed it for me. You looked too human, even as a dragon.”

  “You shot at us.”

  “It was a reflex.” He was almost shouting now. “I thought—everyone in the League thought you’d risen up to take us out. You looked exactly the same as the invaders.”

  “The invaders were faeries.”

  “Shape-changers. They moved exactly like you did. I’m not making excuses, but you’d have reacted the same.”

  “Don’t pin this one on me. The best thing you can do now, Astor, is fuck off and never bother me again.”

  He shuffled back a couple of inches, making me aware of something sharp jabbing into my side. In my pocket. My gaze dropped for a split second—wait.

  “What?” said Astor, his mouth quirking.

  “If you really want to make yourself useful…” I pulled out the notebook I’d taken from the prison guard, still open on the page with the address and time. “Do you know this address in Windsor?”

  His self-satisfied smirk disappeared, leaving his blank assassin face behind. “Yes,” he said. “It’s where certain events take place. Initiations, ceremonies, things like that.”

  “Ceremonies? You mean, when someone new joins the League?”

  “That’s precisely what I mean. Why?”

  “Because it’s in the notebook I took from the guy who was guarding the jail. Something’s happening there at midday. Windsor… the prison isn’t here in London.”

  His dangerous stillness suggested I’d guessed right. That’s near the prison. We have to go.

  “If you go,” he said, “you’re dead.”

  “Really. Look at what we did today. The spells. The tunnel. We aren’t like the other shifters they capture.” And they’d learn not to underestimate a dragon.

  “You’re as likely to die from a bullet?”

  “Why are you even here?” I asked. “We were done. You’ve got your freedom, and you don’t have to be involved any longer.” I didn’t have a clue what game he was playing, but time was running out and I was starting to get seriously worried about my friends. Hadn’t they only gone to fetch a knockout spell?

  “No,” he said. “You could have let me die in the tunnel. Why did you save me?”

  “Save you?”

  “You shielded us from the bullets. Including me.”

  I did? So I didn’t imagine it. My shifter instincts had focused on protecting my friends, and I’d included him amongst them automatically. Maybe that’s why I’d responded the way I did when he kissed me.

  “Because—nobody deserves to die like that.”

  “Not even a hunter?”

  “Ex-hunter,” I corrected without stopping to think.

  “Tigers don’t change their stripes, you said.” He flashed me a grin.

  “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I thought we were all going to die.” I’d preferred it when we were sworn enemies.

  “I thought we might die when I saw the fire.”

  “If you can’t take the heat, stay away from the enraged dragon.”

  He laughed. “I walked on burning coals in initiation. Fire doesn’t bother me.”

  “This is why we think you’re barbaric.” And why I shouldn’t believe a word he said. He’d successfully thrown my mind off balance, but I couldn’t let him distract me. “What’s this ceremony tomorrow?”

  “I’m not certain, but occasionally, the Elites run an event that’s open to members of the public thinking of joining the Orion League.”

  “Open to the public?” Then we could sneak in.

  “In theory. They don’t check if you have an invite, but it goes without saying that any supernatural who sets foot in there will probably end up on the entertainment list. They know your faces by now.”

  “Obviously.” Damn. If ever an event sounded like it was the key to us getting close to Cori… but might it be coincidence. Or—or a way of luring us in?

  No. They wouldn’t assume we’d know where the place is.

  I’d never even left London—not in the years I could actually remember, anyway.

  An uncomfortable prickling sensation went down my spine. “Might this special event be to do with why they’re moving the shifters to the Orion Stronghold?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “You’ll have to give me more to work with than that. I’m going, whether you stay behind or not.”

  “Look,” he said. “I might not know all their inner workings, but I do know the guards will be expecting witch spells by now. The prison’s reinforced in iron, which keeps faeries out. Mage magic is too flashy. Only witch spells are subtle enough to fool their detectors, but Elites are more observant than regular hunters.”

  “You sure seem to know a lot about supernaturals’ magic.”

  “We were strongly encouraged to understand our enemies.”

  I swallowed. “Does that mean you’re coming with me?”

  The door opened downstairs.

  “Your friends are back,” he said. “I didn’t lie to you. If you want me to use my resources to help you, you’ll have to choose whether to trust me or not. Time is of the essence, little dragon.”

  13

  “You’re awake!” said Becks, running over to me. Will followed more slowly, casting a suspicious look at Astor. “You—you’re okay, aren’t you? I thought we’d come back and find you’d burned the house down.”

  “No danger of that happening, don’t worry,” I said. “We need to move.”

  “Not now,” said Will. “You passed out, and you shattered the glass of half the rooms in the house.”

  “I did?” I’d heard the shattering, but this window was intact. Weird. Maybe I’d had enough self-preservation left to spare us, even with my dragon side threatening to escape.

  “Yeah. Lie down.”

  I shot him a warning look. What was the point in being a badass dragon shifter if I passed out every time I shifted? You’d think, given that my ancestors had been hunted from birth, that I’d have developed better survival mechanisms. That, or I hadn’t used my dragon form enough. It’s not like I had anywhere to practise without drawing a target on all of our heads.

  Astor gave me an expectant look. My stomach knotted. I still didn’t entirely believe him when he’d said he’d decided to tail the assassins, at his own risk.

  “Astor says he knows someone who can help us break into the prison.”

  “What?” said Becks.

  “We go to this event the League’s putting on,” I said. “It’s possible to sneak in there, but not the prison itself. Apparently. I’d say we go, learn as much as we can, and then plan from there. If it turns out illusions might work, or we need some form of identification to get in, there’s no better place. Besides, if they’re moving every prisoner in the city to the Stronghold, there might be more opportunities to sneak in while they’re preoccupied. We managed to distract them once before.”

  “The Elites are different,” Astor cut in. “As I said before, they’re trained not to panic in the face of certain death. You won’t be able to pull the same stunt you did in the tunnel. They’ll fill you with bullet holes.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” said Will. “How about this dickhead actually explains what’s going on before we go to this mysterious event?”

  “I didn’t get an invite, did I?” said Astor. “It might be anything. A new recruit’s initiation. A declaration of a state of emergency because of the stunt you three pulled at their prison. An execution—”

  The air tightened, and my throat closed up. “No,” I said quietly. “Not—”

  It was the only thing that might be worse than Cori being locked up underground. If they found out what she was, or even if not, they might kill her to make an example of her. They might do any number of things. And our plan to get there hinged on one unreliable assassin.

  “Look, we can’t stay here anyway,” said Will. “It’s dark outside, which means the hunters won’t be as likely to spot us. Of course, the significant disadvantage is that every Unseelie faerie in the area is prowling around looking for blood.”

  “We can’t afford to waste any more time.” I wasn’t my best, but a few hours’ sleep would take care of that. “Any ideas for where we can go?” I looked at Astor. He’d said he could help. Now was his chance to prove it.

  “You owe me,” I added, suddenly furious with myself for thinking my dragon’s instincts had meant anything other than an in-the-moment drive to protect everyone close to me. Allies we might be for now, but I knew so little about him, and he’d shown himself to be too unpredictable to be trusted.

  He gave the others an angry look. “Did you bring my phone and my weapons?”

  “What?” said Will.

  “That’s a no, then. My phone and my weapons, which you left in the house when the automatons trampled it. If you really want me to help you, I can’t contact anyone without my phone.”

  “I put it in the safe,” said Will. “There’s a chance it might have survived. If you’re willing to risk running into the faeries.”

  “If my weapons are there, too, I’ll take the risk,” said Astor. He looked at Will as though expecting a challenge.

  Will, however, shrugged. “Be my guest.”

  “Likewise,” Becks said. She didn’t trust him. Good, because I wasn’t sure I trusted myself around him.

  Astor left the room, pulling the gun from Will’s jacket pocket as he did so. I let out a shuddering breath, some of the tension inside me finally easing.

  “Intense, isn’t he?” commented Will.

  “He’s one of the League,” said Becks. “They need at least twelve weapons to function.”

  “He took that gun from me,” I reminded her. “And shot several of his own people. I think that’s enough proof he’s on our side.”

  “I dunno, they don’t seem to be particularly loyal to one another,” said Becks. “I wouldn’t rule out any nasty surprises, especially as we’re putting our own safety in his hands now we’re out of options. If he decides to help us.”

  “Yeah, there is that.” None of this was ideal. All my visions of striding into the prison to rescue Cori had faded.

  Bang.

  I jumped to my feet, and all of us ran to the window, but I didn’t see the source of the noise.

  “What was that?” I said. “Don’t tell me Astor shot a faerie for looking at him the wrong way.”

  “Or something attacked him?” said Will. “You’re probably right, though.”

  “You’d think he’d want to save bullets,” said Becks.

  “Not everyone comes with built-in weapons like we do,” said Will. “Though I’m running low on spells. I used them all to distract the hunters in the tunnels. I did get a bunch of ingredients out, but they’re not much use on their own.”

  “Damn,” said Becks. “What about the explosives?”

  “Still here. I didn’t want to bring the tunnel ceiling down.”

  “Maybe you should have,” I said. “Then I wouldn’t have had to transform. If they didn’t see me, they have the proof we aren’t ordinary shifters now. The ones who aren’t scared shitless will be coming after us. Not to mention they might guess that Cori is the same as I am.” And with her in the Orion Stronghold, they had the tools to break her.

  “We’ll file that under the lessons we’ve learned from this endeavour,” said Will.

  “We’ve also learned Will has terrible taste in romantic partners,” Becks added.

  “Hey!” said Will. “None of us could have guessed Carter would turn us into the League. I hope they burned his house down.”

  “It looked like they did,” I said.

  “Anyway, didn’t you date a troll once?” Will added.

  “He wasn’t a troll,” Becks said indignantly. “He was just a really tall gargoyle.”

  “Most gargoyles aren’t nine feet tall.”

  “Better than a hunter.” Becks’s eyes flashed towards me. Oh, crap.

  “A dead slug would be better than a hunter,” I said. It wasn’t like I’d had any romantic notions whatsoever about taking off with Astor. What I’d felt had been pure misplaced lust.

  “Don’t give me that,” said Becks. “This whole room smells of heat. And not the fiery sort, though there’s some of that in there, too.”

  “Ugh. Don’t.” I raised my hands. “Shifting back from dragon form has weird side effects. I don’t feel anything for him.”

  “I should bloody well hope not,” said Becks.

  The window clicked open—in fact, it’d already been open without my noticing. Astor slipped back inside.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66