Julie Kagawa - Legion

For some reason, that made him close his eyes in a grimace. “Ember told me the same thing once,” he said. “She was right. I didn’t know anything about your kind back then. Everything the Order taught me was wrong.” He drummed his fingers against his arm and glanced down the hall, where Ember, Wes and Jade still slept in quaint, woodsy rooms. “I want to know more,” he said quietly. “I’m trying to understand. Even with Ember, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.”

“If only you had a dragon around to explain these things to you.”

He smiled, though his expression remained shadowed and distant. “I don’t want to fight you, Riley,” he said after a moment, and we both knew what he was referring to. “You’re not my enemy. I don’t want to feel like I have to watch my back with any of my teammates. I love Ember.” He said it simply, like he was telling me the weather. “And I know there’s something between you and her, something...Draconic, I guess, that I might not ever understand. It’s not my place to ask—she’ll tell me when she’s ready. But I’m here to stay. I’m not going anywhere.”

I swallowed the growl and pushed Cobalt down from where he was rising up, bristling and indignant. “And you’re telling me this why?”

“It needed to be said.” He stared down the hall again. “We’ve been dancing around this for too long. I’m done hiding. I’d rather have everything out in the open. You saved my life,” he continued, obnoxiously sincere and calm. “I thought I’d give you the courtesy of knowing where I stood.”

Anger boiled, but I forced a smirk and pushed past him, into the living room. “Near-death experience making you sentimental, St. George?”

“Maybe.” His voice remained the same. “But it doesn’t change anything.”

“What are you two talking about?”

Ember walked out of the hall, yawning as she came into the kitchen. Her crimson hair stuck out at every angle, and Cobalt stirred at the sight of her. With a brief smile at St. George, she walked to the coffeepot, poured the contents into a mug and padded back to join us in the living room.

“Did we wake you?” the soldier asked, ignoring, I noticed, the previous question. Ember shook her head and brought the mug to her lips.

“Couldn’t sleep. Heard the two of you out here and thought I might as well get up, go over the plan or something. Ugh, that’s awful.” She pulled the mug away from her lips, screwing up her face, then took another sip. “I assume it hasn’t changed, right? We’re still keeping to the same plan?”

I sighed. “Yeah.” I nodded, taking a bracing swallow myself. “Same plan. As soon as the others are up, we’ll head out. We need a few things before we can pull this off.”

* * *

“All right,” I said, pulling to a stop on the narrow, winding road that cut through the mountain. Up ahead, a yellow barricade blocked both lanes, and a single police car sat beside it, lights flashing blue. “There’s the security checkpoint.” I glanced at Ember and St. George in the backseat, seeing a pair of strangers staring back. Like me, both wore black suits—or monkey suits as Wes so elegantly put it—and dark shades, the “few things” we had to pick up for this plan to work. I resented the fact that Wes didn’t have to dress up for this stupid mission; he got to stay at the cabin. I hated G-man suits; the tie around my neck felt like a noose, and the jacket was tight in all the wrong places. St. George, obnoxiously, seemed perfectly at ease in a suit and tie, probably used to being in uniform, but I wanted this over and done with as soon as possible.

“Remember,” I told them and the Asian dragon sitting in the passenger seat, “I’ll do the talking, but if anyone asks, we’re with the Department of Homeland Security. You two are assistants in training, so any questions should be directed to me or Ms. Long here.”

“And what are you going to tell them?” Ember wanted to know. “You don’t know any more about this Security Department than we do.”

“Department of Homeland Security, Firebrand,” I corrected. “And I might not be a Chameleon, but I am a master at bullshitting. Generally, I don’t need to know what I’m talking about. I just have to bluster and act like the person I’m talking to is wasting my time—basically be a giant dick—and most humans will cave. If you act like you’re supposed to be there, people will generally assume the same. What about you?” I asked the woman beside me. “Think you can BS your way past a guard?”

The Eastern dragon’s voice was dry. “I’m sure I can come up with something.”

“All right, then.” I faced forward and put the car into Drive. “Let’s do this.”

We cruised up to the barricade, stopping as the door to the police car opened and an overweight human stepped out. I rolled down the window, watching him with as much bored disdain as I could muster as the officer strolled up to the side of our car.

“Sorry, folks,” the human said, peering in at us. “The road is closed for now. You’ll have to take the detour around.”

I flashed the fake badge Wes had given me that morning. “We’re expected,” I said in a bored, I-can’t-believe-I-have-to-deal-with-this tone of voice.

“The DHS?” The officer pulled back, shaking his head. “Damn. I didn’t realize a plane crash was such a big deal.” He gave me a furtive look, lowering his voice as if there were people around to hear him. “So, what’s really going on down there? You government types have been in and out for days. What, was this some kind of terrorist attack or something?”

“Sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say,” I replied stiffly, dropping my arm, and the badge, from view. “And you should know better than to ask. You’re lucky I don’t have time to report you to your superior.”

“Hey, don’t get all high and mighty on me, suit.” The officer stepped back with a sour look on his face. “You government hotshots think you can come through and order us around, but you’re wrong. This ain’t your town.” But he stepped back, waving us through the barricade. “Go on. The sooner you’re finished here, the sooner you can leave.”

Triumphant, I rolled up the window and continued down the road, watching the flashing lights get smaller in the rearview mirror until we turned a bend and they were lost from sight.

“That was easy,” Ember muttered.

I smirked. “Like I said, Firebrand. Master of BS, right here. Still, we shouldn’t press our luck. Try not to talk to anyone while we’re snooping around. And if you happen to see the Chameleon, let me know so we can clear out right away. The humans might not suspect anything, but she’ll definitely know something’s up if she sees three other dragons wandering around.”

As we turned a corner, the “town” came into view, a cluster of run-down houses and trailer homes huddled between the mountains on either side of the road. This is it? I thought. Town might be too strong of a word. Why the hell was Talon even here? What did they want? I pulled off the road, parking the car in the first driveway I came to, well away from the center of town and the scattering of people wandering the street. A lot of government types, I noticed. Men and women in black suits, along with a few in uniform. Something was definitely going on.

“Everyone stay together,” I warned as we exited the vehicle. “Remember, we’re the Department of Homeland Security, you two are our assistants and we’re here to assess the situation.”

“No civilians,” St. George muttered, gazing down the street. “Everyone here is an official or agent of some kind. The town is empty.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” I narrowed my eyes, trying to shake the unease that had settled under my skin. “Something is wrong here. This sure as hell isn’t about just a plane crash. As Wes would say, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”