So why did I feel like I might puke if I thought too hard about it?
I opened the door, stepped out of the room…
…and came face-to-face with a girl.
I froze. The human looked up at me, green eyes appraising in a round, pale face. She wore a simple yellow dress, and curls of white-blond hair tumbled down her shoulders. She seemed completely unafraid, and for a split second, we stared at one another.
Then the girl blinked her somber green eyes. “You’re not supposed to be in there,” she said softly.
Instinctively, my muscles tensed, ready to spring forward, cover the human’s mouth and yank her back into the room. I knew I couldn’t let her run away and alert the rest of the base to my presence. But as she gazed up at me, bold yet curious, I faltered. She was a kid, no more than six or seven in human years. Not a soldier, not even an adult. If I grabbed her now…I’d probably have to kill her.
The girl cocked her head as I struggled with my decision. “What are you doing?” she whispered, her voice furtive, as if she was in on the conspiracy. “Are you hiding from someone?”
“Uh…yeah.” I had no idea what the hell I would even say to her after that. If the kid screamed, my chances of survival were basically zero. But the thought of killing her, feeling her small neck snap under my fingers, made my insides curl. Even though I knew she would grow up to hate my kind and want us extinct. Because she was part of St. George, and that’s what they did. Took people as normal and innocent as this girl and turned them into dragon-hating zealots.
The little human blinked again. “Why?” she asked, still keeping her voice soft. “Who’s looking for you? Are you in trouble?”
Oh, definitely. “No,” I whispered, giving her what I hoped was a careless grin and shrug. “I’m…uh…playing hide-and-seek with some of the soldiers.” Even as I said it, I winced inside at how stupid that sounded. But I couldn’t stop now. “It’s…a…a new exercise,” I went on, as she frowned. “They have to find me before time runs out, or I win. But if I’m caught, I have to wash everyone’s dishes for a month.”
The girl’s frown deepened, bordering on outrage. “That’s not fair!” she whispered indignantly. “There’s a lot of them, and only one of you. Not fair.” She put her hands on her hips, and I shrugged again, giving her a “what can you do?” look. Her nose wrinkled, lips pursing in annoyance. “Do they have to wash dishes if you win?”
“Um…no,” I said, wondering how I had been drawn into this crazy conversation, and how I could leave it without being discovered.
“Why not?”
“Because…ah…”
“Madison?”
A new voice drifted from another hallway, and I cringed. This was it. I was going to be caught, because I’d been stupid and softhearted, and hadn’t silenced this kid when I had the chance. But the girl turned her head, eyes widening, then glanced back at me.
“You better go,” she whispered. “Before they see you.”
I stared at her, stunned, and she made shooing motions as she backed away. “Go,” she whispered again. “Hurry up and hide! I won’t tell anyone where you are, I promise.”
“Madison!” The voice sounded annoyed, and closer. The girl grinned and, before I could do or say anything, turned and scurried off, vanishing around a corner as quickly as she had appeared.
Just like that, I was alone.
“There you are,” said the man’s voice, as I pressed against the door frame, listening with a kind of numb anticipation. “I thought I might find you down here. What do I keep telling you about wandering off? Who were you talking to?”
“Nobody,” Madison drawled, way too sweetly I thought. “I wanted to see if Peter was down here. He promised he’d show me the server room if I was good.” My heart pounded, but the man, whoever he was, simply grunted.
“You and your computer fascination. Well, come on. I have to finish one last report, and then we’ll go get breakfast.”
And their footsteps faded down the hall in the opposite direction. A door slammed shut, and silence fell once more. I let out my breath in a rush and collapsed against the wall.
Waaaaay too close, Cobalt. Still a lucky SOB. Now get out of here, before that bomb goes off…
Shit. The bomb.
I started to move, to hurry back into the shadows and make a beeline for the gate as quietly as I could, hoping to somehow avoid both the soldiers and the deadly explosion minutes from going off.
Then…I hesitated. In the middle of a St. George chapterhouse, surrounded by enemies who would kill me on sight, with my seconds rapidly ticking away, I hesitated, unable to make myself take another step. If I left now, if I finished the mission and walked away, everyone on this floor would die.
Including that kid. Madison, the girl I’d met for only a couple minutes, would die. She was human, she was part of St. George, but she wasn’t a soldier. And without even knowing it, she had saved my life.
I raked my hands through my hair. So, what are you going to do, Cobalt? Not complete the mission? Go back to Talon and admit you failed? You know they won’t accept that.
No, they wouldn’t. So that left me with exactly three options. Return to Talon having failed the mission. Accept their punishment, whatever it was, knowing they would never trust me again, knowing they would consider me tainted and incompetent and somehow corrupted. Talon had little use for dragons who failed; my future with the organization was assured only if I continued to be valuable. It was career suicide, but I could kill the bomb, return to Talon and face the consequences of my decision, whatever they might be.
Or, I could finish what I came here to do: leave the bomb and get out, knowing more people would die. Knowing that kid would burn to death like everyone around her, because she had let me go. And I might never sleep again without seeing her face, staring up at me from my dreams.
Then, of course, there was the final option.
My chest felt tight, my stomach twisting into painful knots. Everything, it seemed, had come down to this moment. Run, or stay? Continue with the organization, or take my chances on my own? Hunted. Hated. A traitor to my own kind.
A rogue.
My hands shook, and fear spread through me as I realized the truth. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t go back to the organization knowing some little kid had died…no, that I’d killed her, and Talon wouldn’t think twice about it. Why should they? She was only human, and human lives meant nothing to dragons. If a few mortals died so that our race was preserved, then the sacrifice was worth it.