Page 82 of Ignite the Infernos

Karis guides me and my guards off to the side as the solitary door set in the wall scans Blay. I hear locks disengage, but the door opens so slowly it feels like I’m trying to watch a pot of water boil. Finally, the door swings all the way open, and I debate making a run for it. Instead, I force myself to breathe, and wait.

They said Aeson was fine, that he wasn’t hurt.

No need to cause an incident, except it feels like there’s every reason to cause an incident.

My head starts to get light and my limbs begin to feel fluttery. My dragon stirs, like it knows something I don’t, and I’m pretty sure I’m minutes from losing it.

Aeson suddenly appears in the doorway, and my panic comes to a screeching stop. I run to him, leaping into his arms and he catches me easily. I don’t know why this feels so life or death, but it does, and I’m just so fucking relieved that he’s okay.

“What the fuck is going on?” I demand. “You scared the shit out of me!”

He looks exhausted, and worry sinks its claws back into me. “I’ll explain when we’re inside,” he tells me. “You’re authorized to enter, but I need your Wing to stay out here.”

I reel back at the strange order, and open my mouth to argue, but Aeson drops his mouth to my ear and whispers, “It’s about Ren.”

My blood freezes in my veins. My body throbs like every bruise and scrape from that day once again covers my body. Rage rips me open, and agony steals the air out of my lungs and makes me work twice as hard to refill them.

I look up into Aeson’s pained eyes, and I don’t know if I want to hit him or break down.

“What the fuck did you just say?” I growl, and the sound makes everyone in my vicinity go perfectly still.

“Please trust me, Claws. I’ll explain everything when we’re inside, but I can’t do it out here, it’s not safe.”

Thoughts and emotions cyclone through me. I feel hollow and somehow on the cusp of exploding. I don’t recall answering Aeson, but I must have because the next thing I know he’s pulling me through the armored door. I’m on some kind of autopilot as I try to piece together everything that’s happening. Why would Aeson say that? As far as I knew that building exploded before The Horde could comb through it. There would have been no sign of Ren or even me, and yet . . .

“Did the General and his Flight arrive?” Karis asks.

Aeson answers, but I tune it out when we stop at a sleek, black-metal door. It has gleaming opaque panels on each side that take up the large wall, and I’d bet whoever is inside can see me, even though I can’t see them. The setup appears to be some kind of security room and I notice several others spread out behind me.

“I don’t know where to even start,” Aeson declares, pulling my attention back to him. His gaze is intense, and red rims his blue eyes.

Has he been crying?

Karis slips around us to go inside the secure room. The door slides open, the faint sound of a pressure release accompanying the motion, and then a voice spills out of the open entryway. Something about the tone has me homing in on the cadence and tenor of the orders that are being given. Automatically my muscles coil in response to that voice. It scratches at the back of my skull, and for a split second I’m not with Aeson any longer. I’m hiding, crouched, crying, and then my past collides with the present.

“Aeson,” I ask, my voice bereft of emotion, while my thoughts lock on to one thing and one thing only.

“There was another hack,” Aeson starts. “Only this time they didn’t take anything and instead left something behind—”

“No,” I hurry to interject. “This is important, please!” I whisper, forcing myself to look up at him, to let him see the desperation, the agony, the rage. “The drake that was just talking when Karis went in—”

“General Fairwyn?” he questions, and I nod.

“Is he a Render, Shield class?” I ask, each word growing sharper in my mouth as I slowly spit them out.

Aeson studies me, and like a fire growing from a pyre to an inferno, I see the moment he understands what I’m asking . . . and why.

“He is.”

“Does he have purple scale armor? It’s a little darker than lilac, but in that range. And his mask, his horns, do they curve forward instead of back? I motion with my hands the direction his horns curve. “And there’s a crack or a small gouge on the right one, about midway?”

“I don’t know about the crack on his horn, but the rest is correct,” Aeson confirms, his eyes flicking back and forth between mine.

Anger battles the ache in my chest, and it takes everything I have not to rip open the door and slit this General Fairwyn’s throat from ear to ear, but it’s not enough. He deserves to suffer the same way my kindred suffered, and before that, I can use him to lead me to the others.

Gently I pull Aeson’s head down and lift up on my tiptoes until I can whisper in his ear. “That drake in there helped slaughter my kindred,” I snarl quietly, the need for vengeance raging in my veins. “He held the shield that protected the others while they destroyed almost everyone I’ve ever loved. And if you don’t take him into custody right this fucking minute, I’m going to lock myself in that room and tear him limb from limb.”

Chapter 36