Page 85 of Entwined

“Wait.” I throw my hands up. “Wait, Azar. Just wait a moment while I talk to Gideon.” I grab my old friend’s arm and yank him closer, and then I throw my shield back up.

Azar doesn’t like it, and he bellows, but he veers back upward, circling around overhead like an irate guard dog. I wish you’d fly a little farther away, I say. I know you’re angry, but we have no idea what those ice spears might do. I can’t risk you being hurt.

I’m not leaving you, he says. Not ever.

Which makes me feel a little guilty for leaping off his back, but I had to save all these people. These idiotic, war-focused, human soldiers. They may be stupid, but I hope they won’t die for it. They all have wives, daughters, mothers, and friends. I don’t know them, but I know what they’re risking, and they think they’re doing the right thing. I can’t just let them all be mowed down, laying yet another layer of hatred on the wall between dragons and humans.

“Listen,” I say. “The heart’s inside the volcano, and we’re working on ways to extricate it that won’t do damage to this whole area.” It’s not the whole truth, but I hope it’s close enough to be convincing.

“As if they care about the surrounding areas,” Gideon says. “What’s the real hold up?”

“We really don’t know how to get it out,” I say. “But they can sense that it’s there.” Also a lie, technically, since we don’t know it’s there. Still, it’s close to the truth as we know it.

“Listen.” Gideon’s voice is low and urgent. “The dragons left America, and in the wake of their departure, as people came back, all the people they had controlled are regaining their will, and everyone is flipping out. A terrible, scaly monster that we are figuring out how to kill is one thing. But humans who can take their will away with ease. . .”

“What happened to my mother?”

“It was not easy for the generals to keep her from being executed,” Gideon says. “The public’s calling for all of them to be killed, immediately. For war crimes.”

“Is that why you killed the humans earlier who were linked to those electro dragons?” My hands ball into fists at my side. “You murdered ten people just so you could take out their dragons? Are they really just weapons to you? Because the humans who stayed were the ones who wouldn’t even consider forming a partnership with their dragons.”

“Which means their dragons were the worst of the lot.” Gideon sighs. “Look, I know it’s complicated, and I get that. But right now, killing those people to weaken their dragons is really the only weapon we have. Our enemy’s a million times more powerful than we are, and they’re mostly invulnerable to boot. Why can’t you see the position we’re in?”

“I see how strong they are,” I say. “But they aren’t even attacking humans right now. They never have, really. They came to search for something they need.”

“No.” Gideon grabs my wrists, forcing me to meet his eye. “You’re missing the point. They’re our enemy, Liz. They’re not friends. They’re not benevolent in any way. At best they’re thieves. At worst, they’re butchers.”

“But they’re not. They’re reasonable,” I say. “They aren’t just gallivanting monsters, out to maim and destroy. The killing they’ve done has been necessary, because we keep attacking them. And now, here, they’ve harmed no one, and still, here you are, trying to kill them again.”

“Iceland begged us to come,” he says. “The people here are terrified, and can you blame them? Those are people’s homes, in Selfoss, that they just waltzed in and took.” Gideon points. “Your siblings wouldn’t even come with me when I left. They’re as bad as you—they’re taking their cues from their big sister! They think Gordon and Rufus are really their friends, Liz!”

“They are their friends,” I say. “And they listen better than you do.”

A walkie-talkie at his belt starts making muffled beeping sounds. He whips it out and presses a button. “What?”

“Confirmation, sir. It worked.”

“What worked?” I ask. “Who is that?”

Gideon shakes his head. “I wish I could tell you that, but Liz, you’re in too deep right now. Anything you hear, he hears. You don’t even realize they’re the enemy anymore.”

He steps closer and drops to a whisper. “Do you remember what I promised you? I said that I would never harm you, that I would always be on your side, and I promised to find a way out of this for you. For all of us.” He’s smiling now, but it looks sad.

No, not sad.

Tragic.

And that worries me. “Gideon, I’m not sure what?—”

He jabs me in the neck, right in the carotid, and then he pushes the plunger on the syringe he must have had in his sleeve all the way down. “If there was another way,” he whispers, “I would have taken it, I swear.”

Everything in my body stops working right then, but as I’m slumping forward into Gideon’s waiting arms, the red shield blinks out, and I watch, as the world slows down, as Azar shoots toward us.

And I’m helpless as the blindingly bright blue spear pierces his side.

19

Liz

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