Page 27 of Ensnared (The Dragon Captured #1)

I take a few moments to set my trainees some basic tasks and general physical fitness training, and then I circle back. “What are the numbers?”

“What do you mean?”

“I was stuck in here, remember? I have no idea how many humans have died.”

“They think about three and a half million,” he says. “Houston area had close to eight million, and a lot of them evacuated. The ones who stayed were probably either killed or.” He points at my would-be-troops who are doing pushups and burpees.

“So maybe it’s less than three and a half million.”

“Is this really better than being dead?” Gideon shakes his head.

“Still,” I say. “If we can get rid of them, all these people could go back to normal.”

I hope.

“We’ve also sent a lot of troops against them.” His expression’s pretty grim.

“None of those attacks succeeded.”

“We’ve killed less than two dozen dragons, at least, as far as we know.”

Two dozen.

“I’ve killed three,” I say.

His jaw drops. “How?”

“Well, four if you give me credit for one that I got killed but that I didn’t stab myself.”

“You—really?”

“Earth dragons, mostly,” I say.

“Axel just. . .let that go?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure how he’d feel exactly if I died, but I gather pretty bad. He’s been much more tolerant than I expected him to be since I threatened to kill myself on the first day.”

“You did what?” Gideon shakes his head. “I should’ve known.”

“It worked,” I say. “And he’s not so awful.”

“I think he likes you.” Gideon’s lips are compressed into a thin line.

I punch his shoulder. “Stop.”

He turns toward me slowly, his eyes capturing mine. “I mean it, Liz.”

“No way.” I sigh. “Listen, dragons don’t even feel emotions like we do. They don’t love or desire or long for things. They don’t have compassion or disappointment, either. He told me that himself.”

“You think they can’t learn?”

I shrug. “I think emotion’s something you may learn about, but I don’t think you can really grow into emotions. You just feel them or you don’t.”

“You’re saying they’re all indestructible, maniacal sociopaths.”

“Maybe.” I’d never thought of it like that. “I don’t think they form connections in the same way that we do. He watches me with Sammy and Coral and Jade sometimes, and he looks genuinely surprised that we show affection to one another.”

“They have families, though, right?”

I shrug. “He hasn’t said much about it. I think Prince Azar has a father. I definitely heard that somewhere, so yeah, I guess they must. But I don’t think they resemble ours very much.”

“We need to get you out of Houston ASAP,” Gideon says. “You have so much to teach our commanders.”

I’d actually been lamenting the opposite, that I felt like I’d learned nothing. I suppose I hadn’t compared it to what I’d know if I’d only been battering myself against the dragons in military applications.

But the idea of telling some general everything I’ve learned about Axel feels. . .wrong. “I do think they really just want to find this thing they need and leave. Why do we keep attacking them over and over?”

“They dropped in and just took Houston,” Gideon says. “Do you hear yourself?”

“Yes, but most of the deaths have been caused by us attacking them, right? I’m just saying, maybe if we helped them find what they came for, they could leave without turning every city into Houston.”

“That red dragon is the problem,” Gideon says. “It’s eating warheads, apparently, and it flies faster than our jets.” He drops to a whisper. “But we’ve discovered that there’s only that one. If we take him out. . .” He shrugs. “We think we can take the others down.”

“Azar is Axel’s best friend,” I say.

Gideon’s brow furrows. “You met him.”

“And?”

“And you said your death would incapacitate Axel for days,” he mutters. He frowns. “When we get back, you can’t tell anyone that fact.”

“They’ll hear that I’m ensnared,” I say. “Obviously they have to?—”

He shakes his head. “You can’t tell them, Liz. Promise me.”

“Why not?”

“They’re desperate,” he says. “They’re running scared. If you tell them your dragon’s connection to Azar, if you say you’ve met him, if you mention that Axel values you, they might kill you to wound him. Or they might send you back with some kind of crazy plan to kill Azar yourself.”

Why didn’t I think of that already? If Azar’s the key to their dominance, I should already have considered whether I could take him out.

“You’ve already killed three times the number of dragons any other individual has ever killed.”

“Actually, Azar might have one weakness they could use.” I’m so stupid for not thinking of this before. “The dragons have this downtime they have to take once a week.”

Gideon’s eyes light up.

“They have to, I don’t know, process the gases they breathe or something. They’re vulnerable during that brief few moments.”

“We have to escape in the next day or two,” Gideon says. “Not just to escape the nuclear attack, but also so you can tell them about this.”

“There’s no way to know when it’ll happen,” I say.

“They’ll want to send you back,” he says. “They’ll want you to come back, find out when his downtime will be, and get a message back to us.”

“Or you could take them that message,” I say. “If you could escape, you could tell them what I’ve told you.”

“No.” He shakes his head. “We all go together.”

“What’s your plan to escape?” I ask. “Just run as far as we can, hopefully get over their wall, and then hope the humans on the other side see you?”

He shrugs. “I’ll go back the same way I came.”

“Which is?”

“I can’t tell you,” he says.

“Because?”

“You’re ensnared. If he forces you to share information, it’s better if you don’t know.”

I can’t even argue with him about that, but it worries me. Is there any chance Axel might be listening in on us right now? I feel for my emotion thread. He’s focused on something.

Could it be me?

No, he’s also bored. That’s a color I associate with grey—a dark, smoky grey. He has work he does when I’m not with him, and I don’t know quite what it is at any point, but he finds a lot of it tedious and frustrating.

Once I’m reasonably certain Axel’s distracted and not listening in, I finish our conversation. “I’ve got to start doing some actual fighting with these people momentarily. But I’ve thought about it. Take the kids and get out of here. I have to stay—bomb or not.”

“You can’t,” Gideon says. “I can’t lose you.”

“If Axel’s right,” I say, “that bomb won’t kill them, and if that happens, taking me with you will lead him right to you, thanks to my bond. I won’t take that risk with my siblings’ lives.”

I can tell Gideon’s not done arguing, but I force him to help me drill the humans on some basic combat maneuvers. Weapons training is next. Gideon knows much more than I do about firing guns, loading, and unloading, so I let him teach them, reinforcing the things he says with commands.

With his help, I actually do more today than I ever have before in terms of making these humans into weapons that could be used against the rest of the world. Goodie.

“Alright, well, I think that’s it for today.” I’ve just released my people, and I’m nearly back to the house when I spot Penelope walking down the street. She doesn’t come much, but it’s usually a welcome break in my routine.

Only, this time, she’s not alone.

She has two other ensnared with her, judging from their fancy headgear.

“You’ve been summoned,” she says.

“Summoned?” I can’t help my smile. “As far as I know, the only Prince around here is already bonded to me.”

“The strike blessed have a princess, and her ensnared wants to meet you.”

Ah, shoot. That doesn’t sound good. I lower my voice, but I keep my face calm. “Hey, Gideon. Why don’t you go back to the house and if you see Axel, tell him where I’m going. Okay?”

At first, Gideon looks like he might argue, but thankfully, he doesn’t. The last thing I need is for them to drag him along, too.