Ian stumbled out of the inn too many hours past midnight. With his badge shining on his chest, he didn’t need to worry about being stopped, though. The streets were emptier than he’d ever seen them,only a few soldiers pacing in their rounds. The Dragonborn had been on a curfew since the breakout, and anyone caught after dark was immediately sent to the prison just long enough to ship them off to the labor farms. The king had ordered the prison to be only for short-term stays, as if they were afraid of another uprising. Ian could have pointed out that the more Dragonborn they arrested, the more vitriol they created against themselves.
“Vato.” The name was a raspy whisper, said so quickly he might have thought it was a trick of the wind. Ice spiked through his chest, and he froze in the middle of the street. He didn’t look around immediately, unsure if it was some trap. But no one else knew that name except those in the resistance.
The person who stepped from the shadows down the nearby alley wasn’t anyone he knew. Their hair was cropped close to their face on one side and hung long and limp down the other side. Their outfit was strange, looking more like an old flour sack than a dress. In fact, he was just sober enough to know it wasdefinitelya flour sack.
He didn’t answer, moving casually toward them and slipping into the shadows. He pressed them back into the wall with a hand on their shoulder, eyes narrowed in distrust.
“And who are you?”
“Sofia sent me. I need to talk to you and Fox.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
SOFIA
Lumi left two days later, a few hours before sunset. Sofia sat on the lip of the cenote, watching the sky for an hour afterward, as if the shapeshifter might appear again with news. It was an impossibility, but she couldn’t bring herself to retreat into the cenote.
When she heard the footsteps coming up toward her, she expected to see Flor, but it was Jacinta who rose over the lip, Delio and Jorge on her heels.
“Where’s the dragon?” Jacinta asked, and Sofia only gave a confused nod to her right. Chalia had tucked herself in between the trees only a few yards away, her body only semi-hidden among the tall ferns and bushes.
Jacinta barely acknowledged her before marching over to where the dragon’s head poked up. She blinked into the dusk light at the woman standing before her. Sofia watched intently, unsure of what the woman was doing. Jacinta stood with her hands on her hips. Delio and Jorge stood just behind her, looking like guards. Sofia hadn’t even known the shapeshifter had made friends with either Delio or Jacinta.
Clarita had only moved the shapeshifters into the larger cenote while Lumi was on her mission. She was just as anxious to get news of the city as the rest of them, but the two groups hadn’t been fast friends,barely able to communicate with their mixture of king’s tongue and dragon-tongue.
“What’s going on?” Sofia asked, coming to stand beside Chalia, facing down the other three.
“We’ve been talking,” Jacinta said. “Lumi may be bringing us news from the city, but we also need information on the dragons. We know that Chalia isn’t the last dragon. So where are the rest?”
“I’ve already told you, she wo—can’t say,” Sofia said, folding her arms across her chest, eyes glancing between their faces. She wonderedwhohad been talking and where the rest of the resistance and shapeshifters were. Where were Micael and Clarita?
“We’re not asking you,” Jacinta said, her eyes focused on Chalia. “We’re asking her.”
Chalia let out a snort that sent Jacinta’s hair blowing back over her shoulders.
Unease crackled in the air, and Sofia swallowed.
“I will not betray my people,”Chalia said, her voice lower than Sofia had ever heard it. It scraped against her mind.
“You say you came to help us, and now you won’t do anything?”
“I saved your people.”
“And banished mine to death!” Jorge snapped, stepping forward. Chalia flinched, and Sofia felt her blood boil.
She shifted forward and pushed her hand into Jorge’s chest as hard as she could. He stumbled back, half in surprise.
“Do not talk to her like that,” Sofia said. “She did not bring the king’s men to your tribe on purpose. The chief commander and the general were to blame for that. Not her.”
“We need to know where the dragons are,” Jacinta practically yelled. “And that information is sitting right there.” She pointed at Chalia.
The dragon growled, and Sofia felt icy mist slide across her skin.
“By all means,” Sofia snapped, “tell the god what she should and shouldn’t do! I’ll bury the pieces she leaves of you, out of respect.”
Chalia stood, not quite able to come to her full height between the trees, but her neck stretched out, and she bared her teeth. Her talons bit into the soil, and a growl rumbled through the air. Jacinta had to strainher neck to look up at the dragon’s scowl. She had the decency to at least go a little pale.
But Jorge’s face had turned red, and Sofia watched in horror as his hand reached down for the dagger at his belt.
