corridor. Just for a moment, but it was enough for Trin to locate a lever hidden in the shadows. She wrapped her hand around it and pushed down. There was a groaning sound as the wall sank into the earth, revealing a dark passageway beyond.
“Come on,” Trin instructed Emmy with growing excitement. “Let’s go.”
Emmy hovered at the doorway, shaking her head vehemently. Trin rolled her eyes. “You know, for a fire- breathing killer dragon, you’re kind of a scaredy-cat.”
But Emmy only plopped down onto the ground, crossing her wings over her chest. Trin gave up. “Have it your way,” she told the dragon. “But I’m going in.”
She stepped into the passageway. The noises grew louder, the trilling sound now accompanied by pitiful squeaks and moans and cries. Her heart thumped in her chest as she pressed onward, no idea what she was about to uncover. Whatever it was, the Dracken definitely didn’t want anyone to see it.
The passage wasn’t long, dead-ending at a small wooden door. Reaching down, she wrapped her hands around its handle and pulled it open. As she stepped into the darkened room, a sharp pain dug into her ankle, like a needle piercing the skin, and the door slammed shut behind her. She screamed, stumbling off balance and crashing into a nearby wall, springing a switch in the process. The room burst into light.
She looked around, her eyes widening, her mouth falling open in shock. Her knees buckled, threatening to give out from under her.
“Oh God,” she whispered. “It can’t be!”
But it could it be. And it was.
Dragons. Sick, mutated, diseased-looking baby dragons, some three times the size of Emmy, stacked in cages from floor to ceiling on every possible wall. Some sported three eyes; others, a fifth leg or a stump where their leg should be. Some had no legs at all—flapping their misshapen wings against the wire cages, looking at Trin with hollow, desperate eyes. A few had broken free of their confines and were tottering across the floor on skinny, malformed legs. The ankle biter looked up at her, opening his mouth and revealing a single gleaming, bucktooth fang.
Trin’s stomach clenched. It was all she could do to not run screaming from the room. Instead, she stood, frozen in place, trying to digest what she was seeing, trying to understand how it could be possible. Her brain told her it was too horrible to be real, that her eyes must be playing tricks. But when she closed them and opened them again, the dragons remained. Somehow, some way, they were really here.
But before the dragon could reply, Connor’s voice slammed into her consciousness. Urgent and afraid.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Trinity froze, Connor’s warning echoing through her head, as her ears caught voices down the hall, confirming his words. Her gaze darted around the room, searching for an escape, but there was only one way in and one way out. And the voices were getting closer.
“What are you doing all the way down here, little one?”
Trin flinched. The voice was unmistakably Darius’s, and she realized he must have found Emmy. In another moment, he’d open the door and head in her direction. Frantic, she hit the light switch and dove behind the dragon cages. She could feel Emmy’s growing alarm ringing through her head while the dragon croaked weakly back at the Dracken master.
“Unbelievable!” another voice, heavily accented, rang through the hall. Trin furrowed her brow, trying to place it. It didn’t sound like any of the Dracken or their mercenaries—at least none she’d met. “A dragon!” the voice continued in hushed awe. “A real-life dragon, just as you said!”
“I told you, didn’t I?” Darius proclaimed, his voice rich with pride. “Now come with me and I’ll show you the rest.”
Footsteps approached and Trin crouched deeper into her hiding spot. A moment later, the door squeaked open and the light switched on again. From her vantage point, she could just make out Darius, dressed in a dapper black suit, leading a distinguished, forty-something-year-old dark-haired man into the room. As he entered, the foreigner gave a low whistle.
“Amazing! Simply amazing!”
“Didn’t I tell you? It’s quite a sight to be seen,” Darius replied, reaching into a drawer and pulling out a metal band. He slipped it over Emmy’s mouth, effectively muzzling her. Guess he wasn’t about to take his chances with dragon fire. When Emmy struggled in protest, he dug a firm thumb into a spot under her wing. The dragon whimpered but meekly quieted down. He opened up an empty cage and shoved her inside, closing and locking it behind him.
“I have to confess, I didn’t really believe you,” the man exclaimed, his eyes darting from cage to cage. “It just seemed too fantastical to be real.”
“Oh, they’re real all right,” Darius assured him. “All with perfect pedigrees. The ones you see here are approximately one year of age. Soon each will be paired with a Guardian to begin their training.”
Trinity squinted at the men, trying to figure out what was going on. Why hadn’t anyone told her there were more dragons in the mall? She’d been led to believe Emmy was the last of her kind. But that was clearly untrue. Did the other Potentials know their dragons had already been born? They couldn’t have; they wouldn’t have been so excited to see Emmy.
But why keep the rest of them a secret? And what was wrong with them, for that matter? Why were they so deformed looking? She turned back to the conversation, hoping for answers.
“When will they be ready for delivery?” the man was asking, poking a finger into one of the cages. The dragon inside hissed angrily and he pulled his finger away with a nervous laugh.
“Each dragon will complete its training at five years of age,” the Dracken Master replied smoothly. “At which time we will deliver both dragon and Guardian to your people, yours to do with as you wish.” He gave a smug smile. “Dragons have many gifts, after all: curing disease, sniffing out natural resources, finding water in the —”
The man waved him off. “Yes, yes,” he said impatiently. “But can they fight?”
Trinity held her breath, praying for Darius to scold him for the idea. To tell him these creatures were made for saving the world, not destroying it.
But the leader’s lips only curled cruelly. “Your enemies will be annihilated before they even know what hit them.”
She collapsed against the wall, her heart sinking in despair. Connor had been right all along. Caleb had been completely deceived. The Dracken were never interested in using dragons to help mankind. They were nothing more than time-traveling arms dealers.
And the Potentials! They would be sold off along with their dragons. Made into slaves. Forced to go into battle. No wonder the Dracken took only those with no family. That way there was no one left to rescue them—no one to care—when they found out the truth.
“These dragons,” the foreigner remarked, his eyes scanning the cages again, “they don’t look like the other one.” He gestured to Emmy. “Is something wrong with them? I don’t want defective merchandise.”
Darius looked uncomfortable. “We had some…issues…with the original batch of eggs,” he admitted, wiping a sheen of sweat from his brow. Trin stole another peek at the mutated dragons and wondered again what could have happened to them. Maybe something about being brought back through time? Maybe the process had corrupted their DNA somehow? It made sense now why they were so eager to get their hands on Emmy. She was perfect.
She realized Darius was still talking. “But purchase these now and you’ll get first pick of the next hatchlings. The ones born from our queen.” He gestured to Emmy, who was clawing at the inside of her cage, looking terrified. “Through her, the line will grow and strengthen, providing you with a never-ending supply of the
