In Julie Kagawas groundbreaking modern fantasy series, dragons walk among us in human form.
Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and theyre positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.
Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.
Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talons newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his preyand nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Embers bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in himand what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.
Books by Julie Kagawa available from HQ
The Talon Saga
Talon
Blood of Eden series
(in reading order)
The Immortal Rules
The Eternity Cure
The Forever Song
The Iron Fey series
(in reading order)
The Iron King*
Winters Passage** (ebook novella)
The Iron Daughter*
The Iron Queen
Summers Crossing** (ebook novella)
The Iron Knight
Irons Prophecy** (ebook novella)
The Lost Prince
The Iron Traitor
*Also available in The Iron Fey Volume One anthology
**Also available in print in The Iron Legends anthology, along with the exclusive Guide to the Iron Fey
Talon
Julie Kagawa
TALON
© 2014 Julie Kagawa
Published in Great Britain 2014
by HQ, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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Version: 2018-12-19
To Laurie and Tashya, who dreamed of dragons with me.
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Booklist
Title Page
Dedication
As One, We Rise
Part I
Part II
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Questions for Discussion
Extract
Copyright
As One, We Rise
Part I
Observe. Assimilate. Blend in.
Ember
Ember, when did your parents die, and what was the cause of death?
I stifled a groan and tore my gaze from the car window, where the bright, sunny town of Crescent Beach shimmered beyond the tinted glass. The air in the black sedan was cold and stale and, annoyingly, the driver had engaged the child safety locks so I couldnt roll down the window. Wed been stuck in the car for hours, and I was itching to get out of this moving prison and into the sun. Outside the glass, palm trees lined the road, and charming villas shared the sidewalk with weathered gray shacks advertising food, T-shirts, surfboard wax and more. Just beyond the pavement, past a strip of glistening white sand, the Pacific Ocean shimmered like a huge turquoise jewel, teasing me with its frothy waves and countless beachgoers splashing freely in the glittering water.
Ember? Did you hear me? Answer the question, please.
I sighed and settled back against the cold leather. Joseph and Kate Hill were killed in a car accident when we were seven years old, I recited, seeing the drivers impassive gaze watching me from the rearview mirror. Beside him, Mr. Ramseys dark head bobbed in affirmation.
Go on.
I squirmed against the seat belt. They had gone to see a Broadway musical, West Side Story, I continued, and were struck by a drunk driver on the way home. My brother and I went to live with our grandparents, until Grandpa Bill developed lung cancer and could no longer take care of us. So we came here to stay with our aunt and uncle. I snuck a longing gaze out the window again, seeing a pair of humans on surfboards, gliding down the waves. My curiosity perked. Id never gone surfing before, not in my dusty little corner of desert. It looked nearly as much fun as flying, though I doubted anything could compare to soaring the air currents, feeling the wind in your face and beneath your wings. I didnt know how I was going to survive the summer completely earthborn. Humans were lucky, I thought, as the car sped on and the surfers were lost from view. They didnt know what they were missing.
Good, muttered Mr. Ramsey, sounding distracted. I imagined him scanning his ever-present tablet, scrolling through our files and background. Dante, what is your real objective while in Crescent Beach?
My twin calmly pulled his earbuds down and hit the pause button on his iPhone. He had this uncanny ability to zone out to music or television and still know exactly what was going on around him. I did not have this talent. My teachers had to smack me upside the head to get my attention if there was anything remotely distracting around. Observe and blend in, he stated in his cool, unruffled voice. Learn how to engage with humans, how to be human. Assimilate into their social structure and make them believe we are one of them.
I rolled my eyes. He caught my gaze and gave a small shrug. Dante and I werent really twins, not in the truest sense of the word. Sure, we were the same age. Sure, we looked very similar; we had the same obscenely red hair and green eyes. And wed been together as far back as I could remember. But we didnt come from the same womb. We didnt come from a womb at all, really. Dante and I were clutchmates, which was still highly unusual because our kind normally didnt lay more than one egg at a time. Making us strange, even among our own. But Dante and I had hatched together and were raised together, and as far as anyone was concerned, he was my twin, my sibling and my only friend.
Mmm. Apparently satisfied that we had not, in fact, forgotten the made-up backstory drilled so deep into my head that I could recite it in my sleep, Mr. Ramsey went back to scrolling through his tablet, and I went back to staring out the window.
The ocean receded, the sparkling horizon dropping from view as we turned off the main stretch and entered a subdivision with impressive white-and-rose villas lining the streets, surrounded by perfectly manicured lawns and palm trees. Some of these dwellings were truly enormous, making me stare in amazement. Id never seen such huge houses except on television, or in the documentaries the teachers made us watch years ago, when we were first learning about humankind. Where they lived, how they acted, their behavior and family units and languagewed studied it all.
Now, we would be living among them.
Excitement rose up again, making me even more impatient. I wanted out. I wanted to touch and feel and see the things beyond the glass, to finally experience it. My world, up until now, had been a large underground facility that I never saw the outside of, then a private school in the middle of the Great Basin, with no one around for miles, and only my brother and teachers for company. Safe, protected, far from prying human eyes...and possibly the most boring spot on the face of the planet. I squirmed against the seat again, accidentally hitting the back of the chair in front of me.
Ember, Mr. Ramsey said, a note of irritation in his voice, sit still.
Scowling, I settled back, crossing my arms. Sit still, calm down, be quiet. The most familiar phrases in my life. I was never good at sitting in one place for long periods of time, though my teachers had tried their hardest to instill a little patience into me. Patience, stodgy Mr. Smith had told me on more than one occasion, is a virtue that holds especially true for your kind. The best-laid plans are never conceived in a day. You have the luxury of timetime to think, time to plan, time to calculate and see everything come to fruition. Talon has survived for centuries, and will continue to survive, because it knows the value of patience. So whats the blasted hurry, hatchling?
I rolled my eyes. The blasted hurry was that I rarely had any time that was truly my own. They wanted me to sit, listen, learn, be quiet, when I wanted to run, shout, jump, fly. Everything in my life was rules: cant do this, dont do that, be here at this time, follow the instructions to the letter. It had gotten worse as I got older, every tiny detail of my life regulated and laid out for me, until I was ready to explode. The only thing that had kept me from going completely nuts was looking forward to the day I turned sixteen. The day I would graduate from that isolated corner of no-mans-land and, if I was deemed ready, begin the next stage of training. Id done everything I could to be ready for this, and it mustve paid off because here we were. Observe, assimilate and blend in, that was our official mission, but all I cared about was that I was out of school and away from Talon. Id finally get to see the world Id studied all my life.
The sedan finally pulled into a cul-de-sac of smaller but no less elegant villas and rolled to a stop in front of a driveway in the very center. I peered through the window and grinned with excitement at the place that would be home for an indefinite length of time.
The structure looming above us sat across a tiny lawn of short grass, scrub and a single palm tree encircled in brick. Its walls were a cheerful, buttery yellow, the tiled roof a deep red. The top floor had huge glass windows that caught the afternoon light, and the front door stood beneath an archway, like the entrance to a castle, I thought. But best of all, through the gap between the house and its neighbor, I could just make out the silvery glint of water, and my heart leaped at the thought of the ocean right in our backyard.
I wanted nothing more than to yank open the door, jump out and go sprinting down the sand dunes until I hit the ocean waiting for me at the bottom. But Mr. Ramsey, our official escort for the day, turned in his seat to eye us, particularly me, as if he knew what was going through my mind. Wait here, he said, his rather large nostrils flaring with the order. I will inform your guardians you have arrived. Do not move until I return.
He opened his door, letting in a brief, intoxicating rush of warmth and salt-drenched air, slammed it behind him and marched up the worn brick path to the waiting villa.
I drummed my fingers against the leather seat and squirmed.
Wow, Dante breathed, peering over my shoulder, craning his neck to see the whole house. I could feel his presence behind me, his hand on my back as he steadied himself. So, its finally happening, he said in a low voice. No more private school, no more getting up at 6:00 a.m. every single day, no more being stuck in the middle of nowhere.
No classes, no study hall, no evaluators dropping by every month to see how human we are. I grinned back at him. The driver was watching us, listening to us, but I didnt care. Sixteen years, and we finally get to start our lives. Were finally free.
My twin chuckled. I wouldnt go that far, he murmured, gently tugging a strand of my short red hair. Remember, were here to blend in, to study the humans and assimilate into the community. This is just another phase of training. Dont forget, at the end of the summer, we start our sophomore year of high school. But more important, our real instructors will show up, and theyll decide where we fit into the organization. This is a brief respite, at most, so enjoy it while you can.
I made a face at him. I intend to.
And I did. He had no idea how much. I was tired of rules and isolation, of watching the world go by without me. I was tired of Talon and their endless string of policies, laws and restrictions. No more of that. The summer was mine, and I had big plans, things I wanted to do, before it ended and wed be forced back into the system. This summer, I was going to live.