“HOW LOVELY OF YOU TO visit!” Jazinda Balk hugged her son warmly and then turned to Abel, his brother, and his friends. “And you brought snacks for Jo and Kiki!”

She gestured toward two Stoneskin dragons behind her. They were small short-wings, about the size of an eighth grader, and instead of scales, they had hard gray skin with random patches of shimmering diamond that grew from their bones. They had no eyes, but the long tendrils of skin and diamond that hung from their chins like wind chimes let them sense through smells and vibrations, like moles.

Stoneskins were extremely rare and hard to catch because they lived in tunnels underneath the Glass Flats outside the city, tunnels they carved with their oversized claws. Each horrid little dragon cost more than Abel’s entire building paid in a year of rent, and each one could eat as much as everyone in Abel’s building ate in a year too.

Their tendrils flicked up toward Abel.

“They’re not food, Mom!” Arvin groaned. He sounded like any other kid talking to their embarrassing parent in front of new friends. Of course, Arvin’s embarrassing parent ruled the largest criminal empire ever created, had fed more people to dragons than Abel would probably meet in his whole life, and was currently sitting on a luxurious red leather couch in front of a floor-to-ceiling window in the fanciest apartment Abel had ever seen. She had views of Drakopolis in every direction, looking down at all the dragons flying about their business, all the lights blinking, and all the armored battle dragons that circled the building to stop unauthorized visitors. Arvin had to show his ID seven times just to get in to see his own mother.

“They’re friends,” he told her.

This time, neither Roa nor Topher objected.

Arvin’s mother sighed and drummed her jeweled fingers on her plush armrest, then pointed at Silas. “This one too? You know he’s a Dragon’s Eye agent?”

Silas tensed. He’d changed into regular clothes for the meeting, his favorite plaid pants and black leather jacket. Abel could tell by how he looked at himself in the mirror outside the apartment that he’d been proud of his civilian attire. He’d even taken a selfie.

Jazinda Balk deflated him with one withering up-down dart of her eyes. “You can’t be friends with the Dragon’s Eye. They’re like dentists. You pay them to keep things working so you can eat whatever you want. But they’ll still hurt you the first chance you give them.”

“We are not dentists!” Silas objected.

“Does your commanding officer know you’re here?” Jazinda laughed. “Or your partner, Kai?”

She smirked; she was showing Abel’s brother that she knew everything about him. She had power over him. “You know half your barracks are on my payroll, don’t you? And yet, you never take a bribe.”

“And I never will.” Silas crossed his arms. The Stoneskin dragons pointed their tendrils his way.

“Disappointing,” Jazinda huffed. Abel found himself a little proud of his brother. Sure, Silas was a self-righteous goober, but he had principles, and Abel was starting to respect that.

“Mom,” Arvin interrupted them. “We need your help.”

“We?” She raised her eyebrows at Arvin. “You’re really with these kin rejects?”

Arvin nodded. “We can get our dragons back.”

“Our dragons?” Now Arvin’s mother was interested. She leaned forward in her chair. “The ones we had stolen from us?”

Arvin nodded. “Abel found them.”

His mother scowled. “The last time I made an agreement with Abel, he poisoned Grackle, beat Sax in battle, and released my dragon into the wild.”

“He won,” said Arvin. “Fair’s fair.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to do business with him again,” the kinner boss replied. “He’s lucky I haven’t fed his whole family to anything yet.”

“You can’t feed us to what you don’t have,” Abel told her, feeling like he needed to speak up for himself. He had to show Jazinda Balk he wasn’t afraid of her. “And if you don’t help, the Sky Knights are going to take everything from you.”

“Are they now?” She looked curious.

“They’re hacking dragon DNA,” Roa explained, “to turn regular dragons into super-dragons they can control by remote. If they perfect the process, you and your kin won’t stand a chance against them.”

“I was fighting off enemy kins before you were even born,” Jazinda told them. “I don’t need some schoolkids telling me how to defend what’s mine.”

“They’re torturing dragons, Mom!” Arvin objected with tears in his eyes.

His mother shot to her feet instantly, grabbed her son by the shoulders. “NEVER show your gentleness to others! I’ve warned you about this! Your enemies will destroy you the first chance they get. Even your allies! Drakopolis is not for the gentle!”

Her eyes darted around the huge room. She had two guards with her by the door, big people covered in Red Talons tattoos and scars from Red Talons battles, people who looked like they were about as gentle as meat cleavers.

“You have to be tougher than this, Arvy,” she told him. “If you’re to rule when I’m gone, you must be merciless, pitiless, and unsentimental, even about your beloved dragons.”

“But I don’t want to rule,” Arvin whispered back to her. “I want to protect dragons.”

His mother snorted.

Abel tried to stay as still as possible. It was super uncomfortable to be standing there for someone else’s family drama. He looked at Roa and Topher, who were also acting like they weren’t hanging on every word of Arvin’s argument with his mom.

The only child of the Red Talons boss didn’t want to be a Red Talon. If word got out, it would cause a nasty war for control. Jazinda knew it, and now she knew that Abel, his friends, and his brother did too.

She turned to them. “So, you all want me to help you rescue some dragons from my enemies?”

Abel nodded. “Yes, Boss Jazinda,” he said. He was trying to show her some respect so maybe she wouldn’t have them tossed out a window.

“You’re Dragon’s Eye,” she said to Silas. “Why not just call in the reinforcements?”

“Well, you see—” Abel started to explain, but Roa cut him off.

“We’re not snitches, boss,” they said. “We came to you first.”

Jazinda smiled. That was how you showed respect to a crime boss. Abel was glad to have a friend who was smarter than him. He could tame a dragon, but Roa knew how to tame people.

“So you want me to, what?” Jazinda asked. “Attack their underground base?”

“No,” said Abel, “it’s way too secure to attack. I have a different idea.” He looked at his brother, at his friends, and at Arvin, who was regaining his composure. “I want the Red Talons to challenge me to a race.”

“And let me guess,” she added. “You want us to lose on purpose?”

Now it was Abel’s turn to smile. “No, ma’am. You won’t have to lose on purpose. Me and Brazza will win no matter what you do.”

“Brazza and I,” Roa corrected him, but no one corrected him about winning. He and his dragon were the fastest Drakopolis had ever seen, and they all knew it.

And when they won, Lina was gonna steal her.