Slayers: Friends and Traitors by C. J. Hill

Slayer, to pretend he was one of them, while he led them into a trap. He heard the panic in their voices when they realized they were caught in the enclosure. He heard their fear. And then when he heard his father’s men shooting at Tori, it yanked something apart inside of Dirk. He switched sides and freed his friends. He not only knew the lock code for the roof door, he was one of the few people who could open its voice recognition software.
    Dirk had been sure he’d done the right thing then—trading his future, his father’s approval, for his friends’ freedom.
    Now, looking at his father’s pained and angry face, none of it felt right. He’d only traded one betrayal for another. “No one tried to kill you,” Dirk said. “They just wanted to destroy the dragon eggs.” It was true. Before the raid the Slayers agreed they would do everything they could to avoid taking anyone’s life.
    “Destroying the eggs is trying to kill me,” his father yelled back, “because the only way anyone will break those eggs is if they push my lifeless corpse out of the way first.”
    That wasn’t the point. Dirk stood straighter, raised a finger of accusation of his own. “You promised not to hurt any of the Slayers and then you tried to kill Tori.”
    His father shrugged off the complaint with a wave of his hand. “My men shot at intruders. That’s not even mildly wrong. It’s allowed by the law.”
    “You promised,” Dirk emphasized. “You knew I cared about Tori and you captured her, held her at gunpoint, and threatened to kill her.”
    Dirk’s father narrowed his eyes. His voice was no longer raised in anger, just thick with contempt. “That’s what this all boils down to, isn’t it? Your feelings for Tori. You sacrificed the mission—our future—for a girl you just met.” He paused, then gestured toward Dirk as though this were a casual conversation. “How did that turn out, by the way?”
    Dirk didn’t answer. He looked at the enclosure wall to his side with grim focus. Dark stains dotted the wall. Probably blood splatters the maintenance crew hadn’t gotten around to cleaning yet. They could only come inside when either Dirk or his father were around to control the dragon’s mind. Otherwise they’d be killed.
    “I’m assuming you’re a couple now,” his father went on, “so close in fact that I ought to be considering her my future daughter-in-law. That will be awkward, I admit, bringing her over to meet your family after we’ve already shot at each other.”
    Dirk still didn’t answer. He noticed that ripped pieces of his shirt had fallen to the ground and lay motionless around his feet.
    His father didn’t let the subject go. “Well?” he insisted.
    Dirk knew his father hated Tori now. Hated her because she’d veered Dirk’s feelings away from his duty. Maybe the truth would be enough to appease his anger.
    “Tori and Jesse became a couple at camp. I didn’t see much of her because in her free time Jesse was always teaching her the ins and outs of flying.”
    Dirk’s father laughed, a deep sound that rolled through the enclosure. “What—you didn’t volunteer to do that? You’re still keeping your flying abilities from the other Slayers?”
    “Yeah, I also didn’t tell them I was the dragon lord’s son sent to spy on them. Go figure. The time just never seemed right.”
    His father cocked an eyebrow. “I’m surprised they didn’t figure it out themselves. They know Tori is your counterpart and she can fly, but they don’t find it odd that you can’t fly?”
    Dirk shrugged. “They think she’s Jesse’s counterpart, too.”
    His father laughed again, so incredulous that some of the anger drained away from him. “And Tori and Jesse—they haven’t noticed that they don’t have the ability to sense things about each other?”
    “They’re in love. They think they do sense things about each other.”
    “Love,” his father said the word as though it amused him. “A