The trek back to the elven city felt about ten times longer than the trip out, mainly because I had to listen to Sylvanus whine the entire way. You'd think after nearly getting barbecued by a dragon the size of a city bus, a guy would be grateful to still have all his limbs attached and his internal organs on the inside where they belonged. But apparently, elves had different priorities than us mere mortals.

  "This doesn't make sense," he said for the fifteenth time as we picked our way through the rubble of the colpsed wall. "Dragons don't keep prisoners. They eat intruders. Everyone knows that."

  "Everyone knows a lot of things that turn out to be complete bullshit," I replied, stepping over a chunk of masonry that had probably been expensive before it became part of an impromptu demolition project. "Dragons are intelligent creatures, not mindless eating machines. Maybe this one has pns for her."

  "What kind of pns?" The suspicion in his voice was thick enough to cut with a knife. “I’m happy to see the young dy alive after she went no contact so long but it goes against everything we know.”

  I stopped walking and turned to face him, which was a mistake because it gave me a clear view of the expression on his pretty face. It was the kind of look you'd give a used car salesman who'd just tried to sell you a vehicle with three wheels and a engine that ran on hopes and prayers.

  "How the hell should I know what kind of pns?" I snapped. "I didn't exactly stick around to interview the thing about its long-term goals. I was too busy trying not to become a crispy critter."

  "But you saw her," he pressed. "Lisa. How did she look?"

  That was a loaded question if I'd ever heard one. Lisa had looked like someone who'd been living in a cage for God knew how long, eating whatever scraps her captor decided to throw her way. She'd looked tired, scared, and probably wondering if anyone was ever going to come looking for her. But she'd also looked alive, which was more than I'd expected when we'd started this little adventure.

  "She looked like a prisoner," I said carefully. "Roughed up, probably underfed, but breathing. Which is more than most people can say after tangling with a dragon."

  Sylvanus made a noise that might have been agreement or might have been the sound of someone trying to convince themselves of something they didn't want to believe. We continued walking in silence for a while, our footsteps echoing off the cavern walls in a rhythm that reminded me uncomfortably of a funeral march.

  The elven city appeared ahead of us like a mirage made of marble and magic, all soft lights and impossible architecture that made my eyes hurt if I looked at it too long. After the rough stone and sulfur stench of the dragon's territory, it felt like stepping into a different world entirely. Which, come to think of it, was probably exactly what it was.

  We'd made it maybe fifty feet into the city proper when Caelynn appeared, materializing out of the shadows between two columns like she'd been waiting there the entire time. She probably had been, knowing elves and their fondness for dramatic timing. She was tall and elegant in the way that all elves seemed to be, with silver hair that caught the light and moved like it had its own personal breeze. When I'd first met her, she'd reminded me of every fantasy book cover I'd ever seen, all ethereal beauty and otherworldly grace. Fake.

  Now she just looked worried.

  "Sylvanus," she said, her voice carrying that musical quality that made even simple words sound like poetry.

  "Hunter. I saw you return. How did it go?"

  The question hung in the air like smoke, and I could practically feel Sylvanus tensing up beside me. This was where things were going to get complicated, and not in the fun way.

  "We found her," I said, figuring someone should answer before the silence got any more awkward. "Lisa's alive. She's being held in the dragon's ir, in some kind of cage."

  Caelynn's eyes widened, and for a moment she looked genuinely relieved. "That's wonderful news. When do we mount the rescue?"

  "We don't," Sylvanus said ftly. "I've decided to terminate Mr. Hunter's contract."

  I stared at him. "Come again?"

  "You heard me." He turned to face me fully, and the suspicion I'd seen earlier had crystallized into something harder and more dangerous. "This whole situation stinks, Hunter. Dragons don't keep prisoners. They kill intruders on sight. The fact that Lisa is still alive, and the fact that you managed to get close enough to see her without being incinerated, tells me everything I need to know."

  "Which is what, exactly?" I could feel my temper starting to fray around the edges, like a rope that had been under too much tension for too long. I stopped my hand from reaching for a weapon… the elves weren’t enemies… yet.

  "That she's not a prisoner," he said. "She's a pet. Or worse, a colborator. And you..." He paused, looking me up and down like I was something unpleasant he'd found on the bottom of his shoe. "You're working with them."

  The accusation hit me like a sp across the face. In twenty years of monster hunting, I'd been called a lot of things, most of them speakable in polite company… murderer, assassin, bogeyman… but no one had ever questioned my professional integrity. Not like this.

  "You think I'm working with a dragon," I said slowly, wanting to make sure I'd heard him correctly. "A creature that tried to turn me into charcoal thirty minutes ago."

  "I think it's awfully convenient that you survived an encounter that should have killed you," Sylvanus replied. "I think it's suspicious that Lisa has been kept alive all this time when dragons are known to eat first and ask questions never. And I think involving humans in elven affairs was a mistake from the beginning."

  “Need I remind you, that you survived the same encounter as I?” I growled at the pointy eared diplomat. “Because of me, and Lisa for that matter.”

  "Sylvanus," Caelynn interjected, her voice carrying a note of warning. "That's enough. You're letting fear cloud your judgment."

  "Am I?" He turned on her, and I could see the frustration and terror of the st hour finally boiling over. "We've been living down here for centuries, Caelynn. Safe, secure, hidden from the world above. Then, our attempt to expand the residential quarter finds a dragon. The one human girl we hire to take care of the issue goes missing, and suddenly we're supposed to trust another human to solve our problems? Look how well that's worked out."

  "It's worked out fine," I said, my own voice getting louder than I'd intended. "Lisa is alive, which is more than we had any right to expect. The dragon didn't kill her, and it didn't kill me, because sometimes things don't go according to the monster manual. Maybe this particur dragon has reasons for keeping prisoners. Maybe it's collecting people for some purpose we don't understand. Or maybe it's just eccentric. But that doesn't make Lisa or me traitors."

  "Doesn't it?" Sylvanus stepped closer, and I could smell the fear-sweat on him despite his attempts to look confident and in control. "How do we know the dragon didn't let you see her? How do we know this isn't all part of some eborate pn to infiltrate our city?"

  I ughed, which was probably the wrong response, but I couldn't help myself. "You think I'm part of some dragon conspiracy to infiltrate a bunch of elves living in a hole in the ground? That's your theory? Lisa was trying to escape with us before something woke the dragon. She didn’t even know you were there but you think all that was performative?"

  "Stranger things have happened."

  "Name one."

  "Sylvanus," Caelynn said again, more firmly this time. She moved between us like a referee stepping into a boxing ring. "You're being unreasonable. Hunter risked his life to find Lisa. The least we can do is listen to what he has to say."

  "I've heard enough," Sylvanus replied. "The girl made her choice when she went after that dragon alone. If she's still alive, it's because she's found some way to make herself useful to it. I won't risk our entire community for one person who may have already betrayed us."

  I could hear it in his voice… One human… the girl… Sylvanus was avoiding using her name, in his mind making her less a person. That didn’t bode well for her chanced.

  "She was in a cage," I said, trying one st time to make him see reason. "A human-sized birdcage, sitting in the middle of a treasure hoard like a trophy. That's not how you treat a colborator, that's how you dispy a prize."

  "Or a pet," Sylvanus countered. "Something pretty to look at while you count your gold."

  The casual dismissal of Lisa's humanity hit me harder than I'd expected. Maybe it was because I'd seen her sitting there, small and vulnerable in that cage, looking like someone who'd given up hope of rescue. Lisa was a force of nature, energy and anime given life and to see her sitting there… her spirit seemingly erased.

  Maybe it was because I'd been in simir situations myself, abandoned by clients who decided I wasn't worth the risk. Or maybe it was just because I was tired of dealing with people who thought their paranoia was more important than someone else's life.

  "She's not a pet," I said quietly. "She's a person. A young woman who tried to help your people and got captured for her trouble. And now you want to write her off because it's easier than admitting you might be wrong about something."

  "I'm not wrong about this," Sylvanus said, but there was less certainty in his voice than there had been a moment before.

  "Maybe you are, maybe you aren't," I replied. "But you're definitely wrong about me. I've spent twenty years hunting monsters, Sylvanus. I've killed things that would give you nightmares for the rest of your very long life. I've saved people who didn't deserve saving and lost people who deserved better. But I have never, not once, betrayed a client or colborated with the things I hunt. The fact that you think I would tells me everything I need to know about your judgment."

  I didn’t add that I had killed his kind before as well. I didn’t discriminate when I worked, if it wasn’t human, it was fair game. Until st year, at least.

  "Then we're in agreement," he said, drawing himself up to his full height in a way that probably looked impressive to other elves but just made him look like an overgrown teenager having a tantrum. "Your services are no longer required, Mr. Hunter. We'll handle this situation ourselves."

  "How?" I asked. "You going to march an army down there and try to take on a dragon in its own ir? Because that worked out so well the first time."

  "We'll find a way," he said stiffly. "We always have."

  I looked at Caelynn, hoping she might talk some sense into him, but she just shook her head slightly. The universal gesture for "this isn't a fight you can win."

  "Fine," I said, pulling the advance payment from my jacket pocket and tossing it at his feet. The bills scattered across the marble like confetti at a very depressing party. "Keep your money. But when your little army gets turned into barbecue, don't come crying to me about it."

  "I won't," he said, not bothering to pick up the cash.

  I turned to leave, then paused and looked back at him one more time. "For what it's worth, I hope you're right about Lisa. I hope she is working with the dragon, because that means she's got a chance of surviving whatever you're pnning to do. But if you're wrong, if she's just a prisoner who's been waiting for someone to care enough to save her, then what you're about to do makes you no better than the monster you're hunting."

  I walked away before he could respond, my footsteps echoing off the perfect marble walls of their perfect underground city. Behind me, I could hear Caelynn's voice, low and urgent, probably trying to talk Sylvanus out of whatever stupidly heroic pn he was already forming. It wouldn't work…I'd seen that look in his eyes before, in the faces of clients who'd convinced themselves that throwing good lives after bad was somehow noble instead of just wasteful.

  By the time I reached the exit that would take me back to the surface world, back to my tiny apartment and my comfortable retirement, I was already trying to forget about Lisa sitting in that cage, waiting for a rescue that might never come. It wasn't my problem anymore. I'd done my job, or tried to, and gotten fired for my trouble.

  That should have been the end of it.

  But as I climbed the long tunnel that led back to the real world, I couldn't shake the image of her face, or the sound of that dragon's ughter echoing through the caverns. Some jobs end clean, with everyone saved and the monster dead and the client happy to write you a check.

  Others follow you home and sit in the corner of your mind, reminding you that sometimes doing the right thing isn't enough, and sometimes the people who hire you to save others are the biggest monsters of all. I wasn’t going to abandon Lisa. She was a friend and a colleague and didn’t deserve to end her short life in some cave far away from the sunlight.

  The elves had made their stance clear, but money or not, I don’t quit until the job is done. The dragon had to move in an out of its ir without crossing through the elven city. I would need to find out how, and was going to need something that packed a hell of a bigger punch than what I brought so far to have an chance at ‘negotiating’ Lisa’s release.

  Time to head home and make a new pn. I chuckled to myself under my breath as I made my way back to the surface. Retirement had been nice… while it sted.