Literature / Of Cinder and Bone

"Just because something's dangerous doesn't mean it has no place in the world."

Of Cinder and Bone is a 2016 science fiction/contemporary fantasy mashup novel by Kyoko M.

After centuries of being the most dangerous predators on the planet, dragons were hunted to extinction. That is, until Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali cracked the code to bring them back. Through their research at MIT, they resurrected the first dragon anyone has seen alive since the 15th century. There's just one problem.

Someone stole it.

Caught between two ruthless yakuza clans who want to clone the dragon, Jack and Kamala brave the dangerous streets of Tokyo to steal their dragon back in a race against time before the world is taken over by mutated, bloodthirsty monsters that will raze it to ashes.

It is the first novel in the series, followed by Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs. The title of the next book has been announced: Of Claws and Inferno. It was released April 22nd, 2022. The novella, Of Wings and Shadows, was published July 22nd, 2023.

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This series contains examples of:

Of Cinder and Bone

• Abhorrent Admirer: Thankfully, Okegawa is never given the chance to act on his attraction to Kamala, but it’s definitely clear that he favors her.
• Accents Aren't Hereditary: Jack's parents both have Southern accents, but he doesn't.
• Action Duo: Jack and Kamala in the second half of the novel. Watsuki kidnaps Jack and Jack only goes along with it after Okegawa sends evidence that he will have Fujioka murdered. The girls then find out where Jack's been taken after interrogating Yagami's sister, Keiko, and they storm the place and recover Jack, but Fujioka is then captured by Okegawa. They cooperate with the local police to get her back, but thankfully, she rescues herself and puts Okegawa out of commission for the time being.
• Affectionate Nickname: Kamala calls Jack a “useless pagal.” The latter is a term in Hindi for a foolish person. He calls her "angel" in return once they start dating.
• After Action Patch Up: After the shootout in Kabukicho, Kamala patches Jack up.
• Alliterative Name: Dr. Lana Lawson, Jack’s psychiatrist, whom he hires after he returns from Tokyo.
• Alternate History: Dragons existed, both in prehistoric times and after the dinosaurs. They went extinct after a worldwide dragon-hunting obsession sometime in the 15th century.
• Always Save the Girl: Okegawa only convinces Jack to surrender by threatening to kill Fujioka.
• And This Is for...: Jack manages to briefly get his hands on Okegawa, tackling him, pinning him to the floor, and punching him repeatedly for what he's done to him, Kamala, Fujioka, and of course most importantly, Detective Colin Stubbs.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Jack tells Kamala he loves her before they almost die.
• Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Subversion. Jack and Richard fix Jack’s front door.
• Badass Bookworm: Jack and Kamala. Both are MIT post docs and kick a lot of ass once they get to Tokyo.
• Badass in Distress: Fujioka, but like a true badass, she rescues herself.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Okegawa betrays Yagami, but he refuses to kill him, although he knows the yakuza want him dead if he doesn’t cooperate. It’s largely because they were raised together as brothers, and Okegawa never had family except for him.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Faye loves winding Jack up. She does it on purpose, in fact.
• Berserk Button: Don’t insult Kamala in front of Jack. He also becomes rather hotheaded around his father, due to their checkered past.
• Betty and Veronica: Jack’s in love with Kamala (Betty), but he still clearly is drawn to Faye (Veronica) in spite of it.
• Beware the Nice Ones: You really shouldn’t call Kamala “the bitchy best friend” in front of Jack. It won’t end well.
• Big Brother Instinct: Although Jack and Faye are romantically linked, Jack’s first reaction to finding out Faye’s ex got rough with her is to ring his doorbell, smile, and break his nose, even though Faye herself took care of it that same night via Groin Attack. Yagami admits that he thought about turning Okegawa in after he heard the dragon had been stolen, but he decided to protect his younger brother and deal with the fallout of the crime.
• The Big Damn Kiss: While disguised as a Fakeout Makeout, Jack and Kamala share one of these while in Japan and later before they decide to have sex.
• Big Damn Heroes: Surprisingly, none of the humans pull this off. Pete does.
• The Big Guy: Yagami's assistant, Watsuki. He's big enough to subdue Okegawa when he gets in a brief scuffle with Jack and bodily drags him away, which is no mean feat since Okegawa is six-foot-three, one inch taller than Jack's six-foot-two.
• Bilingual Bonus: A large part of the story takes place in Japan, so some conversations are written in Hirigana. There’s also a gag phrase written in Hindi from the exasperated Kamala.
• Black Sheep: Jack and Kamala in their own respective families. Jack's parents are farmers, and while both sharp people, they have no real evidence being intellectuals or interested in higher education. Conversely, Kamala's parents raised her to be a medical doctor, but shortly after she becomes one, she quits and becomes a post-doc for Jack's research project instead, much to her father's dismay.
• Brains and Bondage: Jack. He likes to be dominant in the bedroom, but has hang ups about handcuffs due to be bullied when he was a kid.
• Brainy Brunette: Kamala. She was a medical doctor before she abruptly quit and joined Jack's post doc fellowship. Jack counts as well, as he has brown hair and eyes and is quite intelligent.
• Breath Weapon: Pete can spit venom and her bite is lethally venomous as well. As we find out at the end, Baba Yaga is a fire-breathing dragon.
• Bodyguard Babes: Fujioka is Jack and Kamala's hired bodyguard and is quite gorgeous.
• Boxing Lesson: After Faye sees Jack flatten a guy in a bar fight, she asks him to teach her some self-defense. It's also another ploy to try and get in his pants, but while Jack considers it, he ultimately says no. The boxing lessons do end up paying off later on in the series, though, especially in Book Two.
• A Boy and His X: Jack and the dragon Pete.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Fujioka cuts Jack off from falling in love with her in their flashback, knowing that she can’t open up and that she’s always going to be on the road.
• Break the Badass: Okegawa finally gets under Fujioka’s skin during interrogation by mentioning her late husband, Det. Kyoya Saito.
• Broken Pedestal: Even though he was yakuza, Yagami held Okegawa in high regard for saving his life, only to find out later it was all staged and he’d been lying to him for years.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Both Jack and Kamala do this to their respective fathers.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Jack tries and fails multiple times to tell Kamala he’s in love with her, but is only successful when it looked like they were about to die. Oops?
• Cannot Talk to Women: Jack’s pretty terrible at it. He gets introduced to a cute girl at a party and immediately starts talking about his research project instead of flirting back.
  Kamala: So...how did it go with Kim?
  Jack: You notice the chair is empty.
  Kamala: You talked about the research project, didn't you?
  Jack: No.
  Kamala: (glares)
  Jack: ...maybe.
  Kamala: You're so useless, Jack. (she ruffles his hair) Cheer up. The night's still young. I'm not giving up on you.
  Jack: Yet.
  Kamala: Never.
• Casual Kink: Fujioka likes rough sex and handcuffs. Possibly duct tape as well.
• Celebrity Paradox: Essentially, this is an Alternate Universe with an Alternate History, but all of the commonly known works of fiction like Jurassic Park or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight still exist in this universe. However, they're not acknowledged in any detail, so it's possible that the works of fiction may be different than what we know.
• Character Development: Jack changes from a shy bookworm to a much more emotionally balanced person capable of protecting and appreciating his loved ones. Kamala opens herself up more to taking emotional risks, as does Fujioka.
• Childhood Friends: Yagami and Okegawa, though it’s under false pretenses.
• Cliffhanger: Jack and Kamala get Pete back, but find out Baba Yaga has been cloned and is running amok in Tokyo. Plus, Kamala is pregnant.
• Clone Degeneration: Part of Pete’s ridiculously accelerated growth is that she’ll die if she keeps growing at such a rate.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Okegawa tortures Fujioka to find out where Jack and Kamala were told to report in the event the three of them were separated.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Okegawa is torn between following orders and betraying his big brother.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: One of the things that Jack is unnerved by when he first sees Okegawa is the trenchcoat.
• Declaration of Protection: Subversion. It’s Kamala who proclaims that she will protect Jack.
• Delightful Dragon: Pete, but typically only around Jack and Kamala. She is affectionate and protective of them, even to the degree of saving them both after they're cornered by yakuza.
• Double Agent: Subversion. Okegawa was hired by the Inagawa to infiltrate the inner circle of the Sugimoto family and the Yamaguchi-gumi. However, he does genuinely love Yagami like a brother and was upset that he had to betray him.
• Doctor, Doctor, Doctor: Specifically referenced by Jack’s psychiatrist Dr. Lawson.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Jack goes by his nickname, not his real first name.
• Dragons Versus Knights: Discussed heavily in the series as Jack's motivation for resurrecting the dragons. The dragons were unfairly characterized as vicious predators when in fact only some of the species were nuisances to the people of previous centuries. For instance, Baba Yaga was indeed dangerous since the dragon was the size of a T-Rex, but there were only a handful of her species still alive at the same time as people, but the people of her time still found it a justified killing to wipe the last of them out. The series points out that the void created by the worldwide extinction of the dragons had negative effects on the environment as well as creating a void of information about them that could lead to other scientific discoveries. It is Jack's belief that bringing them back would show the world their positive qualities and be a huge leap forward in research as well, for the betterment of mankind. But sadly, things don't go his way...
  • Furthermore, at the height of the worldwide dragon hunting phenomenon, knights were considered heroes and were given fame and fortune for killing dragons. Many people in their modern day world have dragon hunters in their bloodlines and it contributes to the dark, shadowy organization that steals the dragon from Jack and Kamala. The intention is to return to the "glory days" where dragons were only seen as monsters to be killed and the knights the valiant heroes ridding the world of the danger. And they don't care who they have to murder to make this possible...
• The Dragons Come Back: After Jack and Kamala's project is successful, it opens the door for new dragons to return from extinction.
• Drinking Contest: Faye unwisely gets into one of these and inadvertently causes a bar fight.
• Drugs Are Good: Jack, Kamala, and Faye all smoke weed recreationally, though it's mentioned they only do so when they're stressed out. Kamala even invites Yagami out to smoke some to mellow him out after his outburst at one of his student workers in the lab.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Kamala gets a little distracted seeing Jack’s shirt off for the first time.
• Embarrassing First Name: Jack doesn’t like his first name, Rhett.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Jack also doesn’t like his middle name Bartholomew.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Kamala's such a catch that Faye, her own roommate, ends up falling for her.
• Everyone Can See It: Apparently, Jack and Kamala’s coworkers all had a running bet about when they’d get together. Kamala’s parents also immediately notice after seeing them together.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Faye uses this trope to her advantage in the dating world.
• Eye Scream: Mentioned, but the second person Pete killed died from venom spat into his eyes.
• Facepalm: Kamala has an epic one when she finds out Jack is paying Fujioka $1,000 per day to retain her as their bodyguard. It also cues a Fun with Subtitles moment, as the phrase she exclaims in Hindi translates to "Shove all the planets in the solar system up my ass!"
• Failure Knight: Subversion. Jack is so fiercely protective of both Kamala and Pete after Det. Stubbs is murdered by the yakuza because he feels responsible and wants to bring them to justice.
• Fakeout Makeout: Kamala kisses Jack to distract both him and the yakuza following them.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Subverted. Jack's father Richard didn't stop him from pursuing his interest in dragons, but it was clear Rick disliked his career choice and wanted him to go into a more practical field. Smaller clues are given about his father's disinterest in the arts, like Jack naming their dog D'Artagnan (nicknamed Dart) and Rick rolled his eyes, but accepted it anyway.
• Faux Affably Evil: Okegawa pretends to be easy going, but he's ruthless.
• Flipping the Bird: Jack really doesn’t care for Yagami.
  Jack: Was he born that much of a douchebag or did he have to take lessons?
  Kamala: No clue.
  Yagami: A douchebag with perfect hearing.
  Jack: Yeah, I know. How's your sign language? (flips him off)
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Subversion. Kamala asks Jack to pinch her after they find out the eggs have started gestating after only 24 hours and, well, she didn't say where.
• Foreshadowing:
  • It turns out that Jack's dream about a little girl came true.
  • Jack and Kamala's mention of Baba Yaga, the deadliest dragon of them all, turns out to be prophetic.
• Fossil Revival: Subverted. Jack and Kamala aren't using samples from prehistoric times, but they are DNA samples from centuries ago that they augment in order to create the dragon eggs and sperm used for the project.
• Freudian Excuse: Yagami’s reprehensible actions towards Jack and Kamala were out of love for his adoptive brother, Okegawa, and to inadvertently avoid having to crawl back to his father after his project got derailed.
• Friends with Benefits: Faye suggests this. Jack considers it, but ultimately declines the offer.
• Girl Friday: Keiko Sugimoto has a male personal assistant who attends to everything she needs, but surprisingly, there is no sexual tension between them. That being said, it does give off a slight mistress and man-servant vibe based on their interactions.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Faye. She is always dressed to kill (which is Justified since her mother is a high end fashion designer) but her personality is much more tomboyish in spite of it.
• Give Geeks a Chance: Kamala slowly starts to grow romantic feelings for Jack over the course of their ordeal getting Pete back.
• Good Is Not Soft: Kamala and Jack attempt not to kill any of the yakuza, but they also don’t pull their punches, so to speak.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Jack, Kamala, and Faye all smoke weed when stressed out. By contrast, Okegawa is introduced smoking a cigarette and is rarely seen in the series without one, and Yagami smokes cigarettes as well.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: Subversion. Once Kamala finds out Fujioka is a woman, she starts getting protective of Jack and realizes she has unresolved feelings.
• Groin Attack: Implied. Kamala mentions after Faye’s ex laid hands on her, he was singing soprano for a while.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Faye. In the opening chapters, she challenges a frat boy to tequila shots and is thoroughly drunk by the time Jack and Kamala catch up to her. That being said, she's so used to the lifestyle that she doesn't even have a hangover the next morning, whereas Jack and Kam do.
• Hannibal Lecture: Yagami gives one to Jack, who is visibly shaken as he realizes he’s not wrong.
• Headbutt of Love: Shared after Jack tries to “break up” with Kamala in the R&D facility.
• Heartbroken Badass: Fujioka. Her husband Saito was murdered and she never got over it.
• Here There Were Dragons: Literally. There were various species of dragons before the dragon-hunting era wiped them all out.
• Heroic BSoD: After Pete flies away, Jack is devastated that she slipped right through his fingers.
• Hidden Depths: On the surface, Jack seems like your typical straight-laced, shy science nerd, but he’s actually got unresolved anger issues and he enjoys rough sex.
• Holding Hands: Kamala holds Jack’s hand while they wait for his parents to arrive. It’s not the first time they’ve done it, but it’s rather significant.
• Honor Before Reason: Okegawa could have turned on Yagami at any point over the plus ten years he spied on him, but he never did until he had no choice. Even then, he refused to kill him when he had the chance.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Jack is 6’2’’ and Kamala is 5’4’’.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: The main reason Jack keeps his feelings for Kamala to himself. Eventually, it just becomes too much to hold in.
• I Owe You My Life: Yagami to Okegawa, who saved his life when they were kids.
• The Immodest Orgasm:
  • Fujioka's is bad enough that she has to put a pillow over her face during Jack's, uh, oral presentation.
  • Kamala's is so intense that she calls Jack by his first name.
• Imprinting: Jack and Kamala explain that most dragons do this, as Pete demonstrates. She’s only affectionate and protective of them, and no one else. However, they think this is because she was the only surviving offspring. If she’d had siblings, she may have been more social.
• Inconvenient Attraction: Jack is quite distraught when he realizes he loves Kamala, both because of his lack of luck with women and because they’re partners as well as best friends.
• Indy Ploy: By the time Fujioka and Kamala show up at the R&D facility to save Jack, it all becomes this.
• Insufferable Genius: Dr. Yagami Sugimoto, in spades. Pretty much no one but Okegawa likes him. Even Yagami's own sister hates him.
• Insult of Endearment: Kamala’s “useless pagal” nickname for Jack.
• Ironic Name: Pete is both female and named after the famous friend of a Disney dragon.
• It's All My Fault: Jack blames himself for the death of Detective Stubbs.
• The Joy of First Flight: What Jack and Kamala experience after Pete rescues them from the yakuza and flies them away to safety. They are both elated and in awe of experiencing it for the first time.
• A Kiss For Luck: Faye lays one on Jack.
• Knuckle Cracking: Jack cracks his before going up to Faye’s ex and breaking his nose.
• Lets Wait Awhile: Kamala attempts this, but with the added stress of being attacked outside of her apartment, she’s finding it difficult not to sleep with Jack. Spoiler alert: she does.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Kamala (light) and Faye (dark). Note that they're actually inverted colors of their identities—Kamala has black hair and brown eyes and is Southern Indian/Pakistani while Faye has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is white.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Jack and Kamala bicker and tease each other constantly.
• Likes Older Women: Fujioka is in her forties and Jack is in his mid-twenties during their affair.
• Living MacGuffin: The dragon, Pete. While the method to create her is stolen by the yakuza, studying her puts them at an advantage to clone more dragons in the future.
• Love at First Sight: Kamala for Jack. She even notes it in her speech to Keiko Sugimoto, though she doesn’t realize until later that the look he gave her was romantic adoration.
• Mafia Princess: Keiko Sugimoto is fully aware of her father’s dealings with Yamaguchi-gumi and doesn’t seem to have an issue with the organization.
• Mama Bear: Jack and Kamala become very protective of Pete.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Rhett means "passionate" or "enthusiastic", which is quite fitting for him.
  • Kamala means "red lotus"; her favorite color is red and her mother calls her "my flower".
  • Jack's father Richard is kind of a dick.
  • Yagami Sugimoto is named after Light Yagami, another insufferable genius who thinks he knows better than everyone and gets a bunch of people killed.
• Messy Hair: Jack’s hair always sticks up in the front, usually because he reflexively runs his hands through it when he works.
• Misapplied Phlebotinum: Acknowledged. Kamala's father, Daeshim, a quite renowned doctor, asks if Jack would be interested in applying what he's learned to human cloning, but Jack states it's above his paygrade. However, in consequent books, it's shown that while Jack's research was stolen by the bad guys and has Gone Horribly Right, it did also allow for the resurrection of other extinct or endangered animals and is having a positive impact on the conservationist and the scientific community as well.
• Mood Whiplash: After the intense scene to find out if Fujioka’s alive, her first words to her rescuers are, “Took your fucking time, didn’t you?” Plus, in the ambulance, after Jack admits he can’t stop staring at her because he’s glad she’s alive, she calls him a pussy.
• Motive Rant: Both Yagami and Okegawa get one. Yagami explains to Jack why he decided to help Okegawa. Okegawa explains to Yagami why he felt his thet of the dragon was justified.
• Named After First Installment: The series is named after this book.
• Nerd Action Hero: Jack. He's an MIT post-doc who decides to steal his dragon back from the yakuza.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By kidnapping Jack to cure the dragon, Yagami and Okegawa unwittingly give him the chance to steal it back.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Subversion. Jack is kidnapped only to be released into Sugimoto’s R&D facility to help cure his dragon rather than being tortured or killed. It bears mentioning that he does take a liking to their espresso machine.
• Noble Demon: Okegawa staunchly refuses to kill his adoptive brother Yagami.
• Not the Intended Use: Jack and Kamala's project goal was to clone harmless dragons, study them, and potentially release them into the wild to help balance out certain ecosystems. Naturally, what does the opposition do? Steal it and try to clone it themselves so they can go right back to hunting dragons for profit, following the precedent set by history.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Okegawa forces Jack to turn himself in or he’ll have Fujioka killed.
• Oblivious to Love: Kamala doesn’t put it together until Jack says it out loud.
• Obviously Evil: Jack and Kamala are immediately wary of Okegawa on sight, thanks to his membership with the Trenchcoat Brigade, smoking in a non-smoking building, blatantly ignoring Jack the entire time he's standing there, and finally the suspicious bulge beneath said trenchcoat. Justified in that Okegawa is yakuza, so he has no reason to hide his insidious nature, not even while in America. He's also so shady looking that Jack's mother, Edie, even picked him out when he was pretending to be a janitor but was actually observing for his chance to strike.
• Opposites Attract: Both Jack and Kamala and Jack and Faye.
• Pet the Dog: It may be simple misogyny, but Okegawa makes it clear that Kamala isn’t to be harmed during their dispute.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Kamala knocks Yagami—a grown man twice her size—on his ass with just one punch.
• Poorly Timed Confession: Hoo boy, does Jack pick the wrong time to tell Kamala he loves her.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Jack is understandably a little woozy after Kamala kisses him.
• Precision F-Strike: Fujioka. “Took your fucking time, didn’t you?”
• Raised by Orcs: In this case, Okegawa was a street urchin drafted and raised by the Inagawa-kai to infiltrate the Yamaguchi-gumi.
• Ransacked Room: Okegawa tosses Jack’s place to get the data about the project, but also because he’s an asshole and wanted to leave a message.
• Really Gets Around: Faye. She bluntly offers to be Friends with Benefits with Jack, but he declines.
• The Reveal: Pete's enormous size after being abducted.
• Save the Villain: Although they really don’t want to, Jack and Kamala discuss that they should probably save Yagami along with the kidnapped Fujioka.
• Science Hero's Babe Assistant: Ultimately averted. Kamala is Jack's full on partner, not just an assistant, and she is the one responsible for their breakthrough figuring out they can use a Komodo dragon's ability for parthenogenesis to clone a clutch of dragon eggs. She has just as much importance to the story as Jack and isn't just eye candy. That being said, Jack falls for her anyway.
• Science Is Bad: Defied. The book makes a point to state that what Jack and Kamala are doing is for the purpose of education and restoring balance to ecosystems thrown out of whack after people destroyed all the dragons. What is bad is exploiting science for profit, which the book is very clear about, and it also takes shots at animal cruelty. The former is where it departs from its inspiration, Jurassic Park.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Yagami could have surrendered Okegawa after he stole the dragon, but instead he quietly pays off the right people to get them both back to Tokyo.
• Sex God: Jack doesn’t get laid often, but when he does, he’s quite good at it.
  Fujioka: Congratulations. You’re the valedictorian of cunnilingus.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Jack. He doesn’t care for jeans or casual wear.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Apparently, Yagami had a habit of calling Kamala Jack’s girlfriend.
• Shipper on Deck: Despite having lingering feelings for Kamala herself, Faye actually encourages Jack to go after her.
• Shirtless Scene: Kamala gets rather distracted when she sees Jack shirtless for the first time.
• Shoot the Dog: Not literal, but Okegawa executes Watsuki after revealing he's been an Inagawa sleeper agent for years. Yagami angrily calls him out on it since it's just plain cruel even with a reason; Okegawa is basically kidnapping Yagami and he knew Watsuki would never let his boss come to any harm, so he kills him so he won't intervene. Okegawa does at least agree to send money to Watsuki's family for the rest of their days, but his cruelty is still quite noticeable.
• Shoulder-Sized Dragon: Pete starts out this way. She doesn't stay that way, though.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jack is shocked when Faye quotes The Princess Bride before wishing him good night.
  • Jack references the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Captain America (Chris Evans) in a comparison to explain Pete's abnormal biology. Though, he does mention the Matt Salinger and Reb Brown versions as well.
  • Kamala's Fun with Subtitles moment of exasperation is an homage to a line from Firefly, where Wash exclaims, "Shove all the planets in the solar system up my ass!" in Chinese. Kamala says it in Hindi.
  • Reign of Fire is thrown a mention, as it was partially responsible for the book's creation, according to the author.
  • Jack mentions that the most popular question he usually gets after people find out what his project is about is if he's seen what happened in Jurassic Park.
  • Faye is reading a novel from the Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series when Jack and Kamala arrive home after the unveiling of the dragon eggs.
  • Misaki Fujioka's name is an homage to two of the author's favorite female anime characters: Misaki Ayuzawa from Maid-Sama! and Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club.
  • When Jack introduces himself at the egg unveiling, he adds in a small reference to "Nasty," "Miss Jackson, if you're nasty" as an icebreaker.
  • Jack quotes Troy from Community after Kamala flattens him and threatens him before confirming she too will be going to Tokyo to find Pete: "I have the weirdest boner right now."
  • Watsuki is named after Nobuhiro Watsuki of Rurouni Kenshin fame.
  • Kamala herself is an homage to Kamala Khan from Marvel Comics. Word of God states she was named after her.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Though Yagami’s speech does wear him down, Jack is all too happy to tell him to screw off with his high-handed beliefs.
• Sleep Cute: Kamala cuddles with Jack after their ordeal in Kabukicho. Too bad it’s interrupted by a nightmare.
• Smiting Evil Feels Good: According to Jack, punching Faye’s abusive ex felt so good he almost had to change his pants afterward.
• Smooch of Victory: Jack gets overexcited after they incapacitate Okegawa and gives Kamala a victory kiss. Fortunately, it happens so fast that he doesn’t realize it until much later. It should be noted that Kamala didn’t even bat an eye at the kiss, either.
• Smug Snake: Okegawa. Especially once he blackmails Jack into surrendering by threatening to have one of his men shoot Fujioka.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Poor Jack is bad with women and nervous around children and strangers.
• Southern-Fried Genius: Averted. Jack was born and raised on a farm in a small town in rural Georgia, yet doesn't have an accent.
• Statuesque Stunner: Faye is 5'9'' and absolutely beautiful.
• Stealing from Thieves: Jack and Kamala fly to Tokyo and, with the help of their bodyguard and translator Misaki Fujioka, steal Pete back from the yakuza.
• Strangely Arousing: Jack gets a Raging Stiffie after Kamala threatens him.
  Jack: (lying on the floor of his hotel room, after Kamala flattened him) I have the WEIRDEST boner right now.
• Suicide Mission: Fujioka tells Kamala the odds of rescuing Jack without the help of the police are pretty much zero, but Kamala still decides they should go after him.
• Surprisingly Normal Backstory: Kamala, most notably. Though her father is stubborn and hardheaded, she grew up in a completely normal, loving household and has no signs of trauma whatsoever. Her only gripe is that her parents groomed her for being a doctor from birth, so she ended up rebelling when she realized her life would hold no surprises if she stayed passive.
• Take That!: Kamala makes one at 50 Shades of Grey.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: While Jack’s attractiveness isn’t detailed, quite a few people have said he’s good looking.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Jack. He's 6'2'' and rather sarcastic.
• Tattooed Crook: Actually a plotpoint, since irezumi tattoos are rare and it gives Jack, Kamala, and Fujioka a lead to follow once the dragon tracker fails.
• Theme Naming: Some chapter titles are named after songs, i.e. "Diane Young" (Vampire Weekend), "Hitori no Yoru" (Porno Graffiti), "Stab my Back"(All-American Rejects), etc.
• There Is Only One Bed: Averted. Neither Jack nor Kamala bat an eye at Fujioka only having one bed in her guest room, since they’d shared one previously.
• The Tease: Faye. Any scenes with Jack, she's basically messing with him.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: “I’m not the one with the broken nose, bitch.”
• Took a Level in Badass: Jack and Kamala by the end, having defended themselves from yakuza and outsmarted Okegawa.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Faye and Kamala. Faye has girly traits, but has a Tomboy personality.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Subverted. Jack admits to being attracted to Faye’s outrageous personality and looks, but his heart belongs to Kamala.
• Virtuous Vegetarianism: Played with. Kamala is vegetarian, and is a kind, gentle, compassionate person (except if you try to hurt Jack). Her parents are also vegetarians, but it's worth noting her father is definitely a Jerkass towards Jack as well as being close-minded about Kamala's career choice.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: After the Tokyo ordeal, Jack and Faye settle into this trope. They bicker and fight quite a lot, but by the end of the novel, they consider each other friends.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Okegawa firmly believes that after they have the dragon and the data that they should just kill Jack, but Yagami disagrees.
• World of Snark: Pretty much the whole main cast is snarky, both heroes and villains.
• Yakuza: They serve as the antagonists, but only through a massive coincidence. Yagami Sugimoto is a geneticist working at MIT with a similar animal genetics fellowship that hits a monumental problem that suggests he can't fix it before the deadline, meaning years of work will be lost. His childhood friend, Kazuma Okegawa, just happens to know that and decides to take advantage of what he knows of Jack and Kamala's project, killing the clutch of dragon eggs and stealing the sole survivor so he can clone her and plunge the world right back into the dragon hunting age. There are a few things about yakuza culture mentioned, like Okegawa being a lieutenant and not the boss, but it's not elaborated on.
• You Know What You Did: Faye's ex-lover, James McGruder got rough with her the night they broke up. Jack finds out about it, shows up to the guy's front door, smiles, and then breaks his nose. While James is on the ground bleeding, he asks why and Jack quietly tells him, "you know why."

Of Blood and Ashes

The world's deadliest dragon is loose. God help us all.

The world's deadliest dragon, the infamous Baba Yaga, is loose on the streets of Tokyo. Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali have been tasked with helping the government take down a dragon the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex after it sends part of the city up in flames. Things worsen when they lose track of dragon in none other than Aokigahara, the Suicide Forest—a section of woods in Japan that is rumored to be one of the most haunted places on earth. They've also got the yakuza who cloned the dragon hellbent on getting her back, and they don't care who they kill in order to re-capture the dragon. Jack and Kamala are joined by CIA field agent William Fry and dragon-hunting expert Juniper Snow as they infiltrate the forest to hunt the dragon before she can hurt anyone else. Between the ruthless yakuza hot on their trail and the growing mistrust in their small hunting party, it will take a miracle for Jack and Kamala to make it out alive...

---

• Action Mom: Kamala's pregnant with Jack's child when they go after Baba Yaga.
• Action Survivor: Faye. She survives Winston's initial assassination attempt on Jack and then the subsequent kidnapping as well.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Baba Yaga does survive and is taken away and placed in solitary confinement in her hibernating state, but Kamala does express regret at what's been done to her before she's taken away.
• Bad Vibrations: As he pauses to catch his breath, Jack notices the impact tremors that are right on top of each other, meaning the giant killer dragon has now broken into a sprint after him.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Faye gets a nice goose egg on the back of her head and a bruise around her cheek after surviving Winston's kidnapping.
  • However, it's also Lampshaded with Kamala, who somehow escapes the entire debacle without a scratch on her.
    Fujioka: For God's sake, you don't have a scratch on you yet again. Are you just indestructible or something?
    Kamala: No, I just know how to stay out of the line of fire.
• Beware the Nice Ones: We find out even Jack has a breaking point. Aisaka finds out the hard way and it leads to her death.
• BFG: Agent Fry is toting a Desert Eagle .50 as a backup plan for Baba Yaga.
• Big Damn Heroes: Referenced by name, in fact. There's a fake one after Fry and Kamala find Baba Yaga already subdued, but it's then played straight not long afterward.
• Bittersweet Ending: The team finds and recaptures Baba Yaga, but Kamala and Jack take a break from their relationship after he tells her he kissed Faye.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Somewhat Justified. From what Aisaka knows of Jack, he's no more than competent in protecting himself, and she left him no tools to get himself loose from the tree, so her revenge plot makes a least a bit of sense with that in mind. However, she still massively underestimates him and pays for it with her life.
• Brave Scot: Juniper Snow is biracial black and Scottish, and like plenty of Scottish folks, she has a rather thick accent.
• Breath Weapon: Baba Yaga's fire is literally hot enough to melt solid steel.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Jack, while explaining that he knows how to use an automatic weapon. Snow perfectly sets him up for a The Mask of Zorro reference.
  Snow: Do you know how to use that thing?
  Jack: (imitating Antonio Banderas) Yes. Barrel end points at the other man.
  Snow: (Death Glare)
• Bring It Back Alive: The yakuza want Baba Yaga brought back alive. Jack and Kamala want to retrieve her alive as well, but it makes no nevermind to Fry and Snow, which causes a conflict of interest in their group.
• But We Used a Condom!: Jack's reaction to finding out about Kamala's pregnancy.
• Choke Holds: Snow's ancestor, who allegedly killed the very last Baba Yaga dragon in history, did it by getting astride the dragon's back and slowly choking her to death over the course of several hours. This was done since it was in an era where their weapons couldn't penetrate her unbelievably thick scales, so he reasoned the only way to kill her was by strangulation. It's also mentioned the other rumor of how this dragon went extinct is that a ship of dragon hunters chased it out over the ocean into open water and the dragon, too exhausted to keep flying, eventually fell into the sea and drowned. Both stories have an edge of Disproportionate Retribution and Alas, Poor Villain.
• CIA Evil, FBI Good: Downplayed, but still present in the story. FBI agent Dunham really doesn't like Agent Fry of the CIA and it doesn't take long once Jack and Kamala arrive to the Suicide Forest to figure out why. He has absolutely no compunctions about injuring or killing other people in order to get the job done his way.
• Damsel in Distress / Damsel out of Distress: Acknowledged and averted with Faye, who saves herself simply by being observant and waiting for the right opportunity to present itself.
• Darker and Edgier: This novel has far more horror elements to it than the previous one and the tone is largely serious throughout given the life or death scenarios the main leads are put through.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: The Sugimoto siblings' father, Makoto.
• Deadpan Snarker: Agent Fry. Which is saying something, considering how sarcastic Jack tends to be.
• Death by Genre Savviness: Aisaka knew Snow by reputation and doesn't take chances coming up against her fairly, so she uses Jack as a human shield. It backfires. Literally. Snow simply shoots Aisaka right through Jack's side.
• Dragons Are Demonic: In history, they have been villified for preying on children and livestock when they were living outside of heavily populated areas. Baba Yaga is by far the most villified dragon of the species, as she is the dragon equivalent of a T-Rex and is capable of destruction on an epic scale. However, it's Deconstructed to show that her erratic, seemingly evil behavior stems from having an underdeveloped brain that causes mood swings. She's just an animal.
• The Dreaded: Baba Yaga is the most feared dragon in history for a reason.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: Baba Yaga's Tokyo attack.
• Exact Time to Failure: Subversion. The team is told under no circumstances should they remain in the Suicide Forest at nightfall. Not only is it ten times harder to see—there is little to no natural light anywhere in it—but most of the stories of hauntings ramp up a lot once the sun goes down. Unfortunately, Jack's suit gets damaged and he gets lost in the forest, forcing the team to stay after dark to find him and bring him back safely before either Baba Yaga or the yakuza that are searching for her find him instead.
• Flash Freezing Coolant: The team is equipped with what are basically called cold guns. They spray an extremely cold foam that then instantly hardens when it makes contact with any surface. This is chosen since nothing under a .50 cal can hurt Baba Yaga and she slows down once cold, so spraying her with the coolant is the only way to stop her rampage without killing her. The guns also resurface in Book 5 for their capture of the diablo dragon.
• From Bad to Worse: The second the team lands in Aokigahara, everything proceeds to start going wrong immediately and it gets worse with every hour they spend there.
• Genius Loci: Referenced by Dr. Friedman. It's believed the forest itself is malevolent and lures people to their deaths.
• Giant Flyer: Baba Yaga. She's a dragon the size of a T-rex who can fly.
• Gone Horribly Right: The Sugimoto company's cloning of Baba Yaga does indeed create the creature, but after a mysterious person aids in her escape, she is unmatched in her power as she evades capture and resists most of the forces sent to subdue or kill her.
• Hell Is That Noise: Baba Yaga's roar is terrifying.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: It's obvious, but Aokigahara aka The Suicide Forest.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Faye is well aware of the trope, as she already has some prepared for Jack and Kamala after the Baba Yaga attack. It's invoked again after Winston attacks them.
• Ignored Expert: There are shades of this in the first book, but in this one it's more explicitly shown why Jack and Kamala had only ever planned to clone the non-dangerous species of dragons. The untold destruction and death Baba Yaga wreaks over Tokyo and even Aokigahara is exactly why no one but them should have had access to the cloning technology that brought the dragons to life.
• Immune to Bullets: Baba Yaga is unbothered by anything less than a .50 caliber bullet due to her incredibly thick scales and tough hide.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Kamala is only about a month and a half pregnant, but it still counts. She even ends up apologizing to her baby while running through the forest.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Ultimately played straight, but certainly toyed with, as Kamala faces the exact same dire situations as Jack while pregnant.
• Ironic Echo: "Die well."
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Faye snatches up Winston the hitman's Uzi and brandishes it while in a full formal gown and freaking diamonds. It turns out to be such an impressive image that Winston ends up a bit taken with her, though in a non-romantic way.
• Last-Name Basis: Snow and Fry both only like to go by their last names, not their respective first names of William and Juniper.
• Left for Dead: What Aisaka Tomoda, Okegawa's second in command of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza clan, does to Jack. She finds the unconscious Jack and ties him to a tree, then force-feeds him a hallucinogen, dooming him to die alone in the Suicide Forest since his suit is damaged, meaning he can't find his way out. She massively underestimates him, though. Jack manages to painstakingly free himself and tries to get back to his hunting party, though understandably terrified and off his tits from the drugs. He finally bumps into Snow and the two of them are able to get back to safety.
• Logical Weakness: Baba Yaga is cold-blooded and needs solar energy to move her giant body. Since nothing short of a .50 caliber bullet can penetrate her scales, the hunting party are given cold guns to slow her down. It ends up successfully causing the dragon to hibernate and they can safely transport her elsewhere.
• Love Triangle: It finally comes to a head when Jack and Faye kiss after their brush with death and it sets off a true love triangle, if you count Faye's complicated feelings for Kamala that she refuses to confess.
• Made of Iron: Subverted. From start to finish, let's list off Jack's injuries: he's still recovering from a gunshot wound in his bicep, he's got a bruise to the temple from being punched, two black eyes from being headbutted by Winston the hitman, bruised ribs, a sprained wrist, and finally a gunshot wound through his side. It's no wonder he collapses at the end.
  • Faye manages to bludgeon Winston with a porcelain toilet lid, then chokes him unconscious, and finally electrocutes him with a Taser. However, by the time the cops raid the house, Winston had already come to and escaped. The guy seems nigh indestructible.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: What Kamala's father fears in the long run. He was already dismissive of Jack when they met in the first book and he fears what associating with him will do to Kamala's reputation. He also has been through the headache of marrying outside of his race and religion and doesn't want Kamala to face backlash from their family if she does decide to marry Jack someday.
• Mama Bear: Edie is vehemently against Jack going after Baba Yaga. It's directly in contrast with the first book where she isn't thrilled that he goes after Pete, but she understands the deep emotional connection he has to the dragon. Here, he's going out of his comfort zone into a haunted forest to hunt a dragon the size of a T-Rex with at least two people he doesn't know. Her fear and anger are completely justified and his choice causes a rift in their relationship.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Aokigahara. The others see nothing out of the ordinary in the forest, but how much of Jack's hallucinations were fictional and how much was real?
• Mood Whiplash: During Faye's final showdown with Winston, he calmly tells her to put the briefcase and car keys down before he seriously injures her, to which she responds with, "Suck my dick." Additionally, Jack saves Snow's life and immediately begins rubbing it in her face. It may seem out of character and it is—by now, he's completely unhinged from being drugged. It goes even further after Snow saves Jack's life in return after Aisaka catches up to him and he's completely livid that she actually shot him.
• Monster Clown: Jack's first hallucination (that he recognizes, anyway).
• Mook Lieutenant: Aisaka Tomoda, Okegawa's second-in-command.
• Mushroom Samba: Both for comedic and non-comedic purposes. Aisaka drugs Jack with a hallucinogen as revenge for putting her boss Okegawa in the hospital. Jack experiences intense episodes of hallucinations, from killer clowns to pink elephants. It also affects his behavior somewhat by the time he runs into Snow and is fully off his tits on drugs by this point, as well as being sore, exposed to the harsh cold, and scared out of his mind.
• No Name Given: We don't find out Winston's real name in this book, but we do learn his real first name in Book 4.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Baba Yaga. She destroys out of fear and territorial behavior, not out of malice.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Winston. He even invokes this when introducing himself to Faye, citing that he likes to be called this name because of the character from The Mexican.
• Open-Minded Parent: Kamala's mother Sahana is incredibly understanding and accepting of both her daughter's career and her relationship with Jack.
• One-Shot Character: Agent Fry, Juniper Snow, Dr. Friedman, and Dr. Hudson all only appear in this book to help Jack and Kamala catch Baba Yaga. However, Fry and Snow are mentioned in a Call-Back scene of the next book.
• Our Dragons Are Different: There are thirty-seven identified species of dragon thus far and they are closely related to dinosaurs. They also show signs of cognition that are uncharacteristic in reptiles. Pete, for instance, has mannerisms and characteristics that are more similar to birds of prey or mammals.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Understandably, Jack has chronic awful nightmares after surviving Aokigahara. It's only when Faye comes over to spend the night that he gets some rest.
• Percussive Therapy: Faye, after kissing Jack and realizing she's screwed up the two most important relationships in her life at the same time with that one kiss. She berates herself as she performs said therapy on a reflex bag.
• Prehistoric Monster: Baba Yaga. She is one of the only dragons that was alive before and after the KT event, as this is an alternate Earth with an alternate timeline of events.
• Professional Killer: Winston. He changes his face with every assignment, making it impossible to tell what he looks like, and has allegedly been at it for twenty years.
• Protectorate: Jack and Kamala for each other. Kamala actually body slams Juniper Snow when she tries to drag her back down to the forest's entrance after Jack gets lost.
• Punny Name: Juniper Snow is a frigid bitch.
• Put on a Bus: Subverted. Okegawa is absent from this book as he's in a coma.
• Red Shirt Army: Baba Yaga pretty much makes mincemeat of the mercs and yakuza who show up in Aokigahara.
• Scientist vs. Soldier: Jack and Kamala vs. Fry. Jack and Kamala want to try to find Baba Yaga alive as it's not her fault she was cloned out of extinction and feel she deserves to live, however difficult it will be to keep her contained. Fry is the opposite and has no objections to killing her outright if he gets the chance. Both have a solid argument and neither is presented as more right than the other considering the circumstances.
• Shout-Out: The hitman insists that Faye calls him Winston after the character in the 2001 action-comedy The Mexican.
  • Jack references The Mask of Zorro in the forest with Snow.
  • Jack mentions the Big Damn Heroes moment when Fry and Kamala show up on a helicopter just before he and Snow were about to be overtaken by the enemy.
• The Shrink: Dr. Lana Lawson and Dr. Bruno Washington, Jack and Kamala's psychiatrists respectively. Both are of the benevolent and friendly variety.
• So Much for Stealth: Jack's quick thinking allows him to survive when Baba Yaga returns to her resting spot in the cave (which involved him unfortunately having to hide inside a pile of her droppings), and he waits for her to go to sleep, which is smart. He very slowly makes his way out of the droppings towards the exit, but some of it plops onto the cave floor, waking the dragon. Jack then forgoes stealth and just runs for his life.
• Square-Cube Law: Of course a flying dragon the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is impossible, but you came to this series for Rule of Cool, so that's why Baba Yaga is here. That being said, her wingspan is noted as being absolutely insane considering just how big she is and would need to be in order to achieve flight.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: After Winston's initial assassination attempt fails, Aisaka Tomoda instructs him to instead kidnap Faye. At first, it seems like she's going to use her to exchange for Baba Yaga if Jack and Kamala manage to catch her, but we later find out that she did it to torment them in revenge of them putting Okegawa in a coma. Had Jack not been forced to kill Aisaka in self defense, she probably would have told Winston to torture Faye to death.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Jack and Kamala intensely dislike Juniper Snow, and it's very much reciprocated, but they don't have a choice but to work together to capture Baba Yaga.
  Snow: (about Jack) I swear to all the stars in the night sky, I have ne'er hated another person on this earth as much as I hate you.
• Theme Naming: Confirmed that the format for the books in the series will be "Of X and X." Usually, it's two nouns, with one of them pertaining to an attribute or trait of dragons.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Averted. Jack and Kamala both enrolled themselves into therapy after the events of the first book. Jack even cites that he wouldn't have made it as far as he had afterward if he hadn't started going.
• Those Two Guys: Houston and Carmichael, but it's justified as they're detectives and partners.
• Toilet Humor: Jack escapes detection from Baba Yaga by (reluctantly) jumping into a pile of her droppings. The droppings mask his smell and fool the dragon into thinking he isn't there.
• Trapped-with-Monster Plot: Jack and Baba Yaga in the underground tunnels, most prominently.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Jack and Kamala's cloning method, via the yakuza and the Sugimoto company. Jack's research had only just been initially successful when the yakuza steal it, and so the consequences or long term effects and results haven't even come about yet, but they still go on to clone Baba Yaga in spite of it. Naturally, it backfires on a friggin' epic scale.
• The Unreveal: Winston's real name (at least in this book; we learn his real first name in Book 4). Whether or not what Jack saw was just a result of hallucinogen or if any of the things he saw were actually ghosts in the forest.
• Villainous Rescue: Subverted. Kamala and Fry reach a part of the forest where there are too many mercenaries for them to face alone, and Baba Yaga proceeds to wipe all but two of them out without hesitation.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Kamala outright bodyslams Snow when she tries to drag her back to the campsite rather than going after the lost and stranded Jack.
• Watching Troy Burn: Jack and Kamala in the opening chapter, watching the horrifying footage of Baba Yaga utterly devastating Tokyo.
• Worthy Opponent: Winston recognizes Faye's tenacity and wants her to become a fully realized version of this trope for him.

Of Dawn and Embers

"Jack...why is there a dragon in our backyard?"

It's been six months since Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali had their dragon cloning project shut down by the government. Just when they think they've gotten their lives back together, an agency within the government hits them with another suckerpunch: a criminal organization has cloned dozens of dragons in order to hold vicious dragon fighting rings. The government recruits Jack and Kamala to help them track down the organization. Jack and Kamala set out to put a stop to the illegal fights before any more dragons die... or worse, escape.

---

• 10-Minute Retirement: When Calloway first comes to Jack with the assignment, he turns it down, but Kamala convinces him they should accept it to prevent things from getting worse and hurting them or others in the long run.
• Affectionate Nickname: Winston always calls Faye "blondie."
  • Jack takes to calling Libby "whipper snapper" due to their age gap (Jack is 29, Libby is 22).
• Anger Born of Worry: Jack snaps at Kamala, but later reveals it’s because he’s stressed out about having the same strained relationship with their daughter as he has with his father.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Faye manages to unearth one by memorizing the key swipes on Winston's burner phone, which ultimately saves his life after he's shot.
• Ascended Meme: Libby offers to babysit Naila, and Jack agrees but insists that if her first word is "yeet," he's coming after her.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: The smugglers. The retrieval team are understandably livid.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: The highlander dragon has venom-tipped spikes at the end of its tail. One hit is enough to kill a grown man.
• Big Brother Instinct: Libby tries to flirt with Jack at first, but he develops more of a step-brother dynamic with her as they continue interacting. He even talks her out of going on a rage-fueled suicidal mission to find Larry once they realize he’s a mole.
• Big Good: Granted, the way they began isn't very benevolent—the US government basically stormed into MIT and forced Jack and Kamala to stop their research project and stole their dragons away to study them—but ultimately, this is what the Knight Division is against what's later known as the Apophis Society. They deploy dragon retrievers when there are reports of marauding dragons and safely (and humanely) capture them. The dragons are then taken back to headquarters, examined, and then studied to determine if they can be returned to the wild somewhere that they won't encroach on a human population or they are kept and trained to be used for the team.
• Big "WHAT?!": Faye’s reaction to finding out Winston was married, and his ex is also a hitter.
• Black Dude Dies First: Averted, but Calloway mentions the trope anyway.
• Brother–Sister Team: Calloway and Libby. Calloway is the older brother, Libby, his younger sister. Before they were hired to work for the government, Calloway was a zoologist who was a specialist at trapping and relocating dangerous encroaching predators. Libby created and maintained equipment to help keep him safe.
• The Bus Came Back: Okegawa returns at the very end of the book, revealing he's alive and has a prosthetic arm. He also heard every word of Kamala's death threat and intends to ruin her life and eventually kill her.
• Cat Like Dragons: Pete very much shows the behaviors of a common housecat. She reacts to certain words and phrases that Jack or Kamala say to her and she loves naps and being petted.
• Catch-22 Dilemma: Faye is caught in one. If she tells Jack and Kamala or the authorities about the hit, Winston will back out and leave the assassin — which they both later learn is his crazy ex—to take them out, but if she helps him, she’s now an accessory to whatever he does. Even if she can prove to the cops that she was aiding him under duress, it still doesn’t mean she won’t be charged with something eventually.
• Catapult Nightmare: Kamala suffers a doozy of one after the Nordic sea serpent incident.
• Chick Magnet: It's acknowledged that most of Jack's meaningful relationships in his life tend to be with women: his mother Edie, Kamala and Faye, his female therapist Dr. Lana Lawson, and later, Libby. It's possible he's subconsciously defensive around other men after he found out his best friend in college was sleeping with his girlfriend.
• Cold Reading: Stella does one on Faye and Faye returns the favor.
• Contract on the Hitman: Winston mentions he had been in Cambridge/Boston clearing up one of these contracts, after he killed the driver of his assassination attempt on Jack and Faye, but the driver turned out to have Mob ties.
• Crazy-Prepared: Winston brings along a freaking flamethrower while taking Faye along to stop Stella from killing Calloway and the rest of the Knight Division during the train yard raid. It turns out he was smart to do so; the Nordic sea serpent ain't fireproof.
• Demolitions Expert: A lesser version of the trope, but Winston describes Stella as “old-fashioned” and being rather good with explosives. He’s proven right not long afterward.
• Dragon Tamer: Introduced in this book, elaborated on in the next. The dragons that are caught are studied, cared for, and then attempts are made to rehabilitate the ones that have been abused, much like rescue dogs. This makes the entire Knight Division team dragon tamers, effectively.
• Dragon Variety Pack: The many types of dragons are explored in more detail in this book, showing the varieties that live in different environments with different abilities.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Libby points out the fact that Jack was basically willing to die for her after only knowing her for a few days.
• Dumb Blonde: Heavily averted with Faye. When Stella does her Cold Reading of Faye, she works out that Faye got tired of being stereotyped as nothing but a pretty face and studied to become incredibly smart just to subvert everyone's expectations. She even dubs her, "Anna Nicole Smith the Brain Surgeon."
• Dye or Die: Subverted. Faye wears a wig, has colored contact lenses, and dyes her eyebrows so no one will recognize her.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Stella calls Winston “Pooh Bear.”
• Endearingly Dorky: Jack wins over the Calloway siblings largely due to this trope. He's very snarky, but he has a good heart, and they all get along almost immediately due to having similar personalities and backgrounds.
• Evil Mentor: Stella questions if Winston is this for Faye, but he denies it. Faye, however, is still unsure of Winston’s true intentions.
• Exasperated Perp: Shannon recruits Jack to break Zhang specifically because of this trope.
• The Family That Slays Together: Stella and Winston, during their marriage.
• Flirting Under Fire: Calloway and the female SWAT officer start flirting while Calloway inspects the giant metal shipping container that the dragon smugglers have in their warehouse.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Libby is impulsive and hot-tempered, whereas Calloway is level-headed and patient.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Libby makes all of the team's equipment. Faye also has some tinkering experience, with her dragon tracker.
• Good Taming, Evil Taming: Subverted. Jack and Kamala intended to clone dragons to study the non-threatening species and someday release them into the wild to rebuild damaged ecosystems; the yakuza and other interested parties are cloning dragons with the intention of bringing back the dragon hunts.
• Groin Attack: Libby snaps when she gets face to face with Lackey Larry, who turns out to be a mole who almost got her brother killed and she manages to get him once in the crotch before Jack pulls her off of him.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Stella's response after Faye does a cold read on her and tells her she can have Winston back when she's "done" with him? Fire the revolver directly at Faye's face. Luckily, Winston is fast enough to swat the gun so that she misses.
• Hell Is That Noise: The Nordic sea serpent’s horrifying wail sends shivers down the spines of everyone in the train yard where they find it. Neighbors even reported hearing it miles away, in fact.
• Heroes Unlimited: Instead of just Jack and Kamala, they join up with Shannon, Libby, and Calloway to continue their task of trying to capture the dragons and shut down the smugglers.
• Hitman with a Heart: Winston is in no way a good person, nor does he have a Heart of Gold, but he does have a soft spot for Faye. Stella claims he's actually a sweet guy for an assassin, enough to nickname him Pooh Bear.
• I Am Not My Father: Jack’s internal struggling with the baby on the way has a lot to do with his strained relationship with his own father. He worries he’ll raise the kid with the same psychological issues he had growing up.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Winston says it verbatim to Faye, though Faye has gleaned from his actions that he's actually bluffing. He is certainly ruthless and terrifying, but his soft spot for her is clear. By the end, Winston reveals her suspicions were right—he doesn't want her dead, he wants a Worthy Opponent.
  • Unfortunately, this is the case with Okegawa. Upon his return, he informs Kamala he won't simply kill her, but slowly and painfully torture her and her family until he's satisfied. If he wanted to kill her and everyone, he'd have done it when he snuck into her hospital room.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Faye infiltrates the facility by lucking out and seducing a security guard so he’ll let her in, pretending that she "lost" her security card.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Kamala is VERY pregnant by this point, so much so that Shannon institutes work restrictions for her. She can't work more than six hours a day, needs to be off her feet, and he won't let her inside the cage with Pete. She is later hunted by a dragon inside the warehouse where they were dissecting the Nordic sea serpent and manages to take it down before being escorted to the hospital for her daughter's birth.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: How both Stella and Winston got into the facility. Faye uses a different variation, instead impersonating a recently hired intern.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Calloway and the SWAT officer’s reaction to the dark, locked shipping container is exactly this trope.
• Like Brother and Sister: After Libby reveals she’s mostly just pulling his leg by flirting with him initially, Libby and Jack settle into this relationship.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The instructions left on the hit for Jack and Kamala.
• Mean Boss: Seriously, Shannon is not a nice fellow by any stretch of the imagination. To the point where when Jack punched him when they first met, his accompanying agent didn’t even report the assault and Shannon had to lie about it since “there were no witnesses.”
• Missing Mom: Calloway and Libby’s mother is absent. Calloway says she had him, left their father, came back, had Libby, and then abandoned them for good, so he was partially responsible for raising Libby after their father Ed had an accident and lost an arm.
• The Mole: Lackey Larry. Turns out he was the one on the inside trying to get it so that Jack and Kamala would be killed in the line of duty.
• Morality Pet: Faye appears to be one for Winston. He is a sociopath and a murderer, but he does seem to genuinely like and respect her and lets her in on things he'd certainly never tell anyone else.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Highlander dragon is no joke. The Nordic sea serpent is borderline, as it only sounds a little scary, but proves to be almost as deadly as Baba Yaga.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Some of the dragons are implied to be aggressive, loners, or foul-tempered even before being bred by criminals who egg them on to kill each other. This is exactly why Jack and Kamala had carefully selected non-dangerous species when they began the project.
• No Accounting for Taste: Stella and Winston's relationship seems this way to Faye, given how Stella is borderline Ax-Crazy and vengeful as hell and Winston is a complete sociopath who has killed probably well over a hundred people. Winston insists the marriage was great, as was the sex.
• No Pregger Sex: Averted. It’s heavily implied Jack, Kamala, and Faye are all still sexually active even this far into her pregnancy.
• No-Tell Motel: Exclusively what Winston uses whenever he’s in town on a job.
• Noble Demon: Firstly, Winston coming to Faye about the assignment rather than letting it go. Secondly, Winston saves Faye’s life in the train yard.
• Perky Goth: Libby. She’s tattooed, pierced, wears black, and yet one of the sweetest characters.
• Pregnant Bad Ass: Kamala, in spades. She manages to fight off a dragon by herself with nothing but a large wrench.
• Oh, Crap!: Jack, once he realizes what the black-tinted water inside the pool in the shipping container is a prelude to.
  • Winston, once he sees the laser scope focused on Faye.
• Polyamory: Jack, Kamala, and Faye appear to be in a healthy, honest polyamorous relationship with each other. They balance the time that they spend together and often pair off at different points while still being loving and compassionate when all three of them are together. However, since Jack and Kamala work together, they have to overcome Faye’s feelings of being left out of important decisions, like the one to offer help to the government.
• Professional Killer: Stella and Winston. And they were married hitters, no less.
• Promotion to Parent: Though he is still alive, Libby and Calloway’s father suffered a lost limb and Calloway had to step in to help raise his sister as his father struggled to recover.
• Properly Paranoid: Faye. Winston warned her in the previous novel that he’d be back once the heat was off, and it turns out, she was right to expect his return in under a year.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Hoo boy. Winston’s ex-wife is a piece of work, to say the least.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Possibly implied with Winston, if Stella is any indication. They were happily married until the incident in Harlem broke them up.
• Red Herring: Agent Shannon seems like the possible culprit for who ordered the hit, but it turns out it's Lackey Larry.
• Running Gag: Jack’s deadpan delivery of “that’s racist” to the Calloway siblings.
  • Poor Jack has now been shot three times over the course of the series. The third time, he finally shouts, "Why does everyone keep shooting me?!"
• Secret Test of Character: Subverted. When Winston returns to confront Faye in Florida, he rather easily allows her the upper hand to get his gun, but it turns out it was never loaded to begin with, which Faye figures out rather than trying to shoot him.
• Shout-Out: As with the previous novels, references abound.
  • Jack can't help but quote Highlander as soon as they begin discussing the dragon's anatomy.
  • Faye's fake ID is Bobbi Morse aka Mockingbird from Marvel Comics.
  • Jack and Libby fervently discuss which of the Avengers is better: Captain America or Thor.
  • Jack teases Libby about being a whipper snapper, but she does make a Blazing Saddles reference when they show up in DC to recapture the escaped dragons.
• Spit Take: The novel opens with one from Jack when they find Pete in the backyard.
• The Stoic: Agent Shannon, very much so. If he cracks a smile at all, it’s usually while saying something awful.
• Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Jack’s opinion of Shannon and Calloway willingly walking into the trap laid by the dragon smugglers, although they have tons of backup.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The Nordic sea serpent and the female Netherland dragon.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Averted with Jack and Kamala, but played straight with Faye. No surprise, though—Faye is extremely defensive and doesn’t like discussing her true feelings.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Winston doesn’t know much about dragons, but he figures the flamethrower ought to do the trick for the Nordic sea serpent.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Winston’s quiet “Ah, hell” when he sees the laser scope seconds before he gets shot.
• Thrill Seeker: Calloway admits this is part of why he captures predators for a living.
• Took a Level in Badass: Faye is able to break a chokehold and get Winston’s gun when he first resurfaces, which seems to impress even him. She also is competent enough to memorize Winston’s burner phone code, call a Back-Alley Doctor, find a proper hideout, and then destroy all the evidence of their activities before Winston even wakes up.
• Tranquilizer Dart: Among the dragon hunters' tools are of course a tranquilizer gun. It can both shoot the darts or be pressed to a dragon's skin and injected up close depending on the gun's settings. The Knight Division only does non-lethal capture methods and avoid loss of life at all costs.
• Vague Age: Winston’s features, which he changes frequently, means his age is pretty much indeterminable. According to small clues he’s given Faye (although he could very well be lying), he can be anywhere from forty to sixty years old.
• Volleying Insults: If you leave Jack and Shannon in the same space for too long, it invariably ends up this way.
• Wham Line:
  "Our cover’s blown. She was waiting for us the whole time."
  "She who?"
  "Stella. My ex-wife."
  • "Jack... why is there a dragon in our backyard?"
• What If the Baby Is Like Me: Jack frets about this quite a bit, and with justification, as he has a penchant for getting into trouble and occasionally loses his temper if provoked.
• Who You Gonna Call?: Jack and Kamala are quickly becoming this trope, as this is the second time the government has asked them to step in to capture rogue dragons and stop the illegal cloning organization.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Stella willingly accepts the contract on Kamala, knowing she's eight months pregnant.
  • Okegawa openly threatens both Kamala and her newborn baby at gunpoint.
• "You!" Exclamation: Zhang’s reaction to seeing Jack again in the interrogation room.

Of Fury and Fangs

Dragons aren't the only things after Jack and Kamala.

Someone wants Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson dead. After surviving a vicious attack from a dragon in his own home, Jack and Dr. Kamala Anjali investigate who sent the dragon to kill him. Unfortunately, their list of enemies is long. Plenty of people have an axe to grind with the two scientists responsible for the rebirth of the previously extinct dragons that are now flourishing on every continent of the planet. Jack and Kamala rejoin with their team at the Knight Division to hunt down the culprit and put an end to their revenge scheme once and for all. But will it cost them everything?

---

This novel shows examples of:

• Action Pet: Brunhilde, Pete, and Hawn. Even D'artagnan helps out trying to ward off the dragon attacking Jack's father, Richard.
• Affably Evil: Winston. He seems downright polite and reasonable most of the time...until it's time to kill someone.
• Affectionate Nickname: As of this book, Libby has taken to calling Jack "Barry" because his middle name is Bartholomew. It might also be since he bears a striking resemblance to the CW version of Barry Allen, also a scientist who fights crime.
• Ambiguously Trained: The FBI taskforce has strong reason to believe Winston is ex-military.
• Animal Assassin: In the nightmarish opening scene of the book, someone sent an Appalachian forest dragon into Jack's house to kill him. And his one year old daughter is home at the time.
• Animals Hate Him: Both Brunhilde and Hawn react defensively to the Bailey boys on sight, essentially foreshadowing what they’re all about.
• Arc Villain: The Bailey boys are only a problem for this book on account of what happens towards the end: Mal gets his throat ripped out by Hawn and dies and Zeke is arrested for trying to rob the Knight Division agents at gunpoint to steal Hawn the dragon back.
• Ascended Meme: Jack mentions "Florida Man" after watching the footage of a man and his son in Florida ineffectively trying to hunt a swamp dragon in the Everglades.
  • During Jack's Drowning My Sorrows episode, Calloway cheers him up by saying he's "invited to the barbecue" as long as he "doesn't bring potato salad with raisins in it."
• Assassination Side Quest: What Stella gives Faye. She tells her to go assassinate someone at an underground dragon fighting match and if she's successful, Stella will respect that and drop the grudge.
• Battle Couple: Jack and Kamala. They kick ass separately and apart in the novel, but especially against Okegawa at the end.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Many of the dragons become this trope. All dragons aren't naturally aggressive, only some, but the dragon cloning sites that clone them for dragon fighting rings torture the animals into becoming feral and accepting no human contact peacefully.
• Best Served Cold: Okegawa decided that he won’t kill Jack and Kamala yet, but rather he’ll torment them first.
• Bioweapon Beast: It was hinted at, but finally shows up as of this book—Okegawa and Yagami had been working on crossbreeding different kinds of dragons. They end up with spliced dragons that Okegawa uses to test the Knight Division's fortitude. There is a urso/Appalachian forest dragon mix, an Egyptian/Australian dragon mix, and a mimic/Highlander dragon mix. All of them were cloned specifically for being as deadly as possible to anyone who comes across them, which the Knight Division does due to a trap that Okegawa sets.
• Bittersweet Ending: Faye gets Winston and Stella behind bars, but Jack and Kamala fail to catch Okegawa and he shoots Pete.
• Brick Joke: At one point, Houston mentions Faye is a "smart cookie," to which Carmichael states he's tattling about it. Once they storm the Dizzy Dame and arrest Stella and Winston, Carmichael immediately tells Faye about the cookie comment.
• Brutal Honesty: Libby's reaction to finding out Kamala and Faye lied to Jack about hiring Fujioka to hunt down Okegawa and kill him led her to call them, "you dumb bisexual bitches."
• Bullying a Dragon: Sending a killer dragon to Jack’s home and threatening his baby girl was not a good idea. However, it’s a subversion: Okegawa intended to get Jack out of retirement for his final endgame revenge.
• A Chat with Satan: Arguably, Faye’s confrontations with Stella. She's all alone with her after Stella kidnaps her and they have a conversation about why both Stella and Winston took an interest in Faye.
• Celeb Crush: Libby is revealed to have had a photo op with Chris Hemsworth.
• The Commissioner Gordon: Subverted. Houston and Carmichael strictly remind Faye of the rules, but they do include her in the investigation process knowing that she can facilitate valuable information that they can’t as detectives.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: There were a lot of other ways Stella could have faked her own death to get the cops and the FBI off her back, but her ego prevented it.
• Cruel Mercy: Okegawa defeats both Jack and Kamala in hand to hand combat and is perfectly capable of killing them both either with his enormous spliced diablo dragon or a handgun. He instead decides to let them live...and he shoots their dragon, Pete, instead.
• Da Chief: Deputy Burns settles more firmly into this role in this book. He is Houston and Carmichael's boss.
• Dark Action Girl: Stella. She's back for revenge on Faye and she is not pulling her punches.
• Dead Man's Switch: Stella’s bomb vest is wired to her heartbeat.
• The Dreaded: Judging by the guild girl’s reaction, Winston is this in the hitman community. Stella is a lesser example, as Winston’s associate Russell points out.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After Jack finds out about Faye and Kamala’s lying, he heads to a bar for some alcoholic therapy.
• Dynamic Entry: Stella's first appearance in this book is storming the Cambridge precinct wearing a suicide bomber vest and a big ole grin.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Winston is very put out when Faye calls him by his ex-wife's pet name, Pooh Bear, in front of Detectives Houston and Carmichael.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Stella and Winston seemed to genuinely have been in love when they were still married. Somehow.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Winston and Stella both insist that one of the only common things for hitmen is keeping their word. However, it is shown that Stella has some traits that have gotten her into trouble for not sharing standards with other hitters, as she’s an “ex-guild” member.
• Evil Is Petty: Stella appears to be tormenting Faye out of sheer jealousy that she has Winston’s attention—though she is aware it’s non-romantic—and because Faye shot her in the previous book.
• Faux Affably Evil: Stella. She seems to have a glamorous persona and a sly humor, but she can turn soulless and violent in a millisecond.
• FBI Agent: Agent Michelle Dunham is joined by two members of a task force, Agent Alejandro Castillo and Agent Ruth Atwell.
• Feathered Dragons: Hawn, the Egyptian desert dragon Jack's father Richard found. She has feathers down her back and on her tail.
• For the Evulz: Okegawa acknowledges that he should have Fujioka killed, but he’s actually enjoying thwarting her attempts to hunt him down, so he won't.
• Friendly Enemy: Faye makes it 100% clear that she intends to catch Winston, but the two of them still seem to get along personality-wise. Her paramours even point out to her that it's kind of messed up that she gets some kind of emotional fulfillment out of her "relationship" with him.
• From Bad to Worse: Once Stella catches up to Faye at the precinct and onward. She kidnaps her and tells her she'll consider the grudge squashed if Faye does her a "favor." And of course the favor turns out to be killing someone.
• Genetic Abomination: In addition to the other spliced dragons, Okegawa took it upon himself to crossbreed a diablo dragon with Baba Yaga, creating a spliced dragon out of the two deadliest dragon species on Earth. It is appropriately named Shikei, which is Japanese for "death sentence."
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Houston is usually good cop due to his more calm, fatherly demeanor and Carmichael’s the hothead of the duo.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: As of this book, Houston is routinely trying to get Carmichael to cut down on the cursing since he and his wife have expressed interest in having a kid. Carmichael is constantly ignoring all the elbows to the gut and still cursing anyway.
• Handicapped Badass: Okegawa proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that losing one eye and an arm mean nothing; he is just as ruthlessly effective as before.
• Hate Sink: Stella and the Bailey boys. Details below.
  • In the previous novel, Stella accepts a hit Winston turned down just because it would have been she and Winston's tenth wedding anniversary. Then when she finds out Winston is interested (albeit non-romantically) in Faye, she gets so jealous that she fixates on trying to kill her lovers and forms a revenge scheme to prove she's better than her.
  • Zeke and Mal Bailey are small time crooks who have used unlawful farming techniques, have tampered with the Jackson farm, were involved in dog fighting, and finally blackmail Richard Jackson into returning their Egyptian desert dragon by sending an Appalachian dragon after Jack. They later send more dragons to attack the Jackson farm and then try to steal the dragon off of the back of the Knight Division truck taking her to the airport.
• Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: After Kamala’s angry declaration in response to a rogue hunter interrupting one of her hunts and endangering her and Calloway, Shannon gets dragged into one of these to be reprimanded.
• Hayseed Name: Zeke and Mal, which are short for Ezekiel and Malachi.
• Heroes Love Dogs: This book reveals that Jack and Kamala own a dog named Brunhilde. She's a retired police dog who is there to act as an early warning system and to placate baby Naila if she's upset. Jack's parents also have a dog that he grew up with that he named D'artagnan.
• Heroic Dog:
  • Jack and Kamala's German shepherd, aptly named Brunhilde, is a former police dog. She keeps watch over Naila when they're at home, but jumps right into the action on the Jackson farm when a swamp dragon attacks Jack and Kamala.
  • Jack's family dog, D'artagnan, gets a moment to shine when a Highlander dragon attacks Richard.
• Herr Doktor: Dr. Reginald Watson, the doctor who patched up Winston, is German.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Winston may have a soft spot for children and teenagers. He tells Faye he refuses to take assignments that threaten children and while he does intimidate the guild teenager at the safe house, he makes it clear he won’t hurt her. He also willingly surrenders to the authorities to prevent Stella from killing Faye but also to prevent Faye from killing Stella and becoming more like him.
  • Agent Shannon is definitely a jerk, but he does at least acknowledge that Jack is good at his job and wants him to stay on with the Knight Division.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Jack's father Richard names the golden Egyptian dragon he found Hawn after actress Goldie Hawn.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Carmichael squeezes the bullet wound of one of the hitmen to get him to tell the cops where Stella took Faye.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: For Kamala and Faye, it sucks big time. They secretly hired Fujioka to find and kill Okegawa and didn't tell Jack as they thought he would oppose the idea. Jack is understandably upset when Faye spills the beans and tells him the truth, not because he was against killing Okegawa, but because they didn't trust him with the mission.
• Killed Off for Real: Mal Bailey gets his throat ripped out by Hawn.
• Liar Revealed: Faye exposes herself and Kamala lying to Jack about them hiring Fujioka to kill Okegawa. Jack storms out on them both and heads to a bar to drink away his sorrows.
• Made of Iron: Winston survives an exploding apartment and a hail of automatic gunfire from the hitmen Stella left for him at the safe house.
• Mama Bear: Edie does not take it well after the Bailey boys send dragons after her family. Cue the shotgun.
• Mexican Standoff: Stella and Faye get into one in the climax. It is eventually broken by Winston.
• Moving The Goal Posts: Stella tells Faye she’ll drop her vendetta against her if she completes a task and Faye agrees, but then Stella reveals she wants Faye to kill someone for her.
• Murder, Inc.: Hinted at when Winston mentions “the guild” when looking for Stella’s safe house.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The diablo dragon. Its name comes from the fact that it hails from Mexico and it's the second deadliest dragon in history, second only to Baba Yaga herself.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Many of the cloned dragons are abused to a point of turning feral and killing anything that walks across their path, but there are also a few who are notoriously just bad-tempered that haven’t been abused.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Stella inadvertently gives Faye a weapon that can kill her. Lucky for her, Winston interferes, as it’s very possible Faye would have killed her.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Pete as well as Hawn are friendly, even protective dragons.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Winston's associate, Russell, mentions that Stella once killed a man with a melon baller.
  • Jack, Kamala, and Faye went to Kamala's parents' place for Christmas holiday. Evidently, it did not go well. In the resulting fallout, Kamala has stopped speaking to her father Daeshim and her mother Sahana might be considering separating from him.
• Oh, Crap!: When Jack and Kamala feel the impact tremors of the diablo dragon’s approach.
• Our Monsters Are Different: Various ways. For example, a common thing the scientists have noticed is that dragons are particularly affected by sound, especially music. It’s been used to soothe certain species into cooperating or agitating them into attacking.
• Properly Paranoid: All three of our main leads, after being in a cavalcade of various dangers, are extremely paranoid.
  Kamala: Could be a trap.
  Jack: I assume everything is a trap these days.
• Race Against the Clock: After the detectives and the feds find out something's going down at the Dizzy Dame bar with Stella and Faye at seven o’clock pm.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Subverted. When Stella kidnaps Faye from the precinct, the detectives contact Winston for a lead on how to get to her back.
• Rescue Arc: Faye's storyline after Stella kidnaps her. Houston, Carmichael, and the FBI are frantically searching the Cambridge and Boston areas for her whereabouts and know they have to get her back soon or Stella will kill her.
• The Reveal: Stella's real name is Jasmine Mercedes Penderghast.
  • And we do learn Winston’s real first name, at least: Frank.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • Yagami warns Okegawa that tormenting Jack and Kamala is going to result in his downfall. Okegawa is undeterred by the argument.
  • Stella didn’t have to expose herself to the cops and the FBI directly, but she decided to maximize Faye’s misery by going public with the kidnapping and (unsuccessfully) forcing her to try to kill someone.
• Running Gag: Houston elbowing Carmichael for cursing. He's trying to get him to cut it out since he and his wife are thinking about having a kid.
• Secret-Keeper: Unfortunately, Kamala and Faye. Kamala and Faye don't tell Jack about their intent to find Okegawa and kill him before he comes after them again, even enlisting Fujioka to try to find clues without his knowledge.
  • Faye also hasn't disclosed any of what she did to protect them in the previous year from Winston and Stella.
• Shout-Out: Many as always.
  • Jack borrows Peter Venkman's quip: "Back off, man. I'm a scientist."
  • Jack quotes Hedonism Bot from Futurama after his mother insists his polyamorous relationship is "hedonistic".
  • Faye wears an X-Files t-shirt when she has to go meet the FBI task force.
  • Winston mentions the Brute Squad to the teen guild member at the condo.
  • Stella is singing the 2007 Sweeney Todd soundtrack in the car when she kidnaps Faye.
  • Jack mentions that Bruce Banner has seven Ph.Ds, which is a reference to Thor: Ragnarok.
  • Jack quotes John McClane when Faye returns after the dragon attack.
  • Jack mentions he has as many Daddy issues as Raylan Givens. Though anyone who has seen FX's Justified would know he's definitely exaggerating.
  • Some people have taken to calling Jack "the Dragon Guy" and he complains that it's not like his last name is Tatapoulous or something hard to pronounce, which is a Godzilla 98 reference.
  • Jack and Libby both quote The Lonely Island's "I Threw It on the Ground" when Faye tells them to be adults.
  • Faye mentions she could see Stella "pulling some Red Wedding shit" to get her revenge.
  • Calloway calls the Appalachian-urso spliced dragon "Fat Bastard" ala Austin Powers.
  • The Japanese viper dragon in the cage match Faye is forced to watch is named Otachi, after one of the kaiju in Pacific Rim.
• Shoot the Dog: Okegawa shoots Pete in the neck. Thankfully, Jack and Kamala are able to save her.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Jack's mother Edie goes after the Bailey boys with a shotgun.
• Smug Snake: Okegawa. He absolutely loves to rub things in his enemies' faces.
• Stupid Evil: Stella really shouldn’t have provoked and threatened Faye. Cornering her is exactly what led to Stella’s arrest.
• Take a Third Option: Stella's ultimatum was Faye had to complete her Assassination Side Quest or she'd kill her. Faye instead gets the jump on Stella and stabs her with the very poisonous syringe she gave her for said side quest. It results in a Mexican Standoff that's only broken when Winston shows up to break it up.
• Take That!: One aimed at the Patriots from Libby.
  Libby: Then we need to Patriots the shit outta this.
  Calloway: What?
  Libby: Cheat!
• The Tease: Faye delights in messing with Carmichael. She even teases that she has home movies of her sexual antics with Jack and Kamala, but she doesn't reveal if she's kidding or not so it's anyone's guess. It still messes with Carmichael either way.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Winston's reaction once one of the other hitmen throws a grenade through the window of Stella's safe house.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Stella’s real name is Jasmine Mercedes Penderghast. No wonder she changed it.
  • Less so, but Winston’s real first name is Frank.
• Trapped in a Sinking Car: Jack and Kamala get trapped inside her Volkswagen Beetle when it's forcefully knocked into the river.
• Villain Respect: Stella hates Faye, but acknowledges her strength and ruthlessness when it comes to protecting her family.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Both Winston and Stella for Faye. Winston finds her fascinating as she's the only civilian that has ever withstood him. Stella is only interested in ruining Faye's life out of misplaced revenge after she notices that Winston likes her.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Faye calls Kamala out for being entirely willing to throw her under the bus when she confesses to everything going on with her, Winston, and Stella, when Kamala was also lying to Jack about their hidden plot to have Okegawa assassinated.
• Woman Scorned: Stella, big time. Which is ironic since she left Winston back in the day to work exclusively for the Harlem outfit, but ten years later, she tries to get back with him and he turns her down. Stella misinterprets Winston's relationship with Faye to be romantic (or at the very least, emotionally intimate) and decides she's out for Faye's blood in retaliation.
• Worldbuilding: There are a few more tidbits about Winston and the hitman world this time around, including the fact that there is some kind of guild and the assassins have their own network in a rather John Wick-ian styled universe.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Jack got in a fist fight with Zeke when he was a teenager and it tells you all you need to know about Zeke.
  • Winston cites one of the reasons he can't take Stella back even though he loves her is that she accepted the contract on the pregnant Kamala in the previous novel. It's a line he feels shouldn't be crossed.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Winston is not above intimidating an inexperienced teenage assassin trainee, but he never mentions actually harming her when trying to get info on the condo. He also mentions that most hitmen have a code not to go after children, but Stella is an exception.
• Yandere: In the end, Stella becomes this way once she realizes she can’t win Winston back.

Of Claws and Inferno

Join the Wild Hunt!

In a modern day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali have worked for the Knight Division capturing wild dragons for years, but now the government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt. Jack, Kamala, and their teammates Calloway, Libby, Agent Shannon, and Yousef, must capture five of the deadliest dragons alive before the opposing team or they lose their jobs at the Knight Division. Jack and Kamala are also chasing after Kazuma Okegawa, the yakuza lieutenant who has been trying to kill them. Okegawa is planning a hostile takeover of the worldwide illegal dragon trade and if he succeeds, everyone will be in grave danger. Between the Wild Hunt and Okegawa's plot to destroy everything in his path, Jack and Kamala have to rely on each other to stay alive in the middle of an inferno.

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This novel shows examples of:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Christos uses a sushi knife to carve the word “no” into Okegawa’s stomach as punishment for refusing to listen to his superiors. Okegawa returns the favor by carving the word “coward” into Christos’ forehead and then slitting his throat.
• Absurdly Sharp Claws: The diablo dragon starts shredding up Jack’s armored Kevlar suit and damn near gets through to skin. Shikei kills one of the guests at Christos’ party by slashing him and severing his spine.
• Agony of the Feet: Just as Yousef in his helicopter is pulling Kamala to safety, the hydra dragon grabs her ankle and tries to pull her back down into the mud to kill her.
• All Myths Are True: Subverted. Many of the sea serpents, gods, and other mythical creatures from religion and other cultures came from real dragons that used to be alive throughout history. The biggest examples are the Huma dragon and the Quetzalcoatl dragon.
• Anyone Can Die: Definitely employed here, as the entire list of antagonists except for Keiko are killed: the Apophis Society leaders, Beowulf, Stella, Yagami, and Okegawa. The good guys also lose Agent Castillo in the courtroom shootout.
• Artificial Limbs: Okegawa’s arm was blown off by a grenade Fujioka knocked out of his hand, so his arm is bionic. It’s mentioned to be extremely high functioning and top of the line, capable of even overpowering his opponents better than his regular arm could have.
  • Ed Calloway, Bruce and Libby’s father, also makes an appearance and he has a prosthetic arm.
• Attention Whore: Beowulf, in spades. The only reason he even hunts dragons is for fame.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Okegawa carves the word “coward” in kanji into Christos’ bald head shortly before slitting his throat, echoing how Christos carved the word “no” in kanji into Okegawa’s stomach.
  • Stella inadvertently blows herself up with her own bomb.
• Auction of Evil: Subversion. The bidders are there for one of the rarest dragons in the world, the Huma dragon, which is the only one of its kind. Everything related to the auction, including the cloning of the dragon itself, is illegal.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Played straight, then averted. The Knight Division home team loses the tournament by a mere five minutes. However, Beowulf's arrogance and sloppy work restraining the siren wyvern causes it to burst loose, kill him, and escape, undoing his team's victory. In light of his grisly, public death, the Wild Hunt is discontinued for good.
• Batman Gambit: It turns out Winston has been running one since the end of Book Four, Of Fury and Fangs. He expected that Jack and Kamala would finally put Okegawa behind bars and that Okegawa would get life in prison at ADX, the same prison as him. With that twenty-five-million-dollar bounty, Winston had enough money and resources to get some alone time with Okegawa in his cell and…that’s all she wrote.
• Big Fancy House: Christos’ mansion in Paradise Valley. It’s based on a real one of similar value that Yagami mentions.
• Bigot with a Badge: Officer Blake shows signs of this in his argument with Jack. He argues that excessive force is sometimes "necessary" while protecting the public after Jack calls him out for having a hand on his pistol when Jack and the dragon Hawn approach.
• Bilingual Bonus: Faye speaks fluent French. Jack is in the middle of learning Hindi and Kannada since they’re teaching it to their daughter, Naila.
• Blackmail: The Apophis Society wants to use Keiko and her business connections for other parts of their illegal dragon trade operation. She refuses, so they send Okegawa, who tells her to either cooperate or they’ll release information linking the yakuza to her company, Sugimoto Pharmaceuticals, and shortly after that, she’ll be murdered. Keiko reluctantly complies.
• Blatant Lies: Winston says he assassinated JFK. Faye of course does not buy it one bit.
• Brown Note Being: The siren wyvern emits a screech that paralyzes anyone within range of hearing it.
• Camera Abuse: Subversion. When Leon the cameraman refuses to leave after the hunt becomes too dangerous, Calloway snaps and yeets the camera unit, destroying it so Leon now has no reason to stay there in harm’s way.
• Car Chase: A black SUV tries to run the team down when they leave the stadium to start their tournament hunts. Yousef is not just a pilot, but an excellent driver as well and manages to escape while the team neutralizes the threat.
• Casual Kink: Faye makes a helpful suggestion when visiting the Knight Division, prompting Calloway to thank her and Faye flirts with him in return. He then teases her by saying he'll be happy to make their threesome (Jack, Kamala, and Faye are all in a polyamorous relationship with each other) a foursome and Faye insists he'd have to clear that with Jack. Jack then smirks and shrugs saying, "I'd hit that."
• Chekhov's Gun: Okegawa’s cigarettes. Since he likes a specific brand, he has to go to a cigar lounge in Phoenix to get them and that’s how Fujioka is able to set up a sting with the goal of either getting him caught or getting Yagami to turn on him.
• Cool Old Lady: Alice, the woman at the guild weapons depot who gives up Stella’s information when Faye comes to visit.
• Cosmopolitan Council: The leaders of the Apophis Society. Notably, though, there isn’t a black or African person present, which Okegawa points out.
• Darkness Equals Death: The diablo dragon is nocturnal, and is also the second deadliest dragon in history. It hunts its victims at night and drags them back to its lair to devour them. Messily.
• Death by Irony: Beowulf killed dozens of dragons...and was himself killed by one.
  • Okegawa is killed by the assassin his deceased second-in-command Aisaka once hired to try and kill Jack and Faye.
  • Stella inadvertently blows herself up while attempting to kill Faye.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Judge Holcomb refuses to be a hostage and attempts to disarm Stella. He unfortunately dies in the process, but it does give Castillo and Carmichael a chance to open fire.
  • Amir Yasin still calls Okegawa a rat even after he’s lying there with two dislocated arms and broken ribs, about to be murdered by the latter.
• Disposable Pilot: Averted. Yousef is a great asset to the team and is injured in the final hunt, but survives, to the team’s relief.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Depends on the reader. Christos carved the word no into Okegawa’s stomach with a sushi knife. Okegawa’s response? Slit Christos’ throat after crucifying him with metal chopsticks and carving the word coward in kanji into his forehead, then having his spliced diablo dragon roast or eat all his guests, and burn his mansion to the ground. He also has Christos sign his entire fortune over to him before killing him.
• Dramatic Unmask: Kamala has a moment before her attempt to stop—or in all likelihood, kill—Okegawa at the huma dragon auction. He recognizes her eyes through her niqab and then immediately recognizes her when she talks, so she just takes off the disguise and a fight ensues.
• Dressing as the Enemy: The Knight Division gets a good tip about the illegal auction for a huma dragon—the only one ever successfully cloned in the entire world—so Shannon sends Kamala into the auction undercover as a woman wearing a niqab (the head-to-toe black covering that Muslim women wear) since she is about the same height and weight as the woman she's impersonating.
• Dying Declaration of Hate: Amir Yasin calls Okegawa a rat one more time before he’s killed.
• Eaten Alive:
  • The victims of the siren wyvern were hit with its paralyzing screech and then devoured alive. Including Beowulf.
  • The Apophis Society members that Shikei attacks. The carnage is so bad that it causes Christos to have a Villainous BSoD.
• Egomaniac Hunter: Beowulf. The only people who seem to like him are the fangirls who think he’s hot. Everyone else actively despises him due to his arrogant, dismissive attitude.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As cruel as it seems, Okegawa perceives his blackmailing of Keiko as an act of mercy. There is no telling how the Apophis Society would decide to dispose of her whereas he knows that Shikei’s fire would be an instant kill. He also openly cries when Yagami turns on him and he shoots him so he can escape the police.
• Everything is Big in Texas: Parodied. Noah Wilson is a Texan dragon hunter on the challenger’s team and he’s 6’3’’ and built like Chris Hemsworth.
• Evil Gloating: Okegawa is quite fond of it, as are Stella and Beowulf.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: The diablo dragon has the second hottest fire of any dragon species, to the point that it’s why it got its name. It uses its fire far more than any other dragon on Earth. Its bright red scales and red-orange eyes are even evocative of fire.
• Evil Poacher: Beowulf, before the tournament and before the dragons became protected species. It’s why he’s gunning for the Knight Division’s job—it basically put him out of business.
• Evil Wears Black: Okegawa is almost always in a black suit and when he’s in casual clothes, he’s got a big black trench coat. Justified in that he’s yakuza and most people associate them with black suits and ties.
• Exact Words: Christos begs Okegawa not to feed him to Shikei, saying “not like this” repeatedly. Okegawa doesn’t. Instead, he slits his throat with a yanagi knife.
• Expy: Christos is clearly a jab at Jeff Bezos. Beowulf is also basically Draco Malfoy, to the degree that even Libby calls him that at one point.
• Eye Scream: Pete spits venom into the diablo dragon’s eye while rescuing Jack in the climax.
• Face Death with Dignity: Yagami stands up to Okegawa and is shot to death for his trouble, but he accepts his death, knowing he had finally seen the truth about Okegawa.
• Feathered Fiend: The scavenger dragon, in spades. It seriously gives Jack a run for his money during its capture. The siren wyvern is an even more fiendish example since it kills Beowulf.
• Foreshadowing: When Faye first visits Winston before he’s shipped out to ADX, he says, “for what I do for a living,” not “for what I did for a living.” Faye notices the slip of the tongue and questions it, but Winston says nothing. Then in the epilogue, it turns out he let himself be arrested for a shot at killing Okegawa for an absurdly huge bounty and the reputation for killing one of the most wanted criminals of all time.
• Full-Body Disguise: Kamala infiltrates the huma dragon auction by impersonating a woman set to attend who is Muslim, which means she wears a niqab, thus concealing Kamala's identity.
• Fun with Subtitles: Like the one in Of Cinder and Bone, there is a phrase in Hindi, but this time spoken by Jack, that translates to: "You're a snack fried in the vaginal sweat of a thousand prostitutes." Needless to say, Jack is speaking to Agent Shannon, his favorite person.
• Glory Seeker: Beowulf. Before he became a dragon hunter, he was a vlogger and Internet celebrity, so this was a natural progression for him to get even more famous.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Played with in terms of certain dragons. Hawn is the sweetest dragon in the Knight Division pack and she’s a golden Egyptian desert dragon. Conversely, the hardest dragon on record to catch aside from Baba Yaga is the diablo dragon, which is a black dragon that had bright red scales. Subverted with other dragons, like the Netherland forest twins, who have dark green scales but are helpful and protective of their fliers, Calloway and Libby.
• Great Escape: A subversion. Instead of trying to break out of the actual prison, Stella has a helicopter shoot the courthouse wall and an accomplice breaks her out of the handcuffs and gives her a weapon. She manages to kill Castillo and wound Carmichael before escaping as well.
• Great White Hunter: Beowulf fancies himself one. He has the dragon body count to qualify, but he is in no way a noble hunter. He kills for the fun of it, because he can.
• Hannibal Lecture: When Kamala encounters Okegawa at the Huma dragon auction, he tells her the real reason she can’t stop him for good is she has a family and a career, meaning there are lines she just can’t cross.
• Heel–Face Turn: After seeing that Okegawa was willing to murder innocent children in order to avoid capture, Yagami finally stands up to him. Okegawa ultimately shoots him so he can escape before the cops come.
• Heroic BSoD: Poor Faye after the death of Agent Castillo and Stella’s escape.
• Heroic Sacrifice: By a minor character, Judge Holcomb. Stella holds him at gunpoint to blackmail Carmichael and Castillo to drop their guns. Holcomb hits her and tries to snatch the gun away, but she shoots him dead. However, with no human shield, Castillo and Carmichael are able to open fire on Stella.
• Hidden Depths: After three books of being a complete asshole, Agent Shannon finally acknowledges his team’s hard work, lets them have a day off, and even gives them some cash to go have drinks to celebrate finally capturing Okegawa and Shikei.
• Hiding in a Hijab: Subeversion. Kamala infiltrates the huma dragon auction by wearing a niqab and pretending to be one of the auction attendees.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Okegawa kills Christos with the yanagi knife he used to carve the word “no” into Okegawa’s stomach when they met.
  • Stella blows herself up with her own bomb. What’s more is that if she hadn’t been so obsessed with killing Faye, she wouldn’t have died in the first place.
• Human Shield: Stella grabs Judge Holcomb and holds him at gun point to try to get Castillo and Carmichael to drop their guns. Instead, Holcomb attacks her. He dies, but she can’t use him any longer and ends up being forced to retreat while badly wounded.
• Identity Impersonator: Shannon manages to catch one of the people intending to attend an illegal huma dragon auction and has Kamala go in her place, as she's around the same height and skin/eye color as the woman she's impersonating and the woman wears a niqab. Kamala infiltrates the auction in the niqab and using the woman's real ID that Shannon confiscated when they arrested her.
• Instant Sedation: Averted with the first dragon captured in the book, the Natron dragon. Jack notes that every dragon is a different size and has a different metabolism, so usually they’re ball-parking the proper amount when they use the tranquilizer guns. It doesn’t always work right away, which is also later shown with the Quetzalcoatl dragon. Played straight with the scavenger dragon, but since it’s a much smaller size, the dosage was more effective.
• Intellectual Animal: Explored more with Pete, Hawn, and Zan. Pete appears to listen and respond somewhat to Jack, likely because of repeated commands and phrases she hears all the time. Hawn can follow basic commands like “stay” and comes when called by the dragon whistle. Zan can understand simple commands and signals from Calloway.
• Ironic Name: James Christos is the leader of the Apophis Society aka the Big Bad that has been controlling and profiting from the illegal dragon trade. Okegawa also takes advantage of the ironic name—that of Christ—and mockingly crucifies him in his own backyard.
• It's Personal: Everything surrounding Stella was already a nightmare, but after she murders Agent Castillo, catching Stella becomes personal to Agent Atwell—Castillo’s partner.
• Karmic Death: Stella refused to let her obsession with killing Faye go, and gets herself killed instead. With her own bomb, no less.
• Killed Off for Real: Agent Castillo. The Apophis Society's legacy members, except for Eva. Beowulf. Yagami. Okegawa.
• Kiss Diss: Okegawa goes for one with Keiko, but is shut down immediately.
• Lady in Red: Faye wears a gorgeous red Prada dress to Winston’s sentencing. Keiko Sugimoto also wears an elegant red evening gown to the Apophis Society meeting.
• Last of Its Kind: The Huma dragon is the only one of its kind. Before the extinction, there had been less than a hundred in the wild, which is why the bidding war for it becomes so vicious and over the top.
• Laughing Mad: Okegawa was heard laughing as he had Shikei burn the Stantons to death.
• Magnificent Bastard: Winston has had shades of this the entire series, but it all culminates in him allowing himself to be imprisoned since he wagered it was only a matter of time before Okegawa would be caught and sent to ADX. It nets him the biggest bounty of his entire career: $25 million dollars.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • Not that the Apophis Society and the Yamaguchi-gumi oyabun were ever very nice, but once Christos carves the word "no" into Okegawa’s stomach, he immediately starts planning their downfall.
  • A subversion with Yagami betraying Okegawa. Once he saw that Okegawa was not only willing to kill innocent children but also get them both blown up, Yagami had enough and confronted him at gunpoint. Okegawa shoots him in order to escape the police and Yagami dies of his wounds not too long afterward.
• Monster Is a Mommy: Occurs a couple times. The Natron dragon Jack captures is female, so he and Yousef search the area to safely recover her eggs and transport both somewhere safe. Calloway finds out the bone dragon he’s hunting has six baby dragons in her nest, which causes him to reevaluate how he plans to catch her.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Shikei. In Japanese, it means "death sentence." Yikes.
  • The diablo dragon, as in the previous book. The hydra dragon and the bone (or sometimes ghost) dragon may count as well.
• Nasty Party: A subversion. Christos of course had no intention of harming his guests, but Okegawa saw an opportunity to get revenge and seize power by wiping them all out.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In the previous novel, Of Fury and Fangs, Faye had a chance to kill Stella (though it definitely could have resulted in a Mutual Kill) and in the end, she didn’t do it. Stella is sent to prison, but organizes a breakout during her sentencing, which results in Carmichael being shot and Agent Castillo being killed.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Kamala vs. Okegawa at the auction for the Huma dragon.
  • Okegawa beats the brakes off Amir Yasin before punching his shattered ribs into his heart and killing him.
  • Okegawa vs. Kamala and Libby in the cave.
• No Kill like Overkill:
  • Okegawa has Shikei fry a husband and wife alive, until there is nothing left but burnt skeletons. A terrified witness reports he was laughing the entire time.
  • Okegawa and Shikei crash Christos’ Wild Hunt gambling party. Shikei either roasts or eats all of the guests and Okegawa slits Christos’ throat with his sushi chef’s yanagi knife, which was used on him only months ago.
• Non-Human Sidekick: The Knight Division’s chosen dragons. Respectively to their riders, Pete to Jack, Hawn to Kamala, Jayna to Libby, and Zan to Calloway. Though Jack and Kamala switch off with Hawn and Pete according to the mission at hand. In a much darker respect, Shikei becomes this for Okegawa.
• Oh, Crap!: Several.
  • Jack realizing the door to the igneous dragon’s cage opens by remote control.
  • Faye realizing she can hear a helicopter just outside of the courtroom.
  • Russell realizing that Winston knows where he lives.
  • Christos realizing Okegawa and Shikei wiped out his entire security team.
  • Okegawa and Yagami when they find the block of C-4 Fujioka put in the glove compartment of their limousine.
  • Libby when she realizes the diablo dragon has pit organs and can still tell where she is on the ground without its sight and hearing.
• Old Soldier: Winston claims to be ex-military, though not noting what branch, and that his first kill was at only nineteen years of age. However, given that he uses cosmetic surgery to change his appearance, his real age is difficult to determine.
• Our Hydras Are Different: The hydra dragon was given its nickname due to it being a sulfur dragon born with polycephaly, or a rare condition where an animal or human being has two heads. Both of the heads are fully functional and both unfortunately breathe fire, which is how it’s racked up several kills in Yellowstone National Park before the authorities manage to shut down that section of the park.
• Overpopulation Crisis: The Knight Division has made excellent headway with the safe capture of dragons, but they still have their work cut out for them with so many illegal cloning sites.
• Poisonous Friend: Okegawa to his boss, Arakawa, as he worked for the Inagawa-kai and fed them information for years.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Okegawa to Amir Yasin: “When you get to hell, tell them my name.”
• Prehensile Tail: Played with via the scavenger dragon. It is an excellent climber and so its tail being prehensile isn’t surprising. What is surprising is it wraps its tail around Jack’s neck in an attempt to strangle him to death during the hunt.
• Privilege Makes You Evil: The Apophis Society leaders are all insanely wealthy, consisting of either millionaires or billionaires, and seem to have set up this empire for illegal dragon activity to take advantage of a previously untapped market.
• Race Against the Clock: The first team to capture all five dragons alive wins the tournament.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Agent Yusuke Okamura is a subversion. He is aware of Beowulf’s self-aggrandizing nature and puts him in his place quickly and efficiently rather than catering to his ego as others have done.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Both Shikei and the diablo dragon have demonic red eyes.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Christos is perfectly aware of Okegawa’s violent tendencies and of his dragon, Shikei, who is second only to Baba Yaga in terms of power and size, yet he still goes through with carving the word no into his stomach. He later regrets it.
  • Beowulf is so used to getting away with everything, being rich and famous and having zero accountability or responsibilities, that he gets himself in trouble with Okegawa rather quickly despite their alliance.
• The Rich Want to Be Richer: The Apophis Society’s main goal is to have the single largest foothold on all illegal dragon activity worldwide, as it will increase their financial holdings to a ridiculous degree. It is also not subject to taxes, laws, or any regulations, being illegal.
• Self-Applied Nickname: Beowulf. His real name is Josh Herschkowitz, which doesn't sound cool, so he gave himself a nickname instead. Kamala is not impressed when he introduces himself.
• Shout-Out:
  • The irritated Libby quotes Yosemite Sam during her hunt of the dart-backed wyrm. She also can’t help referencing The Room (2005) when she meets Mark the cameraman.
  • Jack mentions Evolution (2001) upon finding out the scavenger dragon is stealing and hoarding jewelry from two malls in the Atlanta area. He even ends up capturing it by singing "You Are So Beautiful to Me" same as the film.
  • Each of the Knight Division dragon hunters get an intro song for the pre-hunt show, one that’s reflective of their personality. Libby has "Sunflower" by Swae Lee and Post Malone (more famously known as the song from Into the Spider-Verse), Calloway has the "Untouchable" remix by James Brown and Tupac (most famously known from the Django Unchained soundtrack), Kamala has "Just a Girl" by No Doubt, and Jack has "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J.
  • Jack mentions Doc Holiday via Tombstone when chatting with Noah.
  • Jack finds out that Calloway’s ringtone for when he calls is "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al. He’s offended, but admits it’s completely accurate.
  • Libby's ringtone on Jack’s phone is "Señor Señora Señorita" by Miyavi, as she’s into both K Pop and J Pop.
  • Yousef calls the hydra dragon Ghidorah at one point, as it is a yellow dragon with more than one head.
  • Jack and Calloway do the Will and Jazz handshake from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air whenever they meet up.
  • Okegawa dispatches Amir Yasin by punching his ribs until they shatter and then are forced into his heart and lungs, killing him. This method of murder was used in The Night Manager when Pine had to kill Corky.
  • Jack mentions the Guild of Calamitous Intent from The Venture Bros while discussing whatever assassin’s guild Winston appears to be in and Faye reminds him "that's copyright infringement."
  • Faye quotes Shakespeare during the courtroom scene at Stella’s sentencing: "These violent delights have violent ends."
  • Libby compares Agent Shannon being nice to the Grinch's heart growing in size.
• Shower of Angst: Faye has one after Castillo is murdered and Stella escapes.
• Shown Their Work: The biology and physiology of the dragons in this book are given more time to shine and align with real life reptiles and birds. The plot centers around capturing ten specific dragons, which lends time to explain their abilities as well as what drew them to the particular environment they were found in.
• Sole Survivor: Eva Sylvester is the only person at Christos’ party to make it out alive.
• Sore Loser:
  • Wesley Lieberman has a tantrum when Okegawa outbids him for the Huma dragon.
  • Yousef also insists that the hydra dragon is one after Kamala successfully shoots it with a tranq dart but it refuses to go down, biting her ankle and trying to drag her from the helicopter.
  • Stella just can't stand the thought of Faye being alive even as she escapes and it backfires literally and figuratively.
• Spy Speak: What Winston uses over the phone to connect to his associate, Russell. Faye also uses it when she arrives to the guild weapons depot.
• The Starscream: As of this book, Okegawa's gotten tired of taking orders from his oyabun and from the Apophis Society. He waits for his chance to strike and, well, it's pretty messy.
• Stepford Smiler: The Knight Division's new image consultant, Freddy Bellwether, always has an unnerving smile on his face.
• Stern Old Judge: Judge Holcomb. However, he does not seem to enjoy delivering the death penalty to Stella, but given her career in which she’s likely killed over a hundred people and her unstable behavior while incarcerated, both he and the jury found it warranted.
• Surveillance Drone: Yousef spots a drone at a traffic light, citing it as suspicious. Turns out he was right, as the drone was a spotter and seconds later, an SUV with three armed men tries to run them down.
• Tail Slap: Some of the dragons attack the hunters with their tails, most notably the bone dragon. Zan also has a habit of slamming his tail on the ground when challenging another dragon.
• Take That!: Meta example—the novel's Author's Note takes a vague but vicious swing at Jim Butcher's Battle Ground for the death of a certain incredibly important and well-written female lead who was unceremoniously Stuffed into the Fridge.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Said verbatim by Calloway when he realizes he needs to let the bone dragon tackle him in order to throw her into the sand trap behind him.
• Too Dumb to Live: The bystander Andy, who chases after the Quetzalcoatl dragon and dies when it sprays him with highly lethal gas. Jack even calls him a Darwin Award winner.
  • The drunk co-eds boating on Lake Michigan during Libby’s hunt. Special mention to the guy who lobs a beer bottle at a live dragon.
  • Leon the cameraman, whose macho bullshit means he argues with Calloway when the former tells him it’s too dangerous for him to stick around and film the hunt once Calloway finds out the bone dragon has hatchlings. He gets tackled and almost killed by the bone dragon for his trouble, but lucky for him, Calloway intervenes and he survives.
  • Christos is fully aware that Okegawa can command a nine-foot tall, twenty-foot long dragon at will, yet still carves the word no into his stomach to teach him a lesson. Predictably, it backfires with Okegawa engaging in a brutal case of Disproportionate Retribution.
• Took A Level In Bad Ass: Kamala already knew self-defense, but after Okegawa defeated her in a fist-fight the year before, she started taking even more lessons and actually holds her own against him at the Huma dragon auction.
• Tournament Arc: A subversion. The Knight Division is up against the best dragon hunters in the US, competing to keep their positions.
• Trespassing to Talk: Winston to Okegawa in his prison cell at ADX. Unfortunately for Okegawa, he wants to do more than just talk.
• True Companions: By now, Jack, Kamala, Libby, and Calloway are all close friends, borderline found family, and are extremely protective of one another. It should also be noted that none of them like Shannon, but they still tolerate him due to his good leadership and don’t hesitate to help him when he’s later shot.
• Villain Has a Point: Okegawa points out that the Apophis Society has no representation for Africa, or black people in general, and that if Africa isn’t profitable, then white people don’t pay it any mind.
• Villainous Breakdown: Christos completely shatters when Okegawa has his spliced diablo dragon Shikei roast and/or eat every one of his guests in front of him and burn his mansion to the ground. He ends up begging for his life and complying with Okegawa’s demands, though it’s in vain as Okegawa kills him anyway.
  • Okegawa becomes unstable with grief after having to shoot Yagami in order to escape police custody.
• Villainous BSoD: Christos has one when Shikei kills and eats all his guests and burns his mansion to the ground.
• Villainous Crush: Okegawa is so impressed with Kamala’s ruthless pursuit of him that he admits he’s smitten with her now.
• Villains Want Mercy: Christos begs for Okegawa not to use Shikei to kill him and Okegawa asks if he showed him mercy when he carved up his stomach. However, Okegawa does grant his wish...partially. He doesn’t let Shikei eat or burn him alive; he slits his throat instead.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: One of the Mooks working for Okegawa punches Beowulf so hard that he pukes up his lunch all over the hotel floor.
• Vorpal Pillow: How Winston decides to kill Okegawa in his prison cell.
• Xanatos Gambit: Fujioka’s plan to catch Okegawa. It would work out if Okegawa had believed the bomb threat and willfully drove to the police department to turn the two of them in, but it also served her purpose that he tried to weasel out of it, thereby exposing his truly heartless nature to Yagami, who finally turns on Okegawa. Okegawa unfortunately does get away, but since he flies away from an active shooting scene, he leads the authorities right to the diablo dragon’s lair and ends up apprehended.
• Wham Line: “Can’t sleep?” This line is said aloud to Okegawa in his jail cell in ADX Colorado. By Winston the hitman.
• Whammy Bid: Wesley Lieberman attempts this against Okegawa while bidding for the Huma dragon and it backfires. Okegawa raises it to $500 million and Lieberman sourly quits, knowing he can’t go any higher.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played with, then averted. It’s open to interpretation if Okegawa intentionally waited for the Stanton children to board the bus to school before he murdered their parents or if it was a simple coincidence of timing that they’d already left. Then when confronted by Fujioka, Okegawa threatens a daycare, thus proving he is willing to hurt innocent children to get away. It’s what makes Yagami finally turn on him.
• You Have Failed Me: A subversion. Okegawa’s boss Arakawa gets fed up with his insubordination and refusal to stay under the radar, so he agrees to let Christos carve the word “no” into Okegawa’s stomach to teach him a lesson.
• Yubitsume: Okegawa mentions that one more act of disobedience may land him in enough trouble to require this. For those who don't know, yubitsume is a form of punishment where if a yakuza member messes up badly enough, part or all of their finger or fingers are sliced off. Okegawa also wryly points out that he lost his arm while serving his clan, so he really has already paid for his mistakes in blood.

Of Wings and Shadows

Join the Wild Hunt!

In a modern-day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

The United States government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt to determine who will be responsible for the capture of wild dragons by the Knight Division. The four challengers Noah Wilson, Charlie Howard, Su Jin Han, and Beowulf have to catch five deadly dragons alive if they want to win the tournament and become the new Knight Division dragon hunters. Their journey will take them through the mountains of South Carolina, the seas of Key West, the caverns of Ruby Falls, the Redwood forest, and finally, the murky bayous of Louisiana. Will they succeed against their competition, or will the dragons of the Wild Hunt be too wild to tame?

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This novella shows examples of:

• Adorkable: It’s off-screen, but mentioned by Jack that the huma dragon loves to dance to K-Pop music with Libby.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Beowulf is a nasty, egotistical jerk who tried to sabotage the home team at the Knight Division and would’ve been fine going on killing dragons had they not become protected species, but his team and the Knight Division still show respect by attending his funeral and genuinely feel bad about the loss of life.
• Anatomy Arsenal: The barb dragon has lethally venomous barbs all down its back and it can launch them, unlike a porcupine.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Employed with Noah, who knows that the midnight dragon is nocturnal and while it can operate fine in broad daylight, its eyes are sensitive.
• Bad Ass Crew: The hunters all get a chance to shine in their individual hunts and in the final group hunt. They’re strong, fast, smart, and resourceful. It makes sense why each one won their regional tournaments (though there is some debate about whether the Apophis Society rigged the tournament for Beowulf to win).
• Battle in the Rain: Subversion. Charlie goes to catch the storm dragon…during a massive thunderstorm. Justified since he’s in Key West in August, which is during its hurricane season. Lampshaded by his accompanying camerawoman: “Well, at least we picked a nice day.”
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted with the siren wyvern, which has absolutely beautiful rainbow-hued scales and feathers. It ends up being an aggressive, lethal dragon.
• The Big Guy: Noah. He’s 6 ’ 3 ’’ and built like Chris Hemsworth.
• Big Guy Rodeo: Noah does actually have to jump on top of the midnight dragon and wrestle it into submission at the end of the hunt, leading to him being tossed around for a bit before he finally manages to subdue it.
• Bilingual Bonus: In the video clip of the crystal dragon capture, Kamala utters “madarchod!” It’s a curse word in Hindi and Urdu that amounts to “motherfucker” in English. There is also a little Japanese from Kazuma Okegawa (“wakarimashita” which basically means “understood”) since he’s bilingual.
• Breather Episode: For the series. This novella gives the POV of the opposing team’s five hunts, lowering the stakes slightly from the A and B plots of the fifth book, Of Claws and Inferno.
• Brown Note Being: The siren wyvern emits a screech that can paralyze anyone within twenty feet of hearing it. That’s how it’s managed to kill (and unfortunately eat alive) thirteen people. Number fourteen ends up being Beowulf.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: The Big Guy Noah can come across as intimidating due to his enormous size, but he’s shown being very affectionate to his son, Mateo, and he is always polite and cordial with his team members.
• Combat Pragmatist: Most of the hunters end up using their knowledge of the dragons to capture them rather than brute strength. For example, Noah knows that the midnight dragon is nocturnal and targets its eyesight for his capture.
• Crown-Shaped Head: Many of the dragons have a crown of horns.
• Curbstomp Battle: Unfortunately, the siren wyvern soundly trounces the team. The only reason it’s successfully caught is Beowulf intentionally uses one of the cameramen as a distraction and catches it while it’s off trying to eat him. And it’s quickly undone thanks to Beowulf's showboating.
• Death from Above: How Beowulf dies — the siren wyvern picks him up and tears out his throat.
• Dirty Coward: After the siren wyvern breaks free from its tether, Beowulf runs away instead of attempting to recapture it, but he doesn’t get very far. See Laser-Guided Karma.
• Disposable Pilot: Averted. Much like Yousef on the home team, Penelope survives the five hunts.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-universe. The point of the Wild Hunt is to establish that no unauthorized dragon hunting is allowed in the US. And they televise the captures like it’s a reality show, thereby showcasing to millions of people how dang cool it is to catch dragons. To be fair, this is what Jack and Kamala were originally trying to prevent, but it’s out of their hands.
• The Dreaded: The siren wyvern has killed thirteen people, so it’s earned this reputation among the team. They all take the prep for the capture very seriously. Except for Beowulf, who pays for it in literal bloodshed.
• Dragon Hoard: The crystal dragon in the beginning. It is shown to have been collecting the pieces of quartz it found at the Quartz Crystal Mines in Arkansas.
• Dramatic Irony: Anyone who has already read Book 5, Of Claws and Inferno, knows the team initially wins the tournament, then loses when Beowulf’s shoddy trapping allows the siren wyvern to bust loose, kill him, and escape.
• Famed In-Story: The hunters are all famous or semi-famous after winning their regional tournaments, then become even more famous once they’ve been chosen for the Wild Hunt.
• Fatal Flaw: Beowulf’s pride is the very reason he gets himself killed by the siren wyvern.
• Feathered Dragons: The storm dragon and siren wyvern both have feathers.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In-universe, during the siren wyvern hunt, Beowulf notices the wyvern creeping up on Charlie—right after they’ve been arguing about how to take it down since their other two teammates are down for the count—and pulls this on him instead of properly warning him that he was about to be attacked. Beowulf wants the glory for catching it by himself, so he willingly lets the wyvern get the jump on Charlie so he can fight alone.
• Foreshadowing: Meta example. Anyone who has read the original poem of Beowulf knows that he dies at the end of the epic poem. Guess what happens to our Beowulf?
• Friend to All Children: Noah, Su Jin, and Charlie are all shown being nice to kids: Noah with his teen son, Su Jin with her niece and nephew, and Charlie with a young boy he meets on a plane. They also all take a picture and sign an autograph for a young boy at Oceana Grill.
• Graceful Loser: The challengers aren’t angry about losing the tournament or about the Wild Hunt being discontinued after Beowulf’s grisly, public death, and are completely friendly and cordial with the home team once they meet up afterward.
• Half-Identical Twins: Su Jin’s niece and nephew, appropriately named Yu-Jun and Ye-Jun.
• Hate Sink: As with Of Claws and Inferno, the reader is intended to absolutely despise Beowulf. He is a vain, short-sighted, selfish dragon hunter with no regard for anyone but himself and his fate is definitely a Catharsis Factor.
• Hayseed Name: Noah, who is revealed to be a devout Christian.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Noah, Su Jin, and Charlie are all practical and use their helmets during their individual hunts, but Beowulf does not.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Anytime Noah and Su Jin are standing next to each other: Noah is 6 ’ 3 ’’ and Su Jin is about 5 ’ 4 ’’.
• Hunter of Monsters: The point of the team is to hunt dragons, albeit through non-lethal methods. The dragons are just animals, not monsters, but they can seem like it.
• In Medias Res: The novella picks up in the middle of the Wild Hunt in Book Five, Of Claws and Inferno, as the challengers get ready to hunt their five dragons.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Charlie’s camerawoman, Elena, calls him Plankton at one point because he’s using a chum bucket. However, Charlie finds the Spongebob Squarepants reference funny instead of corny.
• It Can Think: A subversion—Charlie sees the storm dragon overturn the Mako shark to cause tonic immobility (a state in which the shark is flipped upside down and briefly passes out) and realizes the dragon is intelligent to some extent.
• Jerkass: Beowulf. His egotistical behavior pisses off everyone except his fangirls, who only like him because he’s hot. Proven when his funeral’s only attendees are his father and the two dragon hunting teams plus Freddy Bellwether.
• Just Desserts: Overlapping with Laser-Guided Karma, Beowulf is killed by a dragon after spending the last few years slaughtering dragons carelessly.
• Jump Scare: In-universe, the mercury dragon scares the crap out of Su Jin by jumping out of the mirror reflection pool in Ruby Falls, and the siren wyvern pulls one on the team during the final hunt as it swims under the bayou’s dark water to evade them.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A middle-aged woman beside Charlie on his plane disparages the Wild Hunt, not recognizing him as a hunter. As he’s leaving, one of the flight attendants reveals his identity by asking for an autograph. The now embarrassed woman hurries off the plane.
  • Beowulf spent recent years killing dragons indiscriminately. He’s killed by one.
• Lonely Funeral: The only attendees at Beowulf’s funeral are his father and both of the Knight Division teams.
• Meaningful Name: Beowulf’s self-assigned nickname. Beowulf is a widely read epic poem, but your average person would know the 2007 film by Robert Zemeckis specifically because of Beowulf’s Bad Ass Boast and this Beowulf is one of the most boastful people ever imagined.
• Mission Briefing: At the start of the novella and then once more before the final hunt.
• Missing Mom: We briefly learn that Beowulf’s mother died of cancer when he was young, so it’s possible that contributed to him being such a Jerkass.
  • Noah also mentions he’s a widower, as his wife passed away from a terminal illness.
• Multinational Team: The challengers are all American, but their ethnicities have multinational ranges. Charlie is Jamaican, Su Jin is Korean, and Agent Okamura is Japanese. Noah and Beowulf are Caucasian and Penelope might be Jewish (her last name is Rosenbaum), but Noah's a Texan and Beowulf is Californian. Penelope's birth state isn't specified.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: The storm dragon is eating chum, but then a Mako shark shows up. There is a brief scuffle and the storm dragon makes use of tonic immobility, then proceeds to start eating the shark instead of the chum. However, all the chum and the blood attract two more sharks, who eat what the storm dragon doesn’t finish of the Mako.
• Nature Is Not Nice: The dragons are not portrayed as evil, but they are aggressive when they feel cornered or threatened and defend themselves accordingly.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Though Beowulf is certainly no hero, he is on the side of the good guys and gets himself killed because he was too sloppy with the tethers used to contain the siren wyvern and was too preoccupied with the post hunt interview to pay attention to the dragon working itself loose until it’s too late. However, this overlaps with…
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Beowulf’s reckless behavior inadvertently causes the other team to win because the siren wyvern breaks loose, undoing his team’s victory. Plus, Beowulf’s violent and public death causes the Knight Division’s superiors to rethink things and shut down the tournament for good.
• Oh, Crap!: Several during each hunt.
  • When Noah misses the shot with the tranquilizer rifle and the midnight dragon looks right at him.
  • Charlie notably does not miss injecting the storm dragon with a sedative, but the prick of the syringe causes the dragon to become hostile and attack him.
  • Su Jin feeds the mercury dragon some hog meat to get it over to her so she can sedate it, but it seems to think that since she also smells like the hog meat that she is on the menu as well and it starts chasing her.
  • After Beowulf blinds the barb dragon, he tries to get close to trap it with the net, but then the dragon uses its Jacobson’s Organ to locate him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Agent Okamura recapturing the siren wyvern alone after it breaks free and kills Beowulf.
• Precision F-Strike: The only F bomb in the entire book is in another language—it’s when Kamala is attempting to catch the crystal dragon in the video footage that Yusuke shows his team.
• Predator Turned Protector: The dragons the team uses for the captures are ones that have been caught and rehabilitated by the Knight Division to assist with hunts. They can understand simple commands and are docile and obedient to their handlers. Draco even saves Su Jin’s life.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Agent Okamura is far nicer and remains professional with his team, contrasting with how Agent Shannon is a stoic jerk(though we do later learn he has Hidden Depths) who just happens to be effective at leading the home team of hunters.
• Religious Bruiser: Noah. He and his son pray before he starts his hunt of the midnight dragon and he wears a cross around his neck.
• Sea Monster: Subversion. The storm dragon is an aquatic dragon that had been found in Key West, Florida. It had only one kill under its belt that was an accident when a boat pulled it aboard. That being said, it doesn’t take kindly to Charlie, either.
• Shark Fin of Doom: Subversion. Penelope the pilot is in her helicopter being Charlie’s spotter during the storm dragon hunt and she sees an approaching radar blip. Charlie then sees a shark fin in the water heading towards the chum bucket and confirms it’s a Mako shark.
• Shout-Out: As usual with the series, there are plenty around.
  • The individual hunts have chapter titles associated with literature: Noah’s references the story of David and Goliath from the Bible, Charlie’s references Moby Dick, Su Jin’s references The Hobbit, and Beowulf’s references the epic poem Beowulf.
  • The chapter title for the final group hunt is a reference to Tom Waits’ “Tango ‘Til They’re Sore”, which is a song that has the lyrics, “Just get me to New Orleans” which is where they were the night before they hunt the siren wyvern.
  • Charlie’s inner monologue has him thinking about the poem “Hope is a thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson during his hunt of the storm dragon, which is a feathered dragon.
  • The dragon Su Jin takes with her is named Draco since he’s an Appalachian dragon with similar color and patterns to the eponymous dragon from Dragonheart.
  • Su Jin and her older sister Yoona mention Lake Placid and The Descent when describing how her hunt of the mercury dragon went.
  • The chapter title of the Mission Briefing for the siren wyvern is named after a quote from Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks’ classic comedy, Blazing Saddles.
  • In the video clip of the crystal dragon capture, Jack mentions Scooby Doo and Captain Caveman. Agent Shannon of course doesn’t recognize the latter.
  • Jack mentions that some of the dragons at HQ have themed names, like the mimic dragon (which has the same ability to camouflage as a chameleon) is named after the movie Rango (which is a movie about a chameleon).
  • Penelope's last name is named after Michael Rosenbaum, the voice actor most folks would know from the Justice League cartoon in the DCAU.
• Small Name, Big Ego: While having one of the highest number of dragon kills in the US is certainly impressive, Beowulf acts as if he’s the best thing since sliced bread. He’s also a successful Youtube vlogger, but as Agent Okamura points out, he only has three million subscribers.
• Spike Shooter: The barb dragon can launch its lethal barbs at a high velocity.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Notably, the midnight dragon and the storm dragon. They both go after Noah and Charlie respectively and clearly with the intent to kill.
• Sworn Brothers: Yagami and Okegawa. When Yagami was a kid, rival yakuza gang members broke into his limo and chased him down to kidnap him as leverage against his father, Makoto, who was in bed with the Yamaguchi-gumi. Okegawa intervened and saved Yagami's life, so Makoto had him inducted into the Yamaguchi-gumi and the two were raised together as brothers. Unfortunately, Yagami finds out it was all a lie: Okegawa was recruited by the Inagawa-kai to infiltrate the Yamaguchi-gumi as a sleeper agent by way of becoming Yagami's nakama.
• Take That!: There’s one against the Jurassic World movies. Charlie mentions "like those godawful Jurassic World movies" when discussing dragons in modern society.
• Threatening Shark: While Charlie is chumming the water to attract the storm dragon, a Mako shark shows up to eat some and it fights the storm dragon for the meal, but is quickly taken out due to the storm dragon knowing about tonic immobility. However, when two more sharks show up, the storm dragon bows out of eating the Mako shark’s corpse since it knows it can’t take two full grown sharks by itself.
• Token Evil Teammate: The team at large is aware that Beowulf is a Jerkass, but they don’t know he’s in cahoots with Okegawa and assisted with an assassination attempt on the other team.
• Utility Belt: The team’s suits have these built in and they’re filled with dragon hunting goodies.
• The Worf Effect: The storm dragon takes out a Mako shark with little to no fuss, showcasing that it is strong, hungry, and intelligent all in a single scene.