Page 67 of The Inheritance
I shook my head. No.
Jovo bowed again, then again.
I shook my head. “No. Dangerous.”
Despair shone in Jovo’s eyes. He took a deep breath and offered the metal marble to me.
I shook my head. “No.”
Jovo shrank from me, clutching his marble with both hands. The marble was his most prized possession, his only possession. He offered me everything he had, and I said no. If he was human, I would have guessed he was close to tears. This seemed more important than just revenge.
I pointed at the gress. “Why?”
Jovo pointed at the gress and made a grabbing motion, snatching something forcefully from the air.
“He took something from you?”
Jovo squeezed his marble. A night sky flared above us, strange constellations glowing. One of the stars shone brighter. Jovo reached for it, his face full of longing.
“Home?” I guessed.
He looked at me. I pointed at my stick drawing. “Home?”
“Home,” Jovo said.
He pointed to the gress and crossed his hands forming an X.
Whatever the gress took from him, Jovo needed it to get back home. He was stuck here, alone.
I too wanted to go home, more than anything in the world.
Jovo sagged on the floor, dejected.
“Where is the gress? Where can we find him?” I made a show of looking around.
Jovo raised his hand and pointed over my shoulder. I didn’t even need to look. I knew exactly in which direction he was aiming.
Jovo was pointing at the anchor.
Everything we both wanted was at the anchor.
The gress was stalking me. I was sure of it. Four of its kind chased the woman in blue, trying to murder her. Either they wanted to kill her or to take something from her. Before she died, she passed something precious to her onto me, which made me their new target. That wasn’t a logical leap. It wasn’t even a hop.
This gress would hunt me down. He had followed me but hadn’t closed the distance so far. Perhaps he knew that my predecessor killed four of his kind. Perhaps he didn’t want to strike until he was sure that I had no escape route. If I lost him in this warren of passageways and caverns, tracking me down would be difficult.
He must’ve realized by now I was going to the anchor. He would ambush me there. Bear and I could face him alone or with Jovo.
And there was another part to it. I wanted Jovo to go home. I knew exactly how he felt, and I wanted him to get back to his clan.
“Okay.” I spread my arms in a gesture of resignation and surrender.
Jovo perked up, his eyes shining.
“We’ll try,” I told him.
The lees jumped forward, clearing the distance between us in a single leap, raised his hands and hugged me. For a second, I didn’t know what to do and then I carefully hugged him back.
Elias sat alone in his makeshift office inside Elmwood Library. Outside the windows, the street was pitch black except for the floodlights bathing the area around the gate in bright electric lights. His phone told him it was just past ten. He hadn’t slept well last night, woke up at five, and then spent the entire day catching up on all the admin crap that had piled up in the past two weeks. There was a chance that the Elmwood gate would be his last. Some people would’ve shied away from that thought. He was a realist who liked to be prepared. If he didn’t come out of the breach, the Guild would pass to Stephanie Nguyen. As Chief Operations Manager, she was third in line after him and Leo. The transition would be as smooth as he could humanly make it.
