My heart ached at the thought. It was all I’d ever wanted, all I'd aspired to for the long months I'd spent toiling away in the Underground. Tiberius claimed it was impossible. Darius said it was pointless. But I'd kept trying to get back anyway. The desire to see my family again was all-consuming. It had kept me up at night, plotting and planning and trying to find a way back. Odd, then, that I’d hardly thought about it at all since our escape. My cheeks flared crimson with shame as I shook my head.
“Zya,” I said slowly, gently, because I could see the hope spreading in her expression and I knew what it felt like when someone tried to take that away from you, “theGeistare after me now. If we go back, if we lead them back to our home, to our families—”
“We don’tknowtheGeistare after us,”Zyasnapped. “We only have the word of these strangers to attest to that and you don’t trust them any more than I do. Besides, they don’t need us to lead them back. If they really are out there, coming after us, then they already know who you are. They’ll already know who your family is.”
The threat hung suspended in the air between us, one so obvious I felt foolish not to have thought of it myself.Zyawas right. We didn’t have any proof theGeisteven truly existed, much less that they were hunting after us in these endless sands because of something I was supposedly capable of doing, something I hadn’t been able to do since. All we had to go on were the promises of people who'd refused to share any more of the story with us until we reached their beloved city. But if they were right, if theGeist truly were after us, after me, then wouldn’t they attempt to use my family against me as well?
I stood up.
They could find them easily. Everyone in Sanctuary knew who I was by now, knew of the family that had been elevated to a home in the Second Ring, of the brother who'd defied the will ofthe Tribunal to marry a friend and save her from a fate on the Deck. They could hold them hostage against me, could threaten to hurt them if I didn’t return, could force me to turn myself in.
My hands were shaking by the time I leapt from the rock and stormed toward the camp,Zyashouting out to me from behind.
I wouldn’t be admitted to the tents of the three leaders, I knew that. But hardly anyone ever guardedGryfon’s tent. Apparently, the warrior was fearsome enough to fend for himself should it come to it. Seemed like foolish bravado to me. Perhaps after tonight, they would rethink that policy.
I burst through the flaps of canvas before properly formulating a plan. I was so engrossed in my own thoughts, my own fears, I hadn’t considered what I might find in striding straight into the obvious commander of this encampment’s personal quarters. It wasn’t, however, anything I might have expected.
Gryfon wasn’t alone.
He stood, shirtless and frowning, leaning over a small, rickety table that had likely been brought in for him to conduct meetings and eat meals in peace. My eyes trailed from the rigid muscles of his abdomen to the woman sitting opposite him. She seemed comfortable enough, seated in his own seat, long, toned arms draped over the sides of the chair. Her chin was raised high, defiant, as her sparkling chocolate eyes narrowed right back at the brooding commander. Her hair was set into a braid of thick, coarse dark hair and tossed over one shoulder so that it reached to her waist. She was outfitted in smooth leather that did very little to conceal the long, lithe form beneath. She was strapped with every manner of weapon, including some I'd never seen before, but her gaze was smooth, almost lazy, as she turned it upon me.
“What are you doing here?”Gryfonsnapped at me, far less graceful than his companion.
With his arrogant tone, my fear and fury returned. Clenching my fists tightly, I stepped further into the tent, ignoring the penetrating gaze of the strange woman as I did.
“You said theGeistare after me,” I said.
His jaw tensed but he gave a curt nod of agreement.
“Is that true?” I asked.
His brows furrowed as if in surprise at my question but I kept my narrowed gaze on him as he frowned back at me.
“Of course it is,” he growled a moment later.
“Then they'll be after my family as well,” I breathed, the words tumbling out in my fear before I could stop them. “They’ll know who they are and you let me leave them there. You didn’t even say—”
“Your family will be fine,” he muttered, waving a hand in dismissal as if disappointed by my reason for this interruption. “TheGeistcannot enter Sanctuary. Now, if you don't mind, Adrian—”
“So, this is Adrian,” the woman crooned, brow raising in interest as her gaze fell over me in more thorough examination.
Gryfonsighed, closing his eyes in irritation.
“I suppose your refusal to call her is a moot point now, isn’t it,Gryfon?” the woman asked with a satisfied grin.
My eyes darted from her to the warrior and back, assessing the situation I might have plunged myself into without fully understanding. Once again.
She stood then, every movement smooth and graceful, and cocked her head to the side as her gaze slid over me from head to toe.
“I hear you’re capable of wielding the corruption,” she said.
“So I’m told,” I answered, eyes snapping toGryfonbehind her in annoyance. “Not that I’ve been told much more.”
“No? Well, now that I’m here, perhaps we can rectify that.”
“And who are you?”
She smiled, lips pulling up into a grin that was likely meant to put me at ease but somehow set me more on edge as she took another step closer.
