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I didn't wait long, looked around, then grabbed her wrist and pulled her two doors down to my office, which was still unlocked because I had been correcting papers before my spontaneous search just a moment ago.

I pulled her into my office and closed the door behind us.

She spun around, her face pale as a ghost.

“What were you doing in Harlow's office?” I got straight to the point and stepped toward her.

Just a few weeks ago, I had planned to appear as threatening as possible. However, that had subsided... somehow... Even though there was no reason for it.

Julie was using J to control me. And I hated it. I should hate her...

I clenched my hands into fists.

“She's... training me,” Julie replied hesitantly, staring at me. As always, there was little emotion on her face. As always, she confused me.

“You're letting that woman train you?” I replied, dissatisfied.

Why didn't she let me train her? Seriously. Was it because she had frozen the lab at the DLSC? What was she afraid of?

I had struggled to convince the head of security at DUIO to let Julie stay in my research program, spending an hour explaining to this man why Julie was essential to genetic research, without mentioning Umbra.

Of course, I wouldn't tell her that...

“If she doesn't...” Julie began, but paused and looked at the floor, playing with her fingertips, which were turning blue.

“Then what?”

I looked at her intently, suppressing the urge to lift her chin so she would look at me and not avoid my gaze as usual whenever she talked, as if she were hiding something.

“Then Gloria will.”

She turned away from me, wandered across my office, past my desk, to the window, where several ravens had settled and were trying not to slip off the sloping outer windowsill.

“You’re afraid of that woman,” I realized aloud.

Julie said nothing, but I had to be right. Whenever Gloria was mentioned, something changed in her behavior. Something that made me believe she was serious, that I could trust her because she despised this woman as much as I did.

My thoughtful gaze fell on the desk, on the mother-of-pearl box into which I had poured the Umbra elixir that morning.

I walked over to my desk, put down the old book, and reached for the box to open it.

The liquid had completely disappeared, which meant that the complex siptur, which was still giving me a slight migraine, must have worked.

“I have something for you,” I said, taking the gleaming silver jewelry engraved with vines out of the box. It had belonged to my mother. One of dozens that I had never been able to give away.

But Julie would never know that either.

She turned to me and, as always, my gaze fell for a moment on her clearly visible baby bump.

“A ring,” she whispered.

I looked up.

She stared at the piece of jewelry in my hand as if it were something special.

A feeling of unease spread through me.

I hesitated. Something about giving her this ring, about giving her any ring at all, displeased me completely. There was only one woman in this world I wanted to put a ring on.