Page 82 of The Inheritance

“I’ll need you to watch him in the breach.”

She smiled. “No worries. If he sneezes the wrong way, I’ll be on him like a hawk.”

On the street Anton shrugged his massive shoulders. “You’re standing between me and my gate, Leonard.”

“Funny, I thought I was standing between you and our gate.”

Anton sighed. “Don’t be fucking difficult. We both know the DDC is going to announce the gate change.”

“If they reassign it and if the Guardians get that assignment, we’ll revisit the issue.” Leo’s voice was cold and light. “Until then, you are trespassing. This is your only warning: turn around, sashay back to your soccer dad minivan, and get the fuck out of here.”

“Your healer is stuck in Hong Kong,” Anton boomed. “And the old man isn’t here to pull your ass out of the fire.”

The old man, huh?

“We know he left for HQ last night.”

Elias’s eyebrows crept up. Last night he and Leo returned to HQ. It was late but he wanted to speak to Ada’s children one more time before the news broke. Leo came with him for that conversation and then went back to the site in the Cold Chaos vehicle. Elias stayed for another hour, finishing up some last-minute things. He’d taken a ride-share back, had it drop him off several streets away, then ran the last couple of miles to clear his head. It worked – he’d slept well for the first time in a week.

Someone from the Guardians must’ve been watching the site and noted Leo coming back without him.

“We all know you can’t go in,” Anton continued. “There are ten of us here and we’re ready to enter. Why don’t you step aside and let us fix your mess?”

“He did just say that there were ten of them?” Leo asked.

“Yes,” Kovalenko confirmed. “He learned to count.”

“Did that sound like a threat to you?” Leo wondered.

“It did.”

Leo’s eyes blazed with white. Two huge dark wings thrust from his back, ethereal as if woven from a thunderstorm. Lightning crackled and danced across the phantom contour feathers.

A pulse of deep green shot from Anton and contracted back into an aura that sheathed the big man like second armor.

“Persistent,” Krista said. “What do they know that I don’t?”

“There is a big adamantite vein in that breach,” Elias said.

“Someone has been talking.”

“Mhm.”

And he had a very good idea who. The pool of suspects was limited to four. Wagner was too pessimistic, Drishya was too young and inexperienced, and Melissa thought the guild completely had her back, thanks to Leo’s gentle style of interrogating. Only one person’s future was in doubt. London had taken an opportunity to open another door for himself.

“They aren’t normally that aggressive.” Krista frowned.

“This is being recorded,” Elias said. “They are hoping to provoke us and then splatter it all over the media.”

“You are in violation of Article 3 of the Gate Regulation Act.” Leo’s voice was an eerie, unnaturally loud whisper underscored by the roar of a distant storm. “Retreat or we will be forced to remove you for your safety.”

Anton took a step forward. The team behind him fanned out into a battle formation. Anton took another step. A third.

“That’s my cue.” Elias picked up his coffee mug and stepped out the door.

JoAnne was the first to see him. She put her hand on Anton’s arm and when he didn’t react, she said something under her breath. Anton stopped walking.

For a moment nobody moved.