Chapter 11 #2
Chloe’s breath caught in something close to a sob as Gannon returned, handing her the document.
She scanned it, but everything seemed to be in order.
No matter what happened next, Maddie’s business was safe.
As were Chloe’s sisters. Even if something terrible happened to Chloe, Maddie would bring the girls to Everard, Chloe was sure of it.
And she would buy out Chloe’s half of the building too.
Even if that had to be done in small payments, as they had originally been making toward the mortgage.
Chloe’s sisters could live on those payments for years.
But Chloe’s dreams had grown bigger. She didn’t just want to run a successful business and bring her sisters to Everard any more. She wanted to soar through the skies as a griffin rider. And she wanted to regain Harrison’s trust.
By handing over the egg, she had achieved her old dream. What came next would determine her ability to achieve her new dream.
She handed over the egg, her hand shaking only slightly. Gannon snatched the satchel eagerly from her, peering in at the egg. When he looked up and nodded, she fled, stuffing the signed mortgage into her pocket as she ran.
Looking over her shoulder, she checked Gannon had already disappeared back inside before she ducked into the side alley where Sage waited.
“He’ll want to get the egg somewhere safe and warm as quickly as possible,” she muttered to the griffin. “So we shouldn’t have to wait too long. I just hope he doesn’t mean to take it to his home for now. Hopefully he’ll want it somewhere more secure, given how illegal it is for him to have it.”
As she had predicted, they only had to wait minutes before a heavily cloaked Gannon reappeared, the satchel slung over his shoulder.
Climb on my back, Sage said, taking Chloe by surprise.
“Ride you? Are you sure?”
Quick. We have no time to lose.
Chloe hoisted herself inelegantly up Sage’s closest shoulder. Her skirts made the effort difficult, and in the end she had to hitch them immodestly high, relieved for the darkness that shielded them in the backstreets.
She settled herself in front of Sage’s wings, although the griffin kept them folded against her back as she prowled through the town’s streets. Chloe had worried about how precarious she would be without saddle or reins for stability, but Sage moved so smoothly that keeping her balance was easy.
Even so, she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Sage’s neck and ducking her head against her feathers. The smaller and less visible they were the better.
Sage followed quickly after Gannon, keeping to the shadows wherever possible. She stayed far enough back to keep out of his sight, but she never paused in her pursuit, apparently making use of some sense Chloe didn’t possess to keep track of him.
When she finally stopped, right on the edge of town, she bade Chloe slide down.
He’s gone inside that building. You’ll need to open the door.
Chloe obeyed, peering at the dark building before them. “It’s a warehouse,” she said. “But it doesn’t look like anyone’s inside. There’s no light coming out.”
He must have put boards over the windows.
Chloe looked around. “Where’s Ranger? We can’t go in just the two of us!”
Sage shifted slightly. We just need to peek inside. To confirm this is his final destination. If he’s not keeping the others here, and we act too soon, we could end up retrieving only the one egg and be left with a dead end again.
Chloe swallowed and nodded. Just a quick peek.
She edged toward the door, Sage’s reassuring presence at her back. When she reached it, she eased the latch up, relieved that it gave easily. Gannon must not have locked it in his eagerness to get inside. Or perhaps he meant to leave again almost immediately after dropping off the egg.
She inched the door open, letting a line of golden light spill out onto the cobblestones. Putting her face to the gap, she peered inside.
What she saw startled her so much that she gave a little gasp. Gannon leaned over a basket in front of a fireplace, presumably placing the egg inside. But the vast open space contained far more than a nest for a single griffin egg.
Two other eggs of differing sizes lay cushioned in straw in baskets of their own, close to the fire’s warmth, and around the rest of the warehouse creatures of all shapes and sizes stood or lay, their legs chained and their mouths muzzled.
As well as a grown griffin, her eyes flashed over a pair of unicorns, a case containing three oncaryxes in their inanimate forms, four vendrillons, and even a pegasus foal.
But at the sound of her gasp, Gannon turned, his gaze meeting hers across the distance between them. His eyes widened in surprise, and his face twisted in anger.
“Catch her!” he bellowed, drawing Chloe’s attention to the humans that also filled the space. “Like your lives depend on it!” Gannon bellowed. “Because they well might.”
She pulled back, slamming the door closed, but one of the men had already reached it. As she stumbled backward, colliding with a confused Sage, he wrenched it back open.
When he lunged for her, though, one of Sage’s talons lashed out, slicing one of his arms.
“Griffin!” The man screamed. “She has a griffin.”
Chloe stumbled back several more steps. “We have to get out of here, Sage!” she shouted, but Sage was lunging for the man again.
Chloe hesitated, unwilling to run and leave Sage behind.
“Sage! We have to go!”
The man darted back through the door, and Sage finally turned to look at Chloe. But over her shoulder Chloe saw the door opening again.
“Sage!” she screamed, but it was already too late.
The men who came out in the injured man’s place carried a thick leather net.
Before Sage—totally untrained in combat—could twist back to face them, they had thrown it over her head, trapping her wings against her back.
They worked in coordination, their movements clearly practiced, as more men sprang forward to pull at ropes that trailed from the net.
As they pulled on the ropes, the net contracted, preventing Sage from lashing out with either her talons or her back lion’s claws.
She screeched in fury, trying to throw up her head, but the net held her down.
Chloe ran forward, throwing herself at the closest man and beating him with her fists. He cried out in protest but didn’t let go of his rope.
Another man seized her from behind, trapping her arms against her side as he held her back against his chest. When he spoke, she recognized his voice. Gannon.
“Well, well, well,” he said, looking at the bound Sage. “Two for the price of one.”