ECLIPSE, grishaverse

viii. different paths

THEY AMBUSHED THE OUTSIDERS at night when they were getting out of a bar. They were lucky actually, between the Zemini and Kerch, there was a Shu Han who seemed to be traveling with them. Yelena felt slightly bad when they left them without their coats in the dark hallway, but she had to get to Alina no matter what.

Now they were back at the empty house, changing their clothes and preparing the papers to board the skiff. She was adjusting her dark suit when Inej came into the room.

"You look fine." Inej told someone.

Yelena looked up to find Jesper checking himself out in a mirror, he was smirking.

He snorted. "Oh, I look more than fine."

"I made some edits to their papers. Should be enough to get us through the checkpoint and onto the skiff. Yelena you'll have to keep your head down, or they'll recognize your eyes." Kaz spoke and she nodded.

"That's why I got this," Yelena said as she took a beret gray hat that was laying on a chair. She put it on, the front of it a little lower to cover her face.

"Good thinking," Inej smiled. Kaz nodded.

Jesper came closer to the table and took the papers. "Huh? No one is ever going to believe I'm that old."

"You tell yourself that." Kaz told him. Jesper looked between the three of them, cleared his throat and left with the papers, his features a little angry. Inej was smiling and Yelena snorted, her gray eyes and Kaz's brown ones connected for a second. His lips were trying to suppress a smirk.

A few hours later they were at the checkpoint, a man wearing black and a hat with the Ravkan pair of eagles was checking papers while sitting behind a table. His eyes scanned faces, Yelena's were looking down and her hat was covering some part of them, hopefully he wouldn't see.

"You are lucky," the man said to the people before them. "You're traveling with the Black General and the Sun Summoner. Which means you are about to witness the destruction of the Fold. It's a shame the Moon Summoner isn't here herself to see it." Yelena wondered what lies had the Darkling said to justify her absence.

They were next, Jesper gave him their papers. "I know, I look amazing for my age." the brown man spoke whike grinning. The one in black silks gave the papers another look.

"Well, I thought you looked older." he shrugged.

Jesper laughed without emotion and took the papers, they started walking to the skiff. And a huge weight was lifted from her shoulders. They got onto the ship and stayed behind everyone else, Yelena had to cover her face or look at the ground every time a Grisha walked close to her. Her heart was beating fast, but somehow she liked it. The adrenaline made her feel alive.

Yelena saw her younger sister being dragged by the man she liked, Ivan was chaining her to the floor of the boat. They took her coat, the stag horns could be seen from where they stood. She had to dig her nails on her palm to avoid touching the skin on her own neck, feeling it itching. Exactly where she felt the pain a few hours back. Weird.

"Good news? It's just as terrifying as I remember." Jesper said.

"Except this time we are going in completely exposed." Inej added.

The Shadow Fold was getting closer now. Yelena remembered the last time there; her shaky fingers, Mal laying breathless on the floor, Alina being taken by the volcra. She almost lost all her family in a matter of minutes. That wasn't going to happen this time. Or ever again. Yelena would tear the whole world apart to keep them alive.