Snakes In The Grass

21

"You do!?"

"Yes, she's studying at St. Basil's right now. She's a freshman, but I don't think she wants to become a Guardian," he explained.

"Does that bother you?" I asked after a moment's hesitation.

"No. I've seen how women have been treated, and my daughter has a great interest in nursing. If she wanted to go into the medical field, I wouldn't have any issues with it as long as it made her happy," he explained, cutting up a piece of banana on his plate before gesturing to it.

I nodded and he set the pieces of banana on Briar's plate and moved on to his bacon.

"I don't children should follow in their parent's footsteps just because that's what is expected of us," he said and I raised my brows at him.

"That's a bold statement coming from you, Head Guardian," Dimitri pointed out.

Again Croft shrugged. "I'm not stupid. I know that we are constantly taken advantage of. And I'm working very hard to change that, but I'm not going to force a lifestyle on anyone that doesn't want it. I'd resign before I did that."

I wasn't sure if I was impressed or simply shocked. Hearing something like that come out of Croft's mouth was surprising. He was supposed to be the one to help promote Guardian numbers increase, but on the inside, he was still one of us.

"I think I have an all-new level of respect for you," I said as I took a bite of my food.

"Thank you," he said with a smirk.

_________________________________

Packing up our house and leaving was harder than I expected. I was going to miss our neighbours, I was going to miss this house, I was going to miss being so close to the water.

The Ozera's asked us not to disclose what we knew about them but encouraged us to visit again. I promised that I would give them updates about Christian when I could, and I would send photos and pictures from their wedding.

My goodbye to Nancy was sappier than either of us thought it would be. We both tried to act like we could tough it out, but we both shed some tears as we hugged goodbye. Another person we promised to come and visit.

The drive back to Court was long and I spent a lot of time learning to drive on the backroads. I never had much incentive to learn, but now that we were heading back, it seemed like it was time. It wasn't too bad, and it gave Dimitri a bit of a break too.

I thought that getting back into Court would be difficult, but Croft had sent us to an entrance that was a key code and not a guard. Once we pulled through the gates, I felt something settle over my mind. The warding at the house in Maine must have been just enough to deter, nowhere near as strong as it was here.

The near-constant headache all but disappeared.

There was a back entrance to one of the meeting buildings and we parked behind it, got out and headed toward the door. I punched the code in there too and slipped inside, sighing quietly to myself as we walked toward the meeting room near the corner of the building.

I knew we had reached the right room when I spotted Croft standing outside of it, looking at his phone but looked up when he heard us approach. He nodded at me and then knocked on the door, wishing us both luck as he departed.

I breathed a slow breath through my nose and sighed, closing my eyes as anticipation became almost too much.

"Are you ready for this?" Dimitri whispered.

I shook my head. "Not one bit. I missed everyone, but I feel like death was easier than coming back," I whispered, "Look at what we put our family through."