Nameless (Nameless #1)(59)

“Got it.” Joshua bounced on his toes like this was all just some grand adventure.

“Go!” Gryphon ordered.

“Oh yeah.” The boy shot out of the building.

“What can I do?” Zo asked.

“Hug your sister and get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

She’d said she trusted Gryphon, even as the words came out, she knew it was true. “There’s something else you need to know.”

Gryphon crossed his arms and frowned. She had the impression that he thought he knew what she was about to tell him.

“You are good friends with Sara, right?”

Gryphon obviously hadn’t planned for that response. “She’s like a sister.”

Zo dug her toe into the ground.

“What do you know?” He urged her on.

“It’s about her sister, Eva. She’s in trouble.”





Gryphon sat awake for most of the night whittling down a piece of pine into the shape of a Ram. His attention divided between Joshua and Tess hiding in the forest, Ajax’s small family, the Gate Master, Eva and the unborn Nameless’ child she carried, the Wolf hidden in the barn, and then, of course, Zo.

How did he find himself responsible for so many people? What would happen if he just closed his eyes, and let everything happen? Why did he care so much that Tess be spared from the Gate Master? Or that the Wolf be allowed to live? And Ajax really couldn’t expect him to risk everything he’d worked for to help his child, could he?

Gryphon’s knife slipped, and he accidently cut off one of the Ram horns on the wooden figure. He let the knife and wood block tumble to the bed and dropped his head into his hands. “I’ve lost control.”

For as long as he remembered, Gryphon had only longed for one thing—to make up for the shield hanging on his wall. He’d done everything ever asked of him, trained harder and longer than anyone else in his mess.

It wasn’t long ago that he would have done anything for the Ram without question. But times had changed, just like the unhealthy soil of the Ram over the years. His priorities had become diluted. The certainty of his situation dissolved.

All that remained was the core conviction that he wanted to make the right decision. Not the right decision for the Ram. Not even the right decision for himself.

Just the right decision.

And protecting the people around him seemed to be the only acceptable course of action. As hard as it was.





Chapter 31





Zo watched Gryphon from the corner of her eye as Sara and Ajax swaddled their small baby. “Give the medicine to him twice a day until the lip has healed,” said Zo.

The couple nodded. Ajax draped his arm around his wife and squeezed both mother and child. Zo walked them to the door to bid farewell, the whole time listening to Gryphon’s approaching footsteps behind her. He put his hands on her waist and spun her around. She melted into him, wrapping her arms completely around his waist.

“I’m exhausted.” She sighed, content in his embrace.

Gryphon led her to their usual spot in the hayloft. He lowered her into the hay with his hand supporting her lower back while she clung to his neck. His lips were fire. She pulled him closer and let the hay envelop them.

In the corner of the barn, Zo’s mother and father cried out as men with short swords slaughtered them.

Gryphon bent down to kiss Zo’s cheek. “You trust me, don’t you?”

Tess’ scream filled her head. Growing louder and louder as the walls of the barn collapsed on top of them.



Zo sat up with a start. Markus, the Nameless who slept in the corner, hovered over her with his bushy gray eyebrows raised to his hairline. “You all right?”

Zo’s chest pumped in and out, sweat trickled down the side of her face. “I can’t do this anymore.” She raked a hand through her long dark hair. Somewhere in the woods Joshua and Tess were camped like fugitives. That was, unless they had been discovered already.

Markus frowned, adding six new wrinkles to his already rippled face. “I know.”

But he didn’t know. No one really knew what it was like to carry this impossible weight. No one knew anything!

Gryphon burst through the door like a tornado. “You need to leave. Now.”

Markus took a few steps away from Zo then quickly left the room as if Gryphon’s words were intended for him.

“Is the Seer here?” Zo whispered. She couldn’t quite look him in the eyes after that dream.

“Not yet, but we can’t take any chances.”

“Your mother—”

“Thinks you’re headed to the Jordan home to follow up with the Nameless family you helped last night.”

“Tess and Joshua—”

“Are safe in the forest.” Gryphon’s demeanor softened. He reached out, almost taking her by the hand, then hesitated. Zo couldn’t pull her gaze from his extended hand, even though yearning for his touch was a complete betrayal of everything she stood for.

When had it happened? The start of this inexplicable longing. Gryphon was everything Zo grew up hating. How could something feel so wrong and so right at the exact same time?

She thought of the kindness he’d shown her sister. Of the mercy he’d shown others. To her. Zo shook her head and tried to repress the contradictions of her thoughts to listen to Gryphon’s instructions.