"We found your home, kvietka."
"Yes," she murmured, her eyes filling with tears. "And we'll go? Together? To find my mother?"
"Hold on, there," Dora said, knowing she was in for an uphill battle. "I'm not sure that's the best idea."
"What?" Glory asked, some of the light in her eyes automatically dimming.
Jeez, it was like kicking a puppy. Dora traced a hand through her short, glossy hair. "I'm just saying, this is where Navuka found you in the first place. Where they captured you, Glory. We have no idea what traps they might have set for you, or what kind of surveillance they might have set out."
"She's right," Emin realized. "It is too dangerous for you to go. I will go. Make sure it is safe for you."
"And then what? I'll follow after? No way. Never.” There was a light in Glory's eyes that neither Emin nor Dora had ever seen before. "I was captured by Navuka, yes. But I also escaped them, by myself. And they’ve never seen me in my human form. They would be looking for me as a tiger. So I'll stay in human form while we search." Glory twisted her hands in uncharacteristic anxiety. "And besides, you’ll never be able to find my mother without me. She’s an even better hider and fighter than I am. You’ll be dead before you can deliver your message."
Emin thought of how unsuccessful he'd been at tracking Glory in his own woods. And then he tried to imagine tracking an older, wiser tiger on her own home turf. It was a good point. They probably needed Glory.
"Okay. Just let me think for a second," Dora said, tracing a hand through her hair. "Look, I'm going, no matter what. I want to talk to this lady who gave me the tip in the first place, I want to look for more clues on Navuka. And I just want to go, period. So there's no shaking me loose. Which means there's no shaking Danil loose either."
"Package deal," Glory said, repeating a phrase that Dora had taught her a while ago.
"Bingo," Dora replied. "And I'm willing to bet that if Emin and Danil are going off into unknown territory, Navuka lurking in the shadows, then Maxim and Anton aren't going to be far behind."
"And don't forget AJ," Glory added. "It's never fair to leave out AJ."
"Yeah." Dora stood up, started pacing and clicking something into her phone. "We're gonna need a passenger van. Flying will be too conspicuous. Not to mention expensive. Okay, it's looking like a - yeep - twenty-hour drive. Okay."
"Wait," Emin said, needing to stop the ball that had begun rolling down the hill before he even had his bearings.
Both women ignored him.
"You get the supplies ready, because I won't have any idea about that. I've never really traveled in human form before. And it’ll be my job to tell everyone," Glory said. "How long until we have the van?"
"I just booked it," Dora replied, looking up from her phone and zipping up her bomber jacket. "Okay, we'll need camping equipment, food for a few days, and weapons. Yeah. Weapons. God, Danil is not gonna like this."
"Wait!" Emin said again. "This is crazy."
"Save your arguments for the group," Dora said, one hand on the doorknob. "Glorious, you get everybody together to meet at Mama and Papa's in two hours. We'll do the whole group vote thing then." And then she was gone, bounding down the stairs of the house.
Emin, speechless, stared after her. What the hell had just happened?
Glory was up, bustling with a purpose he'd never seen her use before. But then, the prospect of finding her mother had never been dangled in front of her like a big juicy carrot before either.
She whipped one of his sweatshirts over her head, was hopping into one shoe and then the other. "Dora will tell Danil, so I don't have to worry about that. I guess I’ll start with Maxim and circle back to AJ. Hopefully Anton is at Mama and Papa's-"
"Glory," Emin cut her off.
She turned to him instantly. She'd never heard his voice sound like that before. "There has to be another way. I will not let you go back there."
She stilled, her hands freezing on the laces she had been furiously tying. He rose, crossed the room to her and knelt before her.
"I do not say this to control. I say it because I have so much fear." The words strangled him and he laid a hand over his throat, his chest.
Her eyes softened, but he didn't even see them.
"Let me go. Let me go first and make it safe for you,” he pleaded with her.
She touched his face, felt herself swell and pulse and grow. "You would ask me to stay behind and suffer with the same fear that you feel now? Isn't it better that we both go? Together? Where we can protect one another if necessary. Fight for one another if we have to?”