Page 46 of Can you take it?

‘Wanting to leave?’ I said. ‘Where is he going to go?’

Mendax ignored my question. ‘So she hasn’t taken the pen-

dant yet?’

‘No. Kaohs said that he only deemed she’d be ready to take over if she could get me to hand it to her. And not take it.’

‘Huh,’ Mendax said thoughtfully. ‘I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. He’s one of the wisest men I know.’

‘Listen,’ I said. ‘Tell Cal I love her and I miss her.’

‘No, I won’t,’ he stated. But I’ll tell her I talked to you. I felt a little bit of humor from his side.

‘Hey, also, is she okay?’ I asked.

‘Why do you ask that?’ Mendax asked quickly.

‘I don’t know. I just get the feeling like she hasn’t been feeling good or something. Something feels off with her. Are you sure she’s okay?’ I said, trying to cut out the accusatory tone in my voice.

‘Yeah, she’s okay.’

‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘It’s not my story to tell, though I’d love to be the one to break it to you,’ he said.

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ I asked.

‘Nothing. Fuck, this oversized matchstick just put his hand on Tarani’s ass,’ and the bond fell silent.

I couldn’t help but love the way he’d taken over, acting like a big brother to Tarani. It was certainly something I’d never expected of Mendax. I didn’t like the way he was avoiding telling me what was going on with Cal, though he definitely confirmed that something was up.

I watched Anna and Bexley stand and walk toward us.

Bexley seemed much calmer than before.

“Okay,” Anna said once she got in front of me. “All right, can you loosen it up and I’ll get in here?” she said to Bexley.

“What?” all three of us said, watching as Bexley did, in fact, begin to loosen the chain, and Anna crawled in next to me and Eletha, sitting down so that the heavy chain rested on her hips.

“What are you doing?” Eletha said.

“It’s fine. Just go with it,” Anna said. “Trust me.”

She looked at me when she said the words, and if I’d thought I was confused before, I was mistaken—now I was really confused.

“Go ahead, Bexley,” she said.

Bexley turned and walked away, and our eyes followed him as he walked into one of the nearby stores.

“Uh, what the fuck is going on?” Eletha said to her sister. I simply stared, still stuck on the words “trust me.”

“Just pipe down, okay? If you want to get out of here and move on to the next tier, we need to do what Bexley says, okay?” she said.

“Did he threaten you?” Walter said.

“No, he didn’t threaten me, and I could handle it if he did,” Anna snapped.

“Don’t snap at him,” Eletha said to Anna, which made Anna laugh.