Chapter 30 Into the Fire Alone
The room was empty now.
Li Wei had left with his men. Their footsteps faded down the hallway. Doors opened and closed. Voices murmured. Then silence.
Veyra sat alone in the surveillance room.
Her legs were shaking. She could not make them stop. She pressed her hands flat against her thighs and tried to steady her breathing.
Lily was gone.
The little girl who had made her heart-shaped cookies. The little girl who had never been to a café before. The little girl who trusted her.
Gone.
She closed her eyes. The image of Lily’s face flashed behind her lids. The wide eyes. The reaching hand. The way she had been scooped up and carried away like she weighed nothing.
This was her fault.
If she had not agreed to bring Lily. If she had not let Caspian corner her. If she had been paying attention instead of arguing with a man who meant nothing—
She slammed her fist against the table.
The pain shot up her arm. Good. She deserved it.
Caspian. It always came back to Caspian. His face. His lies. His constant, relentless presence in her life even when she had tried so hard to leave him behind.
He had caused this. The crowd. The chaos. The distraction. While she was arguing with him, someone had taken Lily.
She hated him. She hated him more than she had ever hated anyone.
But hating him would not bring Lily back.
She stood up.
Her legs were still shaking. She ignored them. She walked to the sink in the corner of the room and splashed cold water on her face.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
The woman staring back was pale. Her eyes were red. Her lip was still swollen from where Eleanor had slapped her. The bruise on her throat had faded to yellow.
She looked like someone who had been through a war.
But she was still standing.
She thought about what she wanted. What she really wanted. Not just to find Lily. But after that. Beyond that.
She wanted to study medicine. She wanted to earn a degree. She wanted to stand in a room full of doctors and have them listen to her because she had earned the right to speak.
She wanted to be strong. The way Dorian was strong. The way he walked into a room and people moved out of his way and it was not because they were afraid of him but because they respected him.
She wanted that.
She wanted to be formidable.
The thought settled in her chest. Solid. Heavy. Real.
She was going to find Lily. She was going to get into Etlan University of Medicine. And she was going to become someone that no one could ignore.
She straightened her shoulders. Her legs stopped shaking.
She was done being a victim.
She turned back to the monitors.
The footage was still frozen on the screen. The man in the dark jacket. The hat. The face mask. Lily in his arms, struggling.
Veyra pulled out her phone. She took a photograph of the screen. The image was grainy. The man’s face was hidden. But his build was visible. His height. The way he held himself.
It was something.
She walked out of the surveillance room. The café was empty now. The crowd was gone. The tables were overturned. Chairs lay on their sides. A single cup of hot chocolate sat on the floor, its contents spilled across the tile.
Veyra stepped over it and walked outside.
*
Li Wei was standing by the cars.
He saw her coming. His eyes widened. He had expected her to be crying. To be hysterical. To be curled up in a corner waiting for someone to save her.
She was none of those things.
"Mrs. Thorne," he said. "I was about to send someone to find you. You shouldn’t be out here alone."
"I’m not alone." She looked at the bodyguards stationed around the perimeter. "I have you."
"That’s not what I meant."
"I know what you meant." She pulled out her phone. Showed him the photograph. "I’m going to look for her. On my own. If you find anything, call me."
Li Wei stared at her. "Mrs. Thorne, with all due respect, that’s not safe. The man who took the young miss could still be in the area. He could be dangerous."
"So could I."
Li Wei blinked.
She handed him a piece of paper with her phone number. "Call me if you find anything. I’ll do the same."
She turned and walked away.
"Mrs. Thorne—"
She did not look back.
*
The commercial district was crowded.
The café was on a side street, but behind it was a maze of shops and stalls and narrow alleyways. Veyra had walked through this area once before, years ago, when she had been looking for a birthday gift for Caspian.
She remembered it being busy. But today, it was suffocating.
The sun was high. The heat was brutal. Sweat dripped down her back. Her dress was sticking to her skin. Her arm still stung from where she had scraped it.
She ignored all of it.
She walked from person to person. Showed them the photograph on her phone. Asked the same questions over and over.
Have you seen this man?
Have you seen a little girl? Dark hair. Dark eyes. About this tall.
Please. She’s missing. Her family is worried.
Most people shook their heads. Some looked at her like she was crazy. A few muttered apologies and hurried away.
No one had seen anything.
She kept walking.
After an hour, she realized this was not working.
She was one person. The district was huge. There were hundreds of people. Thousands. She could not talk to all of them.
She needed a better system.
She found a print shop tucked between a bakery and a shoe store. The owner was a young woman with kind eyes and a nose ring.