Elydes

Chapter 289 - Drowning

“Why does nobody listen?” Caeli stomped on the gravel back to the residential district.

Kea squeezed her shoulders in solidarity, though she was feeling frustrated herself. “They’re just scared.” It had been naive to think anyone would listen.

They had tracked down the names from Herry’s list. Most slammed the door in their face, the others smiled and nodded long enough to get rid of them, ignoring the warnings all the same. Two strangers speaking of danger didn’t encourage trust in Limgrell, especially when they failed to explain why.

That’s the best we could do for them.

They couldn’t let the kidnappers discover her involvement at Herry’s house; for each person on the list, they talked with two random others. Initially, Kea thought she could ambush the culprits, but who should she guard? They recovered dozens of names, and she had no idea who would be the next target—if any at all. The last girl to disappear wasn’t on the list. A moment of distraction had been enough for the mists to take her.

Damned cowards. There must be a way to catch them.

The more she tried to wrestle the situation under control, the more it slipped away. Her nails dug into her palms. She hated feeling powerless, and she hated this rotten town. A headache pulsed behind her eyes for the lack of sleep, and she couldn’t say when it started.

“He would have found a way…” Caeli muttered when they turned into the street of their rented house. “He was like that even when we were children, you know. The perfect son. Always so insufferable,” she said with a somber chuckle. “I would have never escaped our family if it wasn’t for him…”