Chapter 50: If Elena Is in There, I’m Bringing Her Home

"Document it. Photograph it. Don’t touch anything. If you find possible victims, don’t free them. Don’t interact with potential captives. Withdraw. Report back here."

"...Even if there are living captives?"

"Even if there are living captives, Kael. If we free victims without a plan, the Fallen will activate emergency protocols and we’ll lose any chance of finding the full operation. I’d rather know the true scale of what they’re doing, even if it costs us a few more days. Captives who are alive today can survive another three days. If we dismantle part of the operation now without enough information, the rest will regroup and disappear."

Adrián straightened in his chair.

"...Rhea."

"Vega."

"What if my sister is there?"

Rhea turned her head.

Her golden eyes settled on him with that calm intensity he was beginning to recognize.

"Vega."

"Rhea, if my sister is there—if Elena is inside that pharmaceutical facility—I’m not leaving without her. The entire operation can collapse. They can regroup. I don’t care."

Silence.

Beside him, Ishtar closed her eyes.

Kael let out a long sigh and crossed his arms.

Silvano looked at Adrián with a gentle expression.

Almost paternal.

Behind the desk, Rhea’s expression didn’t change.

"Vega."

"Yes?"

"If your sister is there, you get her out. The operation can collapse. I accept that cost."

Adrián went completely still.

"..."

"But."

"..."

"Only if you are one hundred percent certain it’s her. Not someone who looks like her. Not an impression. Not a feeling. One hundred percent. If you have even five percent doubt, you leave her there. We report back. We return with more information. And we get her out later with a better-planned operation."

Adrián nodded.

"Okay."

"Can you control yourself?"

Adrián breathed.

"I’ll try."

"This isn’t about trying, Vega. It’s about controlling yourself. If you go into this mission knowing you’ll lose control the second you see someone who resembles your sister, then you’re not going. You’d be a danger to the team."

"..."

"Can I trust you to keep yourself under control?"

Adrián breathed again.

He thought about Elena.

He thought about the alley.

He thought about the blonde woman.

He thought about three years of corkboards.

He thought about Nikolás Ríos crying in front of a chalk summoning circle.

He thought about Yuki on the bench.

He thought about the weight of the Thief’s Mask over his head.

He thought about the weight of Rhea’s hand on his shoulder ten minutes ago.

"Yes. You can trust me."

"Good."

Rhea nodded.

"Meeting over. All five of you rest today. We move tomorrow. Five in the morning. Underground parking garage. Vega, you’re confined to your room until then. Ishtar sleeps beside you. No exceptions. Everyone out."

The four of them stood.

They started walking toward the door.

Before leaving, Adrián stopped.

He turned around.

"Rhea."

"Yes, Vega?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For letting me go tomorrow. I knew you’d be furious. I knew you could’ve canceled the mission."

Rhea held his gaze.

"Vega. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because it’s the correct strategic decision. The fact that it happens to align with what you wanted is a coincidence."

"..."

"Get out."

A faint smile tugged at Adrián’s lips.

He left.

Ishtar was waiting for him in the hallway, arms crossed, wearing a complicated expression.

They started walking toward the elevator together.

"Brother-in-law."

"Yes, Ishtar?"

"It wasn’t a coincidence."

"I know."

"Rhea did it for you. At least partially. She’ll never admit it, but she did."

"I know, Ishtar."

"Good."

Two floors passed in silence.

Then—

"Brother-in-law."

"Yes?"

"My sister doesn’t trust many people. And today she trusted you with a decision that could cost the entire House its political reputation for decades if it goes wrong."

"..."

"Don’t forget that."

"I won’t, Ishtar."

"Good."

---

The rest of the day passed in a haze.

Adrián returned to his room.

He took a shower.

Ate something Ishtar brought him on a tray.

Tried to sleep.

Couldn’t.

Got up.

Stared out the window for twenty minutes.

Went back to bed.

Closed his eyes.

Remembered kissing Yuki.

Remembered Rhea’s hand on his shoulder.

Remembered Nikolás Ríos’s pleading voice inside the summoning circle.

Remembered the tiny violet bird.

Remembered four hundred violet birds tearing Lira’s illusion apart.

He remembered Elena.

Elena at ten, braiding his hair when he was seven while he protested that braids were for girls.

Elena at seventeen, taking care of him when he caught chickenpox, after their mother had already died and their father had no idea what to do with a feverish preteen.

Elena at twenty, arguing with him about music for an entire car ride.

Elena at twenty-two, smiling in the festival photograph pinned to the center of the corkboard in his old apartment.

Elena.

"If you’re there. If you’re alive. I’m getting you out tomorrow. Even if everything falls apart."

"Even if Rhea hates me afterward."

"Even if I have to break every agreement in this House."

"I’m getting you out."

He ran both hands over his face.

Breathed.

"But only if it’s really you. If it’s someone who looks like you. If it’s some other girl. I report it. I control myself. I promised Rhea."

"And I promised Nikolás."

"And all the other parents of those five girls."

"If we rush this, we lose the full operation. And we lose all of them."

"Focus. Control yourself. Hold it together."

Ishtar entered his room at nine that night.

With the armchair.

With a blanket.

And with a lollipop—an actual one this time—in her mouth.

She settled into the chair.

Pulled the blanket over herself.

Closed her eyes.

"Good night, brother-in-law."

"Good night, Ishtar."

"Brother-in-law."

"Yes?"

"Tomorrow, don’t move away from me."

"I won’t."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good night."

"Good night."

Adrián closed his eyes.

Tried to sleep.

At some point between ten and eleven, his phone vibrated on the nightstand.

Adrián picked it up.

A message.

Yuki.

He immediately sat up in bed.

Opened it.

«Adri.

I got home safe. Dad picked me up when the taxi arrived, so everything’s okay. We had dinner with Mom too. She came over today because I called her crying this afternoon, and she asked for time off work and came here. I’m with both of them. I’m safe.

I just wanted to tell you because you said you wanted to know when I got home safely. That’s all.»

Adrián smiled.

He started typing a response.

His phone vibrated before he could finish.

Another message.

Yuki again.

«Adri.

There’s something else I wanted to tell you, but I don’t know if I should send it.

...

Ah, fuck it. I’m sending it.

When you can. When you’ve figured everything out. When you’re ready.

Kiss me again.»

Adrián stared at the message.

A smile began forming on his face without his permission.

A full smile.

A stupid smile.

The smile of a nineteen-year-old boy in love for the first time, receiving the message he had apparently been waiting his entire life to receive without ever realizing it.

He typed back.

«Yuki.

I’m going to figure everything out as fast as I can.

And I’m going to kiss you so many times you’ll regret asking me to.

Good night. Stay safe.

I’ll keep you safe too.»

He sent it.

Her response arrived five seconds later.

Just a smiling face.

Blushing all the way to its ears.

Adrián put his phone down.

Face down on the nightstand.

He lay flat on his back.

Staring at the ceiling.

From the armchair, without opening her eyes, Ishtar murmured:

"Brother-in-law."

"Yes, Ishtar?"

"Stop smiling. I can hear it from here."

"Shut up."

"You shut up, brother-in-law."

"..."

Silence.

After a while—

"Brother-in-law."

"Yes?"

"I’m glad you’re smiling. Even if it’s only for two minutes. Tomorrow is going to suck. Enjoy it."

"...Thanks."

"You’re welcome."

Adrián closed his eyes.

And sometime between eleven and midnight, with Yuki’s message still floating through his mind and the pharmaceutical mission waiting only five hours away, he finally fell asleep.

Outside the Alastor building, thirty floors below, the city continued moving through its ordinary nighttime rhythm.

Cars.

Distant sirens.

Music spilling out of some bar in the university district.

A dog barking somewhere.

And on the rooftop of a building three blocks from Yuki Amasawa’s house, a small figure in a modernized kimono sat cross-legged with impossibly long black hair, dark violet eyes, and a cup of tea in one hand.

She was watching the illuminated window of the human girl’s bedroom.

Lira Vex.

Her protective surveillance shift had already begun.

And with her usual serene smile hovering above the rim of her teacup, she murmured to herself:

"Hello, Yuki. You don’t know me yet."

Her smile widened ever so slightly.

"But soon, we’re going to be very good friends."

She took another sip of tea.

And kept watching.