After Vesper didn’t respond, Bellamy asked, “Do you even love me anymore?” Bellamy shook her head, scoffing in disbelief and not waiting for Vesper to answer before she shoved her and stormed back down the hallway, shouldering past her sister, who was still fucking watching.
“Fuck. Don’t do this! Bel!” Vesper called, starting to follow her. Fucking of course she still loved Bellamy. How was it not obvious? She’d told her… right? The illusion holding the wall together shimmered an incandescent white and Bellamy disappeared.
As soon as she’d vanished into the vast expanse of hallways beyond, Wisp finally spoke up. “Nice.”
“Fuck off,” Vesper growled, shoving past her too, trying to follow. But Wisp reached out and yanked her back. Vesper ripped her arm out of Wisp’s grasp and glared at her. “What do you want?”
“She’s my sister. Don’t fucking hurt her.”
Vesper huffed a laugh. “You’re the one hurting her here. Leave us the fuck alone.”
“I’m trying to help her,” Wisp snapped. She looked Vesper up and down, folding her arms over her chest and leaning back to examine her properly. “You know, Ro told me you were good for her, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Stop lying to her.”
Vesper pulled her away, frowning. “I never lied to her. Now I have to go stop her from trying to kill Mazz. Again. Thanks for that, by the way,” she bit out, turning on her heel and moving quickly toward Mazz’s office.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Vesper
Vesper frowned, scanning the busy room. Five girls were lounging on the plush couches, chatting away, laughing, clearly uninterrupted. Mazz sat behind her desk, alive and uninjured and so engrossed in paperwork that she didn’t even notice Vesper come in. Bellamy was nowhere to be seen.
“Mazz,” Vesper walked up, tapping the solid oak desk to get her attention. “You seen Bellamy?”
Mazz leaned back in her chair and raised an eyebrow. “No, she better not be tormenting my employees.”
Vesper rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “Kind of thought she’d be tormenting you, actually.” Mazz stared at her, unimpressed and Vesper sighed. “She, uh, apparently didn’t know we used to date. Your newest employee helpfully told her. Now she’s stormed off to who knows where.”
“And you thought that would be to try and kill me again?” Vesper shrugged, and Mazz rolled her eyes. “Well, go find her before she finds someone else to take out her anger on.”
The problem was, Vesper didn’t know where else she’d be. She nodded anyway and left the back room, making her way to the lobby to ask if anyone out there had seen her. Right before shereached the bend that led to the main hallway, Meila came rushing around and smacked right into her.
“Shit, sorry,” Meila mumbled, grabbing Vesper to right herself. Then, she noticed who she’d run into. “Oh, good, V. Well, not good. Your girl left.”
Left?“What?”
Meila smoothed down her thin, white dress and ran a hand through her honeyed-brown hair. “Yeah, she left. Just”—she made a waving motion with her hand—“right out the front door. Didn’t grab a veil or anything. Thought you’d want to know.”
What the fuck was Bellamy thinking? She didn’t even answer, moving around Meila blindly. Where the fuck would Bel even go? Her mind ran through all the possibilities of what could happen to her. Bel wouldn’t be paying attention to her surroundings because she was pissed and upset. She’d be a fucking target, and an easy one too.
“Thanks, Meila,” Vesper mumbled. She knew Bel was upset, but honestly, did she have a fucking death wish?
Vesper turned the corner, blinking a few times against the bright lights in the lobby—well, not really bright, but brighter than in the hallway. It always took her a second to adjust. Then, she froze when she spotted someone unusual.
A man with slick-backed black hair stood calmly off to the side. He was studying the large windows on one side of the room, Mazz had designed them specially to show whatever the viewer found most appealing in the moment. It was a genius design, really. Vesper had asked her about it once, but she never understood the technicalities of Illusion magic well enough to follow Mazz’s explanation.
The man staring at them now stood out for one big reason: The Downstairs didn’t accept men as clients.
A predatory smile crawled onto his face, exposing his perfectly white teeth and scrunching the corners of his blank eyes when he turned and spotted Vesper. She paused, fire already flowing through her veins. Magic sparked against theinside of her fingertips like pin-pricks, signaling its eagerness to protect. The back of her neck prickled when they locked eyes.
“Ah, Vesper. Just who I was looking for. I’m Thoai from The Embunuh Organization. I was sent because there is an important matter that my superior needed to discuss with you.”
“Where’s Bellamy?” Vesper asked, squinting at the man. She thought she recognized him but couldn’t quite place it. His face rippled strangely when he turned to examine the red walls surrounding them, making it hard to distinguish any real features.
He turned slowly back to face her, that creepy ass smile still firmly in place. “I have a proposal for you.” He paused dramatically, and Vesper’s stomach dropped. She had a feeling she knew exactly what this was going to be. “Bellamy in exchange for the child you’ve been hiding all these years.”
Vesper stopped breathing. Her ears were ringing. His lips kept moving but nothing was getting through, it was all static. They had Bel. It was Bel or Cypress. What the fuck choice did Vesper have. They’d kill Bel if she didn’t give them Cypress. But they’d kill the kid if she handed her over.
“H-how do I know she’s still alive?” Vesper whispered, wishing her voice was more steady, louder.
