There must be an explanation. How could they have come in here with me just outside on the street? How could I have missed someone entering?
And Saela. She would have defended herself, just like I taught her. She wouldn’t have gone quietly.
Not my sister. MySaela.
Maybe she’s in my mother’s room. My frozen muscles jerk to life, and I race out of the room, down the short hallway to my mother’s room. Yanking open the door, I scan the dark room frantically, but there’s no sign of her.
My mother sits up sleepily, blinking at me, but I can’t speak the words, can’t explain.
I search the bathroom.
The living space and kitchen.
She’s not here. Her coat and boots are, though, neatly tucked next to the front door. I stare at them numbly, then turn back toward our bedroom.
My breath comes in little gasps as I stick my head out the window. Tiny swirls of snow have started, and my breath puffs white in the frigid air. I look back and forth, scanning every inch of the view, willing my eyes to find a clue out in the cold darkness, but there’s no sign of what happened, nothing moving in the alleyway beside our house.
Something else catches my eye that I didn’t see before, though, as I pull myself back inside the room. In the corner of the window frame, snagged on a long, jagged splinter of wood: a tiny piece of white cloth.
A perfect match for Saela’s nightgown.
Sinking down to the floor, I hear a keening sound, and register after a few moments that it’s coming from my lips. I shudder and knock my head back against the wall, relishing the jarring pain.
Either Saela snuck out into the snow in her nightgown in the middle of the night… or someone took her.
While I was out in the snow, making plans for a better future with Lee, my sister was stolen in the night.
Even as my mind rejects the words, my body is reacting. I slam the window shut, then tug on boots and throw on a coat as I race out into the darkness.
Lee has to be nearby still, he just departed. I turn left toward his path to the Northern Quarter andrun. Within a few minutes, I spot his large frame walking purposefully down the quiet street.
“Lee!” I scream. He turns, his face alighting with a smile at the sight of me, which quickly drops at my obvious panic.
He jogs toward me, worry creasing his brow, and grabs me by the arm. “Meryn, what’s?—”
“Saela,” I pant, my breathing ragged from the run. It hurts to say her name. “She was missing when I went back inside.” My mind spirals again.No, no, no, no…
Lee’s hand tightens on my forearm, grounding me, bringing me back into the present. “We’ll search for her,” he tells me, radiating calm and authority. I sag against him. “Let’s get back to your neighborhood and start there. We’ll wake your neighbors. We’ll find her, Mer. She can’t have gone far.”
He doesn’t put a voice to my fears. To the only logical conclusion: she’s been kidnapped.
Time seems to yawn and jump, skipping ahead in starts.
I snap back to focus in front of Igor’s door and pound my fist against it. “Igor!” my voice comes out halfway as a sob. I shout his name again and again, slamming my hands into the wood. Lee’s hand on my shoulder quells me.
Doors crack to either side of us, cautious faces looking out to see what’s causing the commotion. One of my sister’s former teachers recognizes me, comes out the door wearing nothing but her nightclothes, a thick shawl, and boots. “Meryn? Is that you?”
Igor’s door swings open and he and his wife Prina stand in the doorway, worry etched on their faces. A pit opens up in my belly, and my insides churn, as if caught in a storm.
“It’s Saela,” I manage. “She’s gone. She’s—they took her.”
“We need to look for her,” Lee interjects. “Can you come help us? If you take the northern end of the neighborhood, we can head west, then check Central Market.”
Igor’s taken two big steps forward, and I start when he wraps his big arms around me. “Meryn,” he says, and there’s a whole paragraph in those two short syllables. “Of course we’ll help you.” But I hear in his voice the words he doesn’t say.
I break away. “No!No. She’s not gone. We can’t give up on her?—”
Igor’s already grabbed his coat, pulled on his boots. Saela’s teacher joins us, having hastily pulled on some trousers over her nightclothes. “We aren’t giving up, Meryn. We’re here with you.”
