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Chapter 32
Dorian
Vira wasn’t going to show. Mist rolled in around our ankles in the cold early morning darkness, but nobody approached us.
“We can’t keep waiting,” Byron said. “We’ll only put the villagers in danger if the people at the compound come to drive us out.”
“Do what you want,” Niall said stubbornly. “I’m not going home without proper help.”
Byron looked exasperated, probably because he knew I wasn’t going to leave either.
“She could be a prisoner up there,” Ryan warned. “We’ve no idea what goes on in that compound or what happened to her after she left us.”
“One more hour,” Byron promised. “I’ll wait another hour, but we can’t make anybody help us.”
I stomped my ice-cold feet. I couldn’t wait to go home, but to leave so soon would feel like failure.
We kept waiting, past the hour, as Ryan and Byron grew more impatient.
I opened my mouth to say something when Ryan held up his hand. “Somebody’s coming.”
I heard light footsteps before I saw her, still shrouded in her shawl. Only her cold blue eyes peeked through as she approached the barn.
“Are you coming with us?” Niall demanded.
She clutched a bag to her stomach. She nodded, but she looked ready to dart off into the shadows. As though we all had the same thought, we grouped around her.
Byron gestured for us to move, a new urgency gripping us.
Though startled, the woman kept pace with us. I could finally breathe easy. We were going home to Margo with her birth mother, a woman who had real answers.
Leah’s cousin was still waiting for us, so thankful to get rid of us that he had borrowed a truck to take us to the closest airport.
I couldn’t help glancing at the woman on the way. “You’re really her mother?”
Her eerie gaze remained blank. “I had a child. If this is the same one, then I’m the mother.”
What a non-answer.
“She has a mother,” Niall said sharply. “My wife raised her as her own. We’re not looking for anything other than your help. When this is all fixed, I expect you to leave, understand?”
She nodded, looking a little relieved. I couldn’t imagine what was going through her head.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
She looked down at her hands in her lap. “Vira.”
“What are you so afraid of?”
She didn’t answer.
“I can protect you,” Byron said. “If you need a safe place, I can find you one.”
She lifted her chin stubbornly, and suddenly, I saw Margo. “I belong at the compound.”
“What happens there?” Ryan asked. “What is it you people do?”
“We are a community,” she said. “We try to keep the balance. We try to survive.”
