Page 54 of Lost in Fire

“Half an hour,” I say, setting down the device.

“Yes.” She sips her coffee, but her eyes are distant. “Not much time.”

“Enough to pack what matters. Wake Ember. Explain that we’re taking a trip.” I move around the island toward her, already planning the logistics. “She’ll love it. Clean air, good community, other dragon families.”

“It sounds perfect,” she says quietly.

“It will be.” I reach for her hand, twining our fingers together. “All three of us. Finally.”

She doesn’t pull away, but something in her posture makes me pause. A tension that wasn’t there when we fell asleep planning our escape.

“Vanya?”

“I need to tell you something.” She sets down her coffee with careful precision. “About the extraction.”

The words make my stomach drop. “What about it?”

“I’m not coming with you.”

The kitchen spins. Coffee turns bitter in my mouth. “What?”

“I can’t leave.” She meets my eyes steadily, no apology in her expression. “The network depends on the Shadowhand’s continued presence. If I disappear, everything I’ve built falls apart.”

“We discussed this. Last night—”

“We discussed escape. We discussed possibilities.” Her voice stays level while my mind threatens to fracture. “I never said I was leaving.”

I step back, releasing her hand. “You let me believe—”

“I let you hope. Because I needed to hope, too, even if only for a few hours.”

“This is insane.” I prowl to the window, staring out at the simple road that will soon be filled with extraction vehicles. “You can’t stay. They’ll discover who you are, eventually. When they do—”

“When they do, I’ll handle it.” She follows me across the kitchen but doesn’t touch me. “The same way I’ve been handling it for fifteen years.”

“By yourself.”

“By myself.”

“That’s not good enough anymore.” I turn to face her, and she’s close enough that I can see the exhaustion she hides so well. “You have a daughter to think about. You have—”

“I have a network protecting dozens of dragons from Ivory League extremists.” Her composure finally cracks, just slightly. “Others like Ember who would be targeted for ‘purification’ if the wrong people found out about them. Cassia Nightvale’sintelligence sources. Safe passage routes for families fleeing Syndicate territories.”

She moves to the kitchen drawer, retrieves something I can’t see.

“If the Shadowhand vanishes, all of that collapses. Those families become exposed. Cassia becomes a target for harboring a traitor.” She turns back to me with an envelope in her hands.

The logic is sound. Brutal, but sound. Intelligence networks don’t survive the sudden disappearance of key assets. Everyone connected to the Shadowhand would become a liability to be eliminated.

“So what are you asking me to do?” The words come out roughly. “Take Ember and pretend her mother doesn’t exist?”

“I’m asking you to give her what I can’t.” Vanya holds out the envelope—cream paper with Ember’s name written across the front. “Safety. Truth about her heritage without the baggage of mine. A chance of a normal life.”

I take the letter, feeling its weight. “You’re asking me to tear her away from the only parent she’s ever known.”

“I’m asking you to save her.” For the first time, Vanya’s control wavers. “From the Ivory League. From Syndicate extremists. From me.”

“From you?”

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