Chapter 189 THE CALM FACE OF BETRAYAL
Chapter 189
Rosa's POV
She said it the same way she said everything.
Quietly. Evenly.
Like a woman reciting something she had decided on long before she walked into this room.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I turned from her to the guard who had given away the keys.
He was already shrinking, his shoulders pulling inward, his eyes fixed on a spot on the floor that suddenly seemed very interesting.
"You told me," I said, walking toward him slowly, "that someone came to your door this morning. That she collected the keys herself. That you recognized her face." I stopped in front of him. "And you are going to look me in the eyes and tell me it was this woman."
His mouth opened. He looked at me. He looked at Lyra.
"I…" The word cracked in the middle. "I swear to the gods, Your Honor, what I told you is what I saw…"
"He was drunk."
Lyra's voice came from behind me. Calm. Unhurried. I turned.
"They had a harvest celebration last night, him and four of the other night guards. Ask any of the kitchen maids; they were drinking well past midnight." She looked at me with those still, careful eyes. "I was in my room all night. I've had cramps since yesterday evening.
"My colleagues can confirm it. His memory of this morning is a drunk man's memory." A pause. "You are free to believe him or not."
The guard made a sound, part protest, part desperation.
I hit him before I knew I was going to. The slap came from somewhere deeper than the decision.
His head swung sideways. I hit him again. And again. Each strike carried everything I couldn't say out loud, the empty safes, the cold floor, the shape of a smile at the corner of Lyra's mouth.
"Liar," I said very quietly. A second guard appeared in the doorway, drawn by the sound.
"Take him," I said. "Lock him in the holding cells. Armed company. He stays there until he decides to tell the truth, he's stolen from the throne and is withholding what he knows."
"My lord, please, I swear on my blood…"
"Quiet."
The word came out soft and absolute. They took him.
I turned back to Lyra. She stood exactly where she had been. Nothing had changed on her face, not during the slapping, not during the shouting, not during any of it.
That was what frightened me most, though I would never say it aloud.
"I still don't believe you," I said.
"That is your right," she replied.
"You're still leaving tonight. That hasn't changed."
"I know."
She turned and walked out. And as she passed through the doorway, just for a half second, just at the edge of my vision…I saw it: the faintest curve at the corner of her mouth.
Gone before I could be certain it had been there.
I stood alone in the room. Whatever Lyra had taken, she had moved it somewhere I couldn't reach without revealing that I had been searching.
And I couldn't search openly without explaining why the king's quarters had been emptied, and that explanation would require explaining where the king was.
The clock was already running.
Jax left in his vehicle with Leo last night. The whole pack had watched them go. In two days, or three, or at most a week, people would start counting the hours and asking questions I couldn't answer.
I needed to get ahead of it.
I called for a staff runner and dictated a message to be posted in the main hall: All palace staff and workers are to gather in one hour.
The Alpha has traveled on urgent pack business. Administrative matters will be directed through me until his return. Simple and clean. The kind of news that causes ripples but not waves, at least for now.
I sat back and pressed my fingers together. Ryder was waiting somewhere for word that the path was clear.
Vexhood was waiting to hear whether the plan had produced results. And Lyra was somewhere in this palace right now, walking toward a door she had already unlocked, carrying everything that could make or destroy a king.
The thought overwhelmed me like an amateur swimmer about to be swept away by a river current.
Lyra approached the doorway, turned her head once, a strange smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
Our eyes locked on each other. My hand shook
slightly. I stood at the center of the room until she disappeared from my sight.