Chapter 87 Chapter 87

Chapter 87 Chapter 87
KILLIAN
If the necklace had been a basic artifact, I would have accepted Fabien’s answer, but it was a rather powerful one. You didn’t just happen upon something like that on the street.
Then the fact that the Alpha of Moon Valley had been in the city yesterday came to mind, and I paused. Fabien said he’d spoken to my father to try to get Lenore, not Cameron, out of the city—a decision that still confused me—and I’d been too pissed that she’d been alone with my father to register that their father hadn’t asked to see Cameron. Even if it wasn’t because of some father-son bond or whatever, he should have wanted the necklace back.
…Does he have another?
A sharp slurping sound made me lift my gaze to Aurel who had almost drained the bag in his hand, and I clicked my tongue before he looked up. He pulled the bag away from his mouth, his gaze flicking between me and Fabien as a small frown made its way onto his face. “...What?”
“Where are you and Aurora with the vault robbery?”
“Absolutely nowhere,” he replied, sounding rather proud of himself, and I narrowed my eyes at him. I’d figured that would be the answer—if he told me they’d already solved it, I’d throw them on the suspect list—but he was far too relaxed and cheerful right now. “...If you say something nasty, I’ll report you to Lenore.”
“Shut up,” I snarled, fixing him with a hard look, and he burst into laughter. Ancestors, preserve me. “We’ll talk in the morning, Fabien,” I added, more than willing to leave Aurel’s ridiculousness for Lenore, and Fabien gave me a nod before I headed for the exit.
“What? No goodbye for me?” Aurel called out and I shook my head. “Kiss Lenore goodnight for me!”
Fool. My lips twitched into a smile, and I quickened my pace until I got to the doorway before dashing back to the hallway my suite was in. I could have dashed straight to the bedroom, but I’d likely end up with a knife in my neck because Calley would think I was an intruder.
The first thing my gaze settled on was the guards—who had been assigned to Cameron—standing at the door of the suite next to mine. After what happened at the banquet, Cameron had asked Fabien if he could move closer to Lenore, and Fabien had given him the go-ahead, so here he was. We hadn’t spoken since I told him Lenore was my mate, but we’d come across each other earlier in my suite’s hallway—when he came to see Lenore before I finally went to talk to her—and he’d given me what I assumed was a friendly nod.
As I walked past the door, the guards bowed and that scent hit my nose. Vanilla. Jasmine. Bergamot.
Lenore’s.
My smile widened before I focused my gaze ahead, furrowing my brows when I saw that, apart from the two guards at my suite door, three women stood there—one of whom was about to open it. The other two drew her attention when they spotted me and then the three of them bowed just before I came to a stop in front of the door.
“Good evening, Your Highness,” they said in unison while I gave them a once-over. Fabien had slashed the number of maids in my mother’s palace to the bare minimum required to tend to its inhabitants after we found out what my father did to Lenore. The reason he’d done that was because most, if not all, of them reported what happened here to my father and his wife, and he didn’t want them keeping tabs on an unhinged Killian and an unconscious Lenore at the time.
He’d also slashed the number of Valentine’s guards and brought in a couple more who were loyal to his family. If he could, he would have replaced all of them, but my father would take that as us wanting to start a fight.
“Who are you?” I asked and the women raised their heads, looking like they wanted to ask if I was alright.
“Uh… maids?”
Why are there three of them? “Did Calley call for you?”
She’d been moving around while watching the show that had her cackling at intervals, so she could have used the bell-pull system.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Leave.” I didn’t want people coming and going from the suite, and she knew that.
They lowered their heads once more. “Yes, Your Highness.”
As I opened the door, they moved backward while still bowing, and Aurel’s scent suddenly slipped beneath Lenore’s when I stepped over the threshold, making me scrunch my nose. Ugh, why— I stilled.
Lenore’s scent had clouded my nose the moment I stopped in the hallway and I hadn’t questioned it because it was normal—she’d moved through the hallway today, after all. Catching Aurel’s scent wasn’t weird either. But right now, it felt like both scents were coming from three people… the three people I just realized I couldn’t sense.
What the—
An ice-cold sensation clasped around my neck before diving under my skin, and if I hadn’t been onto them, they might have succeeded at whatever they’d wanted to do. Might. I caught onto the invader, dousing it like one would pour water over a flame, just as Calley opened the study door, most likely coming to see who the fuck claimed she’d called for them.
There was no time to rationalize how, what, or why. Not when they were right behind me. The moment I whirled around, a wave of unseen, oppressive force crashed into my chest like a runaway freight train, driving the air from my lungs with a sharp gasp as the impact lifted me off my feet and launched me backward down the length of the suite’s hallway until my back slammed into the window at the far end.
Glass rained around me, shards biting into my back, but the daze only lasted for a fraction of a second before I righted myself, my gaze locking onto the women as the blond one walked into the hallway.
Witches.