Chapter 97 Beneath keal smile
Thorne saw the situation spiraling out of control. Lila was showing knowledge she shouldn't have and physical capabilities that were impossible for someone so weak. If this continued, people would start asking dangerous questions.
He had to eliminate her now before she remembered anything else.
While everyone was distracted by Lila's shocking statement, Thorne stood and drew his sword in one smooth motion. The blade whispered from its sheath, already swinging toward Lila's exposed neck.
"For defying your superior, you die!" Thorne's voice carried absolute conviction.
But Keal had been watching Thorne carefully.
The moment the councilor's hand moved toward his weapon, Keal was already in motion.
His own blade cleared its sheath and intercepted Thorne's strike with a sharp clang of metal on metal.
The force of Keal's counter drove Thorne back three steps. The councilor stumbled, barely keeping his grip on his sword.
The sound of steel shocked Adrian from his frozen state. He reached down and pulled Lila to his side with firm but not cruel force.
He pressed her down so she knelt directly beside him, her head bent low enough that her forehead nearly touched the hem of his royal robes.
It was a position of supplication. Of claiming royal protection. By forcing Lila into this posture at his side, Adrian was making a statement: she was under his direct authority, and no one could touch her without going through him first.
"Thorne." Adrian's voice was utterly cold. "You drew steel in my presence without permission. You attempted to execute someone without my explicit command. Explain yourself immediately."
Thorne straightened, trying to regain his authoritative bearing. "Your Majesty, the law is clear. Any servant who physically restrains or challenges a superior must be executed immediately. I was simply enforcing—"
"You were enforcing nothing." Adrian's voice cut like a blade. "You attempted to kill someone under my protection without my leave. Did you forget that particular law? The one that says only the Alpha King can order executions in his own palace?"
Thorne's face flushed with barely contained rage, but he bowed stiffly. "My apologies, Your Majesty. I was... overzealous in defending your honor."
"My honor doesn't need defending by someone who doesn't know basic protocol." Adrian's eyes were hard. "Sheath your weapon and return to your seat, now!"
Thorne complied grudgingly, his expression promising future retribution.
Lila, still kneeling beside Adrian with her head bent low, could see the hem of his royal robes clearly. The pattern, the specific embroidery and cut.
It was exactly the same as the headless figure from her nightmares. The man in royal dress who loomed over her with no face.
Fear overwhelmed her so completely that sweat broke out across her skin. She began trembling uncontrollably, unconsciously shifting backward away from Adrian even while still kneeling.
Adrian felt her retreat and his anger flared again. He'd just saved her life, just protected her from Thorne's execution and she was trembling before him as if he was the threat?
The rage that surged through him was irrational and overwhelming. He wanted to grab her and demand why she feared him more than the man who'd tried to kill her. Why she looked at him like he was a monster.
Keal saw the fury building in Adrian's expression and understood immediately.
The spell was triggering again. Anytime Lila showed fear of Adrian, the artificial anger would spike to prevent him from recognizing that her fear itself was unnatural, planted by the same magic hiding the bond.
Keal needed to act fast before Adrian did something he'd regret.
He stepped forward and addressed Adrian directly. "Your Majesty, the law regarding Lila's offense is clear. She physically restrained a superior and spoke disrespectfully. However, I propose an alternative to execution."
Thorne's eyes lit up with false concern. "Lord Keal, surely you're not suggesting we ignore such blatant…"
"I'm suggesting we follow precedent." Keal's voice was firm. "In ancient law, servants who show combat ability during their offense can be conscripted into military service as punishment. It's a slower death than beheading, certainly, but it serves the kingdom better."
Thorne's mouth curved into a smile he quickly hid behind a concerned frown. "Conscripting a woman into the warrior program? That's not punishment, Lord Keal. That's cruelty. Better to give her a quick death than force her to suffer through training she can't possibly survive."
He was trying to appear compassionate while actually pushing for immediate execution. The politics were transparent to anyone paying attention.
Garrett, however, seemed to genuinely like Keal's suggestion. If Lila was thrown into brutal warrior training, she'd likely die from the physical demands. And if she somehow survived, the constant exhaustion and pain would keep her from remembering anything dangerous.
"I support Lord Keal's proposal," Garrett said smoothly. "The girl clearly has some combat instinct, unrefined as it is. Let her serve the kingdom through military training. If she survives, we gain a soldier. If she doesn't..." He shrugged. "Then justice is served either way."
Adrian stared down at Lila, who still knelt beside him trembling with fear she couldn't explain. The anger churning in his chest demanded he punish her severely.
Demanded he make her understand that her fear was an insult he wouldn't tolerate.
But beneath that artificial rage, some part of him recognized the truth. She was terrified of him specifically, and that terror wasn't natural. Something was very wrong with how their emotions toward each other had been twisted.
"Very well." Adrian's voice was cold and final. "Lila Heartwell, for the crimes of improper service, physical restraint of a superior, and speaking disrespectfully to a noble, you are hereby sentenced to conscription into the warrior training program. You will train with the soldiers daily while maintaining your servant duties. Failure to meet either obligation will result in immediate execution."
Keal allowed himself a small smile that Thorne and Garrett both interpreted as cruel satisfaction. They thought he was condemning Lila to a slow painful death through impossible demands.
They had no idea that Keal had just given himself daily access to Lila. Time to observe her. To test his theories about the spell. To see if rigorous physical training might shock her body into breaking through the memory blocks.
Because Keal had spent the last month investigating the rapid wolf he'd captured during his hunt for Lila. He'd conducted countless tests on the creature's blood and tissue. He'd studied its transformation patterns.
And he'd discovered something extraordinary. The rapid transformation wasn't a disease. It was induced through a specific poison that corrupted the wolf spirit while leaving the human consciousness partially aware. A poison that could be created, controlled, and deployed as a weapon.
He'd wanted revenge for his family's deaths for years. His mother and siblings had burned in a fire after being accused of turning rapid. He'd been just a child, hiding in terror while they screamed for help he was too frightened to provide.
He'd lived in the forests ever since, searching for any clue about what had really happened to them.
And that night he'd been sent to retrieve Lila for the rejection ritual, he'd caught a rapid wolf in his territory. He'd killed it, preserved it, and had been systematically analyzing it ever since.
That's why he'd treated Lila's wounds after her beating. That's why he'd petitioned Adrian to reduce her punishment. Not out of romantic interest, but because she was the key to unraveling a conspiracy that had destroyed his family.
She was the lead to a truth that would finally free him from the nightmares that haunted him every night.
So Keal smiled while Thorne's face furrowed with poorly hidden rage and Garrett grinned with approval at what he thought was Lila's death sentence.
Lila remained kneeling, her eyes fixed on the hem of Adrian's robes. All she could see was that pattern. That specific design from her nightmares. The headless man in royal dress looming over her, faceless and threatening.
Her mind couldn't separate dream from reality anymore. Everything blurred together into a confusing mess where she didn't know what was memory, what was nightmare, and what was truly happening in the present.
As the council meeting dissolved and Lila was led away to begin her impossible dual service, she remained trapped somewhere between waking and s
leeping. Between past and present. Between truth and the spell that kept her from accessing it.