Chapter 32 Sir Marcus Makes His Move
Elara's POV
I stepped into the dark corridor, my heart pounding with every step.
The castle was quiet. Most people slept. Guards stood at their posts, but I knew their positions now. Sir Marcus had made sure I learned every patrol route, every blind spot.
I hated that I knew these things.
My bare feet made no sound on the cold stone floor. I'd left my shoes behind, they would click and echo.
Drakon's study was three corridors away. The guards would change shifts in twenty minutes. I had to move fast.
I pressed myself against the wall as a guard walked past the end of the hallway. He didn't look my direction. Didn't see me hiding in the shadows.
When he turned the corner, I ran.
My lungs burned. My hands shook. Everything in me screamed to turn back, to run to my chambers and forget this whole terrible night.
But Lily's face filled my mind. Her scared handwriting. Her blood-soaked hair.
I kept moving.
Drakon's study door stood before me. Tall. Locked. Protected.
I pulled out the key Sir Marcus had given me. It felt heavy in my palm. Like it weighed more than metal should.
This was the moment. Once I unlocked this door and stole those maps, there was no going back. I would become everything Sir Marcus wanted me to be.
A traitor, a spy, a betrayer.
The key slid into the lock with a soft click.
I turned it slowly. The door opened.
Drakon's private study lay before me. Books lined the walls. His desk sat in the center, covered with papers and scrolls. A map hung on the wall showing all of Drakenmoor.
I stepped inside and closed the door quietly behind me.
Moonlight streamed through the window, giving just enough light to see. I didn't dare light a candle.
My hands trembled as I approached the desk. Papers covered every surface. Letters. Reports. Council notes.
Where would he keep military maps? Where would he hide something that important?
I checked the desk drawers. Locked. All of them.
A cabinet stood against the far wall. I tried it. Also locked.
Panic rose in my chest. I was running out of time. The guards would change shifts in fifteen minutes. If I didn't find the maps and get out before then, someone would see me.
Then I noticed a leather tube leaning against the wall behind the desk. The kind used to carry rolled maps.
I grabbed it and pulled off the cap. My hands shook so badly I almost dropped it.
Inside were rolled papers. I pulled them out carefully and spread them on the desk.
Military maps. Exactly what Sir Marcus wanted.
Detailed layouts of dragon patrol routes. Guard positions marked with small symbols. Defense towers highlighted. Weak points in the castle walls circled in red ink.
Everything an enemy would need to plan an attack.
Everything I was about to steal.
Tears blurred my vision. I pressed my palm against my mouth to stop the sob that wanted to escape.
I was really doing this. Really betraying Drakon. Really helping the people who wanted to destroy him and everyone he loved.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the empty room. "I'm so sorry."
But sorry didn't change anything. Sorry didn't save Lily.
I started rolling the maps back up carefully. My hands still shook. One of the maps tore slightly, and I gasped.
Evidence. I'd left evidence.
I smoothed the tear as best I could and kept rolling.
Just as I finished sliding the maps back into the leather tube, I heard footsteps in the corridor outside.
Heavy footsteps. Coming closer.
My heart stopped.
Someone was coming to the study. At one in the morning. When it should be empty.
The footsteps stopped right outside the door.
A key rattled in the lock.
No. No, no, no.
I looked around wildly for a hiding place. Behind the desk? Too obvious. The cabinet? Locked. Under the window curtains? Not enough space.
The door started to open.
I shoved the leather tube back against the wall where I'd found it and dove behind the desk, pressing myself into the small space beneath it.
The door opened fully.
Drakon walked in.
I could see his boots from my hiding spot. He moved to the desk and sat down in the chair, right above where I was hiding.
My heart hammered so loud I was sure he could hear it.
"Why can't I sleep?" Drakon muttered to himself. "Too much on my mind."
He pulled open a drawer. Papers rustled above me.
I held my breath. Didn't move a muscle. If he looked down, if he shifted his chair, if he dropped something and bent to pick it up, he'd see me.
Please don't look down. Please don't look down.
Minutes crawled by like hours. Drakon sat there reading something. His foot tapped against the floor just inches from my leg.
Finally, he sighed and stood up.
"Maybe some wine will help," he said to himself.
He walked toward the door.
I started to breathe again.
Then he stopped.
"Wait," Drakon said slowly. "Someone's been in here."
My blood turned to ice.
"The leather tube," he continued. "It's not where I left it. It's moved."
He walked back to the desk. His boots stopped right in front of my hiding place.
"Who's been in my study?"
I squeezed my eyes shut. This was it. He was going to find me. He was going to see me hiding under his desk like a thief.
Because that's what I was. A thief. Stealing from the man I loved.
Drakon knelt down.
His golden eyes met mine in the darkness under the desk.
For a moment, neither of us moved. Neither of us breathed.
Then Drakon's expression changed from confusion to shock to something worse.
Hurt. Deep, terrible hurt.
"Elara?" he whispered. "What are you doing under my desk?"