Page 136 of Hunted By the Dragon Shifter
Her lip trembles. “No. No, not at all. It got out of hand.”
She wipes a tear from her eye and walks toward her door, slipping a pair of flat shoes on her feet. “That’s why I want to help. I won’t be compliant anymore.”
I follow her out of the room. We creep through the hallways in tightened silence. As I follow her lead, my suspicion grows more and more.
If she’s truly Lady Bethany’s daughter…then wouldn’t she know I was told I couldn’t speak to her and Lyra? Is she lying? Perhaps she’s leading me to Lady Bethany to turn me in, and this’ll all be over before we’ve even started.
With Aelia’s focus on the path ahead, I slip out my dagger from mythigh sheathe. Regardless of whether this is a trap or not, I’m a trained soldier. The best of the best. Even the two of them couldn’t take me on.
We get to the end of a hallway and she stops in front of me abruptly. I slam into the back of her and we both stumble before either of us can fall. Grabbing her shoulder, I edge her to the side so I can peer at what she’s looking at.
A trail of something dark is streaked across the floor, over the hallway runner, and to the other side of the hall. Beyond that is a single door. Slightly ajar.
“Oh, Gods,” Aelia breathes, taking a step back into me. “That’s blood…and that’s her room.”
I completely brush her aside and tiptoe closer, crouching near the blood trail. It glistens in the dim light, not quite absorbed by the rug.
It’s fresh.
Turning my head left, it stretches down another hallway, no end in sight. I turn right. More there, too. Standing, I step over it and peek into the parted door. Nobody is in the bed. I use my dagger as a mirror, teasing it into the room and tilting it to capture the angles hidden by the door.
Glancing over my shoulder at Aelia, who is stricken white. I urge, “Come on. We won’t have much time. She’s not here.”
“S-she’s not?” she whimpers.
No time for emotions. Without waiting for her, I push into the room. It's decorated similarly to the rest of ours. Two nightstands frame the bed, and I move for the one on the left. As I creep further into the room, my heart the only sound in my ears, I sweep my attention to the bathroom.
Not there either.
Reaching the nightstand, I test the drawer. Naturally, it’s locked. Using my dagger, I shove it into the crack between the drawer and the nightstand, using my strength to pry it open.
Light footsteps sound behind me, and I take a split second to glance and find Aelia is in the room with me. She shakes her head and points to the other side of the bed. “Not that one, this one.”
Removing my dagger, I go for the nightstand on the right. We work together to force it open. My dagger in the crack as I hold the nightstand still, and she pulls at the handle.
It creaks in protest, then snaps. Aelia falls back as I catch the nightstandbefore it can fall on her. We both scramble for the ring of keys in the drawer. Next to it is a vial.
I pluck the vial up as she grabs the keys. Turning it in my fingers, I hold it up to look at it in the starlight spilling in through the window across the room.
It’s dark. Darker than blood. Black, even. Unless the dim light is playing tricks on me. As I shift it, pinpricks of light shimmer within it.
“It’s his blood” Aelia murmurs, standing with the keys.
Pocketing it, I take the drawer and slide it back in. Then kick the splinters of wood under the bed. “Come on. Wherever your mother is, she might be back soon.”
As we get to the door, Aelia grabs me to face her. “I-I can’t. I have to go find her. Whatever this is…” her voice shakes as she motions to the blood in the hall, “I can’t leave her if she’s in danger. I have to find her.”
I grab the keys from her. “Aelia, if something has happened to her, it might be too late anyway. And if you follow her, it might mean your death, too.”
“She’s mymother,” she whispers.
A jolt of understanding, of a memory, shoots through me.
He’s my brother.
Nodding, I whisper to her, “Good luck.” I step over the blood and head down the hall.
Fifty-Two
