Chapter 159

Chapter 159: Chapter 159

Lysander’s pov

I looked at the bedroom door. Down the hall, the house guards were pacing the lower corridors. Drake was in the capital, his mind poisoned by suspicion, convinced I had betrayed him with his greatest enemy.

If I stayed here, if I let his royal physicians put me on a table and drain my blood for testing, the truth would be laid bare before I even understood it myself.

I couldn’t stay. I needed the truth from the only man who knew what had actually been done to me in that study.

I stood up, my knees trembling before I forced my weight onto my feet.

I pulled my heavy charcoal hoodie over my head, tugging the strings tight. I didn’t grab boots; I pulled on thick wool socks that would deaden the sound of my steps against the floorboards.

I knew I was making a big mistake but I had to find answers. I didn’t have memories of that day and it was driving me crazy but I know Darius touched me.

I wanted to confirm that.

I walked to the bedroom door and turned the handle as softly as I could.

The service corridor was quiet, lit only by the pale, gray storm light filtering through the high windows. I kept my back pressed to the wall, slipping past the linen closet and down the narrow spiral staircase that led to the wine cellar.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. Every creak of the old wood felt like a bell ringing through the house.

I reached the reinforced steel service door at the bottom of the cellar. The digital keypad glowed a pale, steady green. I held the silver token close to the scanner, my fingers shaking as I typed in the five-digit override code.

The heavy lock disengaged with a quiet, dull thunk.

I slipped outside, pulling the door closed until the latch caught, and stepped straight into the freezing mountain rain.

The cold hit my face like a slap, stinging my skin and soaking through my sweater in seconds. I stayed low, crouching behind the stone pillars beneath the north deck, my eyes scanning the muddy lawn.

Fifty yards away, a house guard stood beneath the shelter of a pine tree, his back turned to the lower rock face as he checked the eastern fence line.

I moved fast, my feet digging into the wet grass, darting from the shadow of one massive pine to the next.

The rain muffled the sound of my movement, the cold wind whipping my wet hair into my eyes as I reached the outer tree line where the perimeter blood wards hummed through the soil.

The magic felt like a hot, vibrating wall of ozone, tasting of Drake’s sandalwood essence.

I held the silver pendant tight in my fist, closing my eyes, and stepped straight into the red glare.

The ward flared bright for a fraction of a second, the heat washing over my skin before recognizing the royal mark and parting smoothly around me.

I broke through the boundary, tumbling into the thick, wild brush of the unwarded forest beyond.

I didn’t stop to catch my breath. I scrambled to my feet and began to run.

The forest was a dark, chaotic blur of slippery roots, sharp briars, and freezing mist. My lungs burned as I pushed through the brush, my hands scraped and bloody as I slipped on the wet mud, but the desperate panic driving my legs forward was stronger than the cold.

Every stride away from the estate felt like a betrayal, a sharp tear in the bond connecting me to Drake. He would return to the house, find my room empty again, and his cold suspicion would solidify into certainty.

Let him be angry, I thought, tears mixing with the rainwater running down my face as I shoved past a low pine branch. Let him hate me. I have to protect this. I have to know what Darius did.

It took me nearly forty minutes of frantic, punishing pacing through the dark forest to reach the cracked asphalt of the old logging road.

The rain was coming down harder now, turning the gravel shoulder into a stream of thick, brown mud. I stood at the edge of the tree line, my chest heaving, my body shivering violently as the cold seeped deep into my bones.

I pulled the burner phone from my pocket—the one I had retrieved from its hiding spot under the studio floorboards before running. My hands were so numb I could barely press the pre-saved contact.

I brought the phone to my ear. It rang once. Twice.

"I didn’t expect to hear from you again so soon, little bird," Darius’s voice purred smoothly through the speaker, laced with that dark, velvet arrogance that made my stomach turn inside out. "Is Balthazar’s cage getting too tight?"

"I’m at the logging road," I rasped out, my voice raw and breaking against the sound of the wind. "Send the car, Darius. Send the car right now."

A low, amused chuckle echoed over the static. "Desperate again, Lysander? Did Drake find the marks I left on you?"

"I need answers," I screamed into the phone, my composure completely shattering as a fresh wave of nausea clawed at my throat. "I need to know what you put in that collar! I need to know what you did to my blood!"

"The car is already three miles out, Lysander," Darius murmured softly, his tone dipping into a smooth, predatory command. "Stand in the shadows and wait. We have a great deal to discuss."

The line went dead with a soft click.

I lowered the phone, my trembling hand dropping to my side as I backed deeper into the dark pine trees, my back hitting the rough bark of a trunk.

I wrapped my arms around my middle, my fingers clutching the soaked fabric of my hoodie over my stomach, waiting in the freezing rain for the dark sedan to cut through the fog, knowing that once I stepped back into his world, there would be no coming back.