The Runaway Luna

#14

Aria.

The corridor was empty when I got back.

I stood in the doorway of our small quarters and looked at the room for a few seconds before my brain caught up with what my eyes were seeing.

Two small boots by the door. Diana's red ribbon on the floor. The cot with the blanket pushed back and nobody in it.

Empty.

"Freya." My voice came out scared.

Freya turned from the small table where she had been working and the moment she saw my face she stood up.

"They were here," she said immediately. "I stepped out to get more water from the well down the corridor. I was gone for maybe ten minutes Aria. They were sleeping when I left."

"Ten minutes." I repeated it back to her.

"I came back and they were gone. I thought maybe you had come back early and taken them somewhere but—"

I was already out of the door.

I checked the corridor first. Both directions. Nothing. I went to the washing room at the end of the hall because Diana liked to splash water when nobody was watching.

Empty.

I checked behind the large linen shelves where Damon sometimes sat when he wanted to be alone.

Nothing.

Freya appeared beside me and we split without discussing it. She went towards the kitchen and the back gardens. I went towards the main halls.

I asked every person I passed. A guard near the east staircase. Two maids carrying fresh linen. An old groundskeeper who looked at me like I was speaking another language.

Nobody had seen them.

My chest was getting tighter with every door I pushed open and found empty. I knew what this palace was. I knew who walked these halls.

Talia was somewhere in this building. Her men were somewhere in this building. She had already come to my home once with the intention of making sure I didn't leave.

If she had found out who the children were —

I pressed that thought down hard before it could finish itself.

I pushed through a door that led to an outdoor walkway and checked both ends.

Checked the small storage room underneath the staircase because Diana had called it a hiding spot the night before and said she wanted to sleep in it.

Empty.

I was back inside, moving towards the upper floor now, when Freya grabbed my elbow from behind.

"Aria."

"I haven't checked the upper corridors yet—"

"Aria." Her voice was steady in a way that made me stop. "Before you go up there. Breathe."

"I can't breathe right now Freya."

"I know," she said quietly. "But you cannot walk into the upper halls crying. You'll draw attention."

I hadn't even realised I was crying.

I pressed the back of my hand against my eyes hard and pulled in a slow breath. My hands were shaking badly. I pressed them flat against my sides.

Three years. Three years of sleeping light, watching doors, memorising exits. Three years of making sure those two were never more than a few steps away from me or Freya.

Three years and I had let my guard down for one single morning to do my duties and this was what happened.

I had so many enemies. Too many. Talia alone was enough. But in a palace like this, with politics moving behind every closed door, there were a hundred ways a child could be used. A hundred reasons someone might want to get their hands on the Alpha's heirs.

If they even knew who the children were..My stomach turned.

"Let's go up," Freya said, linking her arm through mine.

We moved together through the main corridor of the upper floor, checking rooms as we went. A sitting room. A small library. A closed door that turned out to be a storage cupboard full of candles.

I was about to try the next corridor when I heard it.

Laughter.

High pitched bubbly laughter.

Diana.

I followed the sound without thinking, moving faster than I had moved all morning until I reached the door at the far end of the hall. It was slightly open. The laughter was coming from inside.

I pushed it open.

It was a large study. Dark wood, shelves full of documents, a wide desk in the centre with a chair big enough to swallow a grown man.

Diana was sitting in that chair.

She had her legs swinging back and forth off the edge, her head thrown back mid-laugh at something.

Her brown eyes were bright and her cheeks were flushed and she looked completely and entirely unbothered by the fact that her mother had just aged ten years looking for her.

Eryx was on one knee in front of her, and whatever he had just said was the thing that made her laugh. He was smiling. Not the cold flat expression he wore everywhere else.

Damon was standing beside him, looking at something laid out on the desk. Eryx turned slightly and said something to him and Damon nodded, pointing at whatever was in front of them.

Eryx responded and Damon pointed again and Eryx adjusted something and Damon looked satisfied in the particular way he did when he decided an adult had finally given him a correct answer.

I stood in the doorway and couldn't move. Then Diana looked up and saw me.

"Mummy!!"

I crossed the room in four steps and dropped to my knees and pulled them both in. Diana wrapped her arms around my neck immediately, still giggling.

I held them tighter.

My face was wet and I didn't care. I pressed my lips to Diana's hair and then to the top of Damon's head and just stayed there for a moment with my eyes closed, both of them in my arms.

"Mummy you're squishing me," Diana announced.

"Thank Goodness," I muttered.

I finally pulled back and looked at them both properly. No marks. No fear in their faces.

Diana was already turning back towards Eryx to continue whatever conversation I had interrupted. Damon looked at my wet face and then looked away like he was giving me privacy.

I stood up slowly and turned.

Eryx was already standing, watching me. He had stepped back to give me space and was leaning against the edge of the desk with his arms folded.

The smile was gone. He was back to that unreadable expression. But his eyes were doing something they hadn't done any of the other times he had looked at me.

"They found their way here on their own," he said. "The girl walked in and sat in my chair before I could say anything."

"I told him it was a very big chair," Diana offered helpfully from said chair.

"You should have called someone to take them back," I said, my voice coming out shakier than I wanted it to.

"I was going to," he said simply.

I nodded and crouched back down to the twins.

"We are leaving right now," I told them firmly.

"But Eryx was showing Damon the maps," Diana said.

I froze.

"Eryx?" I looked at Damon.

Damon looked at Eryx. Then back at me. "He said we could call him that."

I slowly turned my head to look at Eryx.

He said nothing. He just looked back at me with those eyes that gave nothing away and everything away at the same time.

"Come on," I said quietly, taking both their hands.

I walked them to the door without looking back.

But at the very last second Diana twisted around and waved at him with her whole arm.

"Bye Eryx!!"

I didn't hear his response.