Claimed by the Beastly Lycan King

CHAPTER 14; THE HUNTED

POV- KAELIRA

I moved.

But not because I had a plan, I did not have a plan,but because standing still in the middle of a chapel with shadows circling every window was not something my body was willing to do any longer.

I looked at Greta one last time, then I ran for the side door.

It was a small wooden door half hidden behind the last pew. It was the kind that blended into the wall if you were not looking for it, and I found it by feel more than sight, pushing through it into the cold night air and pressing myself flat against the outer chapel wall immediately.

I could hear them, four at least, or maybe more, moving through the grass around the building , their footsteps unhurried and deliberate, spreading out the way people move when they are not chasing someone, when they are simply making sure there is nowhere left to go.

The bell tower entrance was on the far side of the chapel. It was a rusted iron hatch set low into the stone, and getting to it meant crossing open ground for about ten steps with nothing between me and whoever was out there.

I counted to three and ran.

But nobody shouted.

Then I hit the hatch, pulled it open, and it screamed on its hinges loud enough to stop my heart. I threw myself through it, pulled it shut behind me and pressed my back against the inside of it, breathing in complete silence.

Footsteps in the grass outside, closer now, someone had heard.

I looked up.

The inside of the tower was narrow and dark, a wooden ladder bolted to the stone running straight up to the bell platform above, and I climbed it as fast and as quietly as I could. My arms were shaking, splinters catching my palms, until I pulled myself up through the hatch in the platform floor and lay flat against the old wood in the dark.

Below me, the iron hatch opened. Then I stopped breathing…

Two sets of footsteps came inside, moving slowly, and I lay perfectly still above them with my cheek against the dusty platform floor, listening to them search the ground level of the tower.

"She cannot have gone far," one of them said, low and flat, "check the outer path."

"She crushed the ring," the other one said. "We need to finish this before he gets here."

"How long do we have?"

"Not long enough if we stand here talking."

My hands were pressed flat against the wood on either side of my face and I felt the silver stir under my skin, that warm electric pull that had been building since the library, but I could not control it, every time I reached for it it slipped sideways, flickering in and out like a candle in wind, and I knew with absolute certainty that if it sparked visibly right now they would look up and find me.

I pressed my hands harder against the wood, held my breath and held everything else too, all of it. Every feeling, every thought, every ounce of panic trying to c***k through the surface.

The silver steadied. It was barely, but it held.

"She is not in here," one of them said below me, and I heard them move back toward the hatch.

I exhaled so slowly it took almost ten seconds.

Then the main chapel door below burst open with a sound like something heavy had simply walked through it without bothering to knock, and a voice I recognised came through the tower floor as clearly as if the speaker was standing beside me.

"Drop it," Lucien said, very calmly. "Both of you, right now."

There was a short silence.

Then two thuds in quick succession that I did not want to think too hard about.

Then quiet.

"Kaelira," Lucien called, his voice lifting slightly, "you can come down now."

I lay there for another three seconds just to be certain, then climbed back down the ladder on legs that were significantly less reliable than they had been on the way up, pushed through the hatch at the bottom and found Lucien standing in the chapel with two of his personal guards and two men on the floor who were no longer a problem.

I looked at the men on the floor, then at Lucien.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked.

"I saw you leave," he said simply, as if that explained everything.

"You followed me," I said.

"I followed you," he agreed, without any apology in it, already moving toward the chapel door. "Come on, we need to get you inside before more of them arrive."

Then I followed him across the dark grounds and back through the side gate, and the whole way back I watched him, the easy way he moved, the complete absence of alarm in him, the way he had arrived at exactly the right moment without any explanation for how he had known exactly where to find me.

Inside my chambers, he waited while I sat on the edge of the bed and told him everything Greta had said, watching his face the whole time the way he had watched mine when I first arrived in this palace.

Lucien listened carefully, then went quiet for a moment, and told her there is only one person who had enough power and enough reach twenty years ago to order a Luna killed and make sure nobody ever looked into it afterward, his voice dropping so low I had to lean forward to hear him properly.

"The person who ordered your mother's death," he said carefully, "is someone whose name would tear this palace apart if it ever came out, someone connected to the current throne in a way that changes everything you think you know about why you are really here."

I stared at him, "Tell me the name."

He looked at me for a long moment, something moving behind his eyes that I could not read, then he straightened and moved toward the door. "Not tonight, I need to be certain before I say it out loud, saying the wrong name in this palace gets people killed."

He left before I could stop him, and I sat there in the dark holding the broken pieces of Ronan's ring in my palm, with half a truth that felt more dangerous than no truth at all.