Chapter 4 FOUR

The walk back to the library was a blur. My heart was a wild thing trying to beat its way out of my chest. He knew. He didn’t know everything, but he knew I was a lie. I felt flayed open, every nerve ending exposed to the cold air of the corridor.

I pushed the library door open, the immense quiet of the room doing little to calm the storm inside me. Master Fenwick looked up from his ledger, his eyes narrowing.

"You are back early. I trust you performed your duties to the Lord's satisfaction?"

"I... I believe so, sir. He dismissed me." My voice sounded thin, reedy to my own ears.

Fenwick studied me for a long moment, his wrinkled face unreadable. "You look pale, girl. The Lord's presence can be... intense. Go fetch a bucket of water and a fresh cloth from the storeroom. The west wing archives need a thorough cleaning. It is quiet work. It will steady your nerves."

It was a small kindness, and it surprised me. "Thank you, sir."

I was gathering the supplies from the small, dark storeroom when a shadow filled the doorway. I turned, expecting Fenwick, and my blood ran cold.

It was Lord Malachi. He leaned against the doorframe, a lazy, predatory smile on his handsome face.

"Well, well. The little maid who tells tales. I heard you had a private audience with my cousin this morning."

I gripped the bucket handle until my knuckles turned white. "I was only dusting, my Lord."

"Dusting," he purred, taking a step into the small space, forcing me to step back. "Is that what they're calling it now? You must be very good with your... hands... for Kaelen to take such a personal interest."

The implication hung in the air, ugly and threatening. "My Lord, I assure you—"

"Assure me of what?" he interrupted, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "That you aren't weaving a web for him? I saw you in the hall. You're no simple maid. Simple maids don't have that fire in their eyes. They cower. They don't challenge their betters."

He was closer now, close enough for me to smell the cloying scent of wine on his breath. "My cousin is a fool, blinded by his own sense of honor. But I see you, little spider. I see you clearly."

"What is it you think you see, my Lord?" I forced myself to hold my ground, to meet his gaze.

"I see an opportunity," he said simply. "Kaelen is weak. He questions the old ways. He feels regret for necessary actions. A true ruler does not look back. He only looks forward to more power." He reached out and traced a finger along the edge of the wooden bucket I held. "A clever girl like you, placed in his inner circle... you could go far with the right patron."

He was offering me a deal. To spy for him. The audacity of it almost made me laugh. The two most powerful vampires in the Citadel were now both trying to recruit the same dragon hiding in plain sight.

"I am just a maid, my Lord. I dust shelves. I am not suited for politics."

"Everyone is suited for survival," Malachi countered, his eyes glinting. "Think on it. My protection could be far more valuable than my cousin's fleeting attention. His interest in toys never lasts long. But my gratitude... that is eternal."

He didn't wait for an answer. He simply smiled that venomous smile again and swept out of the storeroom, leaving me alone with the pounding of my heart and the chilling weight of his proposition.

I stood there for a full minute, just breathing. I was trapped between the lord who suspected me and the lord who wanted to use me. The space between them felt like a shrinking cage.

I finally carried the bucket and cloth out to the west wing archives, a dusty, windowless room filled with older scrolls. The work was mindless, and I was grateful for it. I needed to think.

I was on my hands and knees, scrubbing at a stubborn spot on the stone floor, when a soft voice spoke from the doorway.

"They have you doing floors again? I thought you were promoted."

I looked up. It was Anya, the scullery maid I had saved. She held two apples, and she held one out to me. "I never properly thanked you."

I took the apple, my throat unexpectedly tight. "You don't have to thank me."

"Yes, I do," she said firmly, sitting on the floor beside me. "No one else would have done it. They were all too scared." She took a bite of her apple. "Is it true? You were in the Lord's solar?"

News traveled fast. "Just dusting," I said, the lie feeling hollow.

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. "You have to be careful, Liana. The others, they're saying things."

"What kind of things?"

"That the Lord favors you. That you're... ambitious." She looked down at her hands. "Brigitta says that when a maid draws the eye of a lord, it never ends well for the maid. We're meant to be invisible."

Her words echoed my own fears. "I don't want his eye, Anya. I just want to do my work and be left alone."

"But you're not being left alone, are you?" she asked, her young eyes far too perceptive. "First the Lord, and now I heard one of Malachi's men asking about you in the kitchens."

The cage shrank another inch. I felt a sudden, fierce need to protect this girl, to keep her far away from the danger swirling around me.

"Anya, listen to me. If anyone asks you about me, you know nothing. You owe me your thanks, so pay it back by staying safe. Stay away from me."

Her eyes widened. "Why? What's happening?"

"Just promise me," I insisted, my voice low and urgent. "Promise me you'll keep your head down and stay out of it."

She searched my face, fear finally replacing her curiosity. "I promise."

She left soon after, leaving me with the half-eaten apple and a dread that was curdling into resolve. Malachi's offer was not an offer; it was a threat. And Kaelen's scrutiny was a noose slowly tightening.

I could not stay here, a passive player in their game. I was a dragon, not a pawn. It was time to stop just surviving. It was time to start fighting back. But to do that, I needed information. I needed to know my enemy better than he knew himself. And I knew just where to start. That plain, leather-bound journal in the main library was no longer just a curiosity. It was a weapon. And I was going to steal it.