ArcKnight (The ArcKnight Chronicles #1)

Chapter Thirty

Lilliana

The ArcKnight palace hovered high above me as I walked the streets of the stronghold. Wearing a hood over my head, it was easy to disguise myself in the evening crowd. No one recognized me. Was I so forgettable?

I had left Jason behind, refusing his help to protect me in the ArcKnight stronghold. It took some convincing, but I managed to make him stay and not tell Ephrem. No one knew this place as well as I did. I didn't need a bodyguard here.

I paused and looked up. The walls of the castle stood majestic against the darkened sky. I had yet to see a ray of sunlight and wondered if the KelHan pack had anything to do with it. It gave a chill to the air. I didn't feel as cold as I thought I should, but dressed weather appropriate so as to not arouse suspicion. I could have worn a tank top and shorts and not felt one bit uncomfortable. It was a sobering thought and a reminder of this new power humming in my veins.

I had to find out what was going on and why I'd never been told I was a descendant of the KelHan wolf pack. My mother was going to be my first stop.

I stepped behind a row of the shops and found the doorway I needed. Standing before the tunnels that matched the ones I'd used to enter the MarkTier palace, I grinned to myself. Funny how divided the wolf packs were, but there was evidence of their unity from long ago. Both palaces held secret passages for the royals to come and go without being noticed. Both had a hierarchy that was far too similar to be a coincidence. So many similarities, yet so far apart. It made me wonder what exactly had split the packs so severely that there had been no turning back.

Spreading out the set of lock picks Ephrem had acquired for me, I set to breaking in, fiddling with the tumblers until I heard a satisfying click. My inquisitive childhood was paying off big time. I slipped into the darkened corridor and shut and relocked the door behind me. They really needed to seal up this entrance, for it was far too easy to sneak into. I doubted Gil frequented these halls much. He wasn't the kind of guy to traipse around dirty, forgotten hallways.

My sister Rafaela, on the other hand, probably knew these halls backward and forward in her sleep. She was all about being prepared for those just-in-case scenarios. Not only that, she was the only reason I knew about them. Our childhood adventures had allowed me a lot of time to wander the halls without supervision. Who cares about a second-born royal daughter? They preferred having me out of the way.

I'd been fine with that. It had prepared me well for this day.

Finding the door I was looking for, I reached out and rapped on the dusty wood. I listened for movement, hoping it would be my mother who opened the door. The last time anyone knocked on this door, I was the one who'd done the knocking when I was eleven years old. Time had flown since then.

The locks clicked in succession, and my mother opened the door. Her smile was all it took for me to step in, close the door behind me and fall into her open arms.

"Lily! My sweet daughter. How I've missed you."

"Mother!" I inhaled her sweet lavender scent. It evoked a flood of memories that stung the back of my eyes and made me force down the sobs. "I need your help."

She stroked my hair and kept me close for minutes before letting go and leading me to the nearby reading chairs. I'd never been really close to her, but now I wished I had taken more time to talk with her. Books were stacked on the small table between the chairs where she loved to sit in the afternoons and read stories. She'd read her entire life, and I remembered her telling us bedtime stories when my sister and I were younger.

The thought seized up my throat once more.

"It's been so long. You're looking quite pale. What's been going on?" she asked.