Dawn of Arcane Destiny

Chapter Ninety-Seven

"Caelum it was weird. She either lied to my face, or honestly didn't know where she got the cut." Drayce said running his fingers through his hair.

"Drayce you don't know it was her for sure." Caelum said.

"I told you already." He said emphatically. "When we exchanged blows, I cut her arm in the exact same place Lillia has a cut. I looked at the cut myself. It wasn't just a cut. It was a laceration from a blade." He leaned back. "This is terrible. Not only is she going mad, she's also trying to kill me. My own wife."

"Drayce, just calm down. If she doesn't remember, then she likely was under Keir's control. The Lillia we know would never do that." Caelum said. "We can't take back what happened. But now we know that we need to be keeping a better eye on her."

"Caelum what if she's the one that let the assassins into the university? And set fire to the farms around the capital?" Drayce felt a stress headache coming on.

Caelum stood. "Like I said, even if she is, if we keep a better eye on her, then we can prevent things like this happening in the future." He yawned. "I'm going to bed. It's been a long day, and that's putting it nicely."

"Night." Drayce said distractedly.

"Night." Caelum said before he shut the door.

Drayce wished he was tired enough to go to bed. Physically he was beat, but mentally he was still running a marathon. He didn't want to think about it, but the scary implications were there. Lillia might have a main part in their potential failure.

If that was so, she was on the inside. She knew exactly what they knew. She knew what they were going to try. Could Keir use that knowledge? Did he have access to that knowledge? They couldn't exclude her in their plans. That was impossible.

Caelum was right. All they could do was keep a better eye on her. Come to think of it, he had assumed she was in bed. It was an ungodly hour, but she had to have been sneaking out at night while he was asleep or working.

He got up and promptly spilled a stack of papers. He really needed to clean up his desk, but then he wouldn't find anything. He let out a soft curse and started gathering them up. He shoved them back on his desk and hurried to the door.

He rushed down the hall, around the corner and he opened the door to their sitting room. All was quiet. He couldn't see any light under the door to the bedroom. He threw the door open, letting it bang against the wall.

The covers were a mess, but no one slept there. Drayce ripped his fingers through his increasingly messy hair.

Through a crack in the drapes there was a small flash of light. He walked over and opened them. Someone with a lantern and a cloak disappeared into the cover of the trees. It had to be her. He had just missed her.

He should get Caelum, but he was going to lose her. He threw on a coat against the cold, and a lantern of his own. He rushed out; her light was no more than an almost imperceptible dot against the dark of the night. He ran after her, his own lantern clanking softly.

He considered calling her name, but he didn't want to risk her hiding. He would never find her in the near pitch black. His next thought almost made him trip over his own feet. The moon. There wasn't a moon in the sky. It was hard to see through the trees, but the stars were still there, but duller somehow. No light shown from the moon.

Drayce shoved that thought to the back of his head. He needed to focus on the problem at hand. Lillia's light had stopped. Concerning, but at least it gave him a chance to catch up. Suddenly alarm bells started going off in his head. She wouldn't be out here unless Keir was in control. She would likely try to kill him if she saw him and then he wouldn't get to see what she was up to in the woods.