Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 83 Stolen

CA SSANDRA

We left Asher’s study immediately, and the moment we set foot in the hallway, the
guards stationed outside both glanced at each other in alarm.

“Is everything all right, Your Majesty?” one asked as he studied the Alpha King’s
expression. To his credit, Asher was looking slightly exhausted. His dark circles
were far more present than they'd been in the past week. As the illness was
affecting him more and more, his physical appearance began to look more sickly.
He was still as handsome as ever, but it was evident he wasn't sleeping much
these days.

“I'm fine,” Asher answered him politely. “I'll return shortly. I'm going accompany
Healer Ca ssandra on an errand. Remain here.”

to

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the guard replied obediently, and after he offered Asher a
nod, the Alpha King turned to me and gestured forward.

“Let's go,” he said, and then we made our way down the hall.

Our walk down to the royal library was silent, and I once again found myself
surprised that Asher was entertaining this theory of mine. I hadn’t expected him
to go along with this, but I was grateful that he was giving my idea the time of
day.

When we entered the building, the librarian rose to her feet and bowed to the
Alpha King. “Y-your Majesty,” she stammered. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Is
there anything I can help you with?”

“Yes,” Asher replied simply. “Healer Ca ssandra and I would like to take a look in
the private room if you don’t mind. Could you unlock it for us?”

“Of course,” the librarian said, and she offered the king a brilliant smile. “Let me
find the keys and I'll let you in. The library is empty today, so you'll have all the
privacy you need.”

3

Asher nodded. “Perfect.”

The librarian rooted around in her desk, and after she pushed her glasses up the
bridge of her nose and ran a hand through her white-blonde hair, she
approached the door and held it open for us.

We beelined toward the room, and as we got closer, my heart dropped, along
with my jaw.

“What in the world...” Asher trailed off.

We stopped in our tracks and took in the sight of the disheveled room.

The entire place had been trashed. Books littered the ground, some spine-down,
others completely ripped up. The shelves were off-kilter, and the desk had been
overturned.

“The box,” I breathed, and I rushed into the room. I maneuvered around the piles
of discarded books until I reached the back. The large wooden box was still
there, but it was wide open. I peered inside the trunk-like vessel, but much to my
shock, it was empty.

“What happened here?” Asher demanded, and all of the color faded from the
librarian’s face.

“I... I don’t know,” she admitted as she shook her head in shock. “This room is
usually locked, Your Majesty. In fact, no one’s been in here lately other than Miss
Ca ssandra, and the last time she was here, everything was normal. I'm just as
confused as you are.”

Asher stepped into the room and began to inspect it all. His eyes darted in every
direction, and suddenly he stopped.

“There are some footprints back here,” he said, and we rushed over to join him.
Sure enough, beyond the stacks, there was a set of muddy footprints leading
from the windowsill.

“Someone broke in,” I realized as I followed the trail with my eyes.

“They must have done it yesterday,” Asher added. “It was raining all day.”

We turned to look at the librarian, and much to my surprise, she looked as if she
were about to burst into tears.

“I'm so sorry,” she whispered. “I... I don’t understand. I swear the window was
locked, but I must have done it improperly.”

“Hey, don't cry,” Asher assured her gently. “It's not your fault-"

“It's mine,” I uttered, and when they turned to face me, heat spread to my cheeks
and a lump formed in my throat. “The last time I was here, I opened the window
to get some fresh air. I must have forgotten to lock it.”

The librarian sniffled and Asher looked as if he were going to say something, but
he didn't. Instead, he walked out of the room for a moment. When he returned, a
trio of guards were with him.

“Check the room,” he ordered and then he inclined his head toward the librarian.
“She'll help you navigate since she knows this place better than anyone.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the guards replied, and then they turned to the librarian. She
nodded vigorously and then gathered herself. As they got to work and looked
through the room, Asher and I stood aside and waited. I crossed my arms and
tried not to beat myself up. I felt so guilty for leaving the window unlocked, and I
hoped I wasn't in too much trouble.

Their inspection took a good twenty minutes, and when they stepped out into the
main section of the library, the librarian’s face looked grim.

“Your Majesty, the books about the Ewonmiams are missing,” she reported.
“What?” I breathed. No... no no no. This wasn’t good. Was the intruder looking
for things about the Ewonmiams? And if so, did that mean the things in the box
were related to the sorcery academy?

Could the intruder have been the same man from the basement?

“Your Majesty, the intruder’s footprints are suspect as well,” one of the guards.
spoke up.

“In what way?” Asher asked.

“The prints match the same pattern that's on the boots of all of the guards,” the
guard replied, and a deep line formed between Asher’s brows.

“Does that mean the intruder could be an imposter?” I wondered. “Someone
impersonating a guard to get around the palace undetected?”

No one seemed to have an answer. The room fell silent and all eyes fell to the
Alpha King. Asher remained quiet, his expression cold and difficult to read.

An imposter in the palace was a serious issue, one that put everyone in
Merliscire in danger. There were hundreds of guards in the palace, each
stationed in different halls and chambers. It would be almost impossible to check
everyone out and investigate in a short period of time, and even if we managed
to do so, the imposter could get away with that much notice.

This was a terrible thing.

Anyone among us could be an intruder.

“Da mn it,” Asher cursed, and his nostrils flared. “How could something like this
happen right under my nose?”

He turned away from us and released a sigh. I wanted to reach out to him and
tell him none of this was his fault, but it didn’t seem like my place. He seemed too
agitated and cross.

We needed to find a solution, and we needed to do it quickly. If the intruder was
in the palace, time was of the essence.

Suddenly, an idea crossed my mind. Perhaps there was a solution after all.

“The intruder seems to be keen to find anything related to the Ewonmiams,” I
spoke up after I took a deep breath. “And if that's true, there might be a way for
us

to lure him out.”