Emmett nods and exits. I pace the council chamber, reaching repeatedly for the bond, finding only echoes where her presence should be strong and clear. She feels distant. Too distant. As if she's moved beyond the palace walls.
But that's impossible. She wouldn't leave without telling someone.
Would she?
Minutes stretch into what feels like hours. The unease builds with each passing moment until it's a physical weight in my chest. Where is she?
The door opens again, and Emmett returns—but his expression makes my blood run cold. His Alpha scent floods the room with sharp ozone and alarm.
"My lord, I cannot find Lady Seraphina."
"What do you mean, you cannot find her?"
"She's not in her chambers. Not in the gardens. Not in the library or the solarium." Emmett's jaw tightens. "I've searched everywhere. No one has seen her since last night."
The hollowness in my chest suddenly makes terrible sense. "Last night?"
"A horse was taken from the eastern stables sometime after midnight. The stable hand says Lady Seraphina took it herself."
"And no one thought to inform me that my Omega left the palace alone in the middle of the night?" Darkness lashes out, splitting the council table clean down the middle.
"The boy didn't realize she wasn't planning to return, my lord. He assumed it was a brief ride?—"
"Brief ride?" I snarl, shadows erupting around me with such force that the windows crack. "In the middle of the night? Alone?"
I reach through our bond with desperate intensity, stretching my Alpha awareness as far as it will go. There—a faint pulse of life, distant and fading, like a star disappearing over the horizon. Moving away from me.
She left. My Omega left.
My Alpha howls with primal anguish. MATE. OMEGA. MINE. FIND HER.
"Find the fairy," I command, my voice deadly quiet. "Now."
"The fairy? My lord, I don't see how?—"
"Seraphina tells her everything. If anyone knows where she went, it's Ivy." I'm already moving toward the door. "Bring her to me. Immediately."
Emmett hesitates only a moment before bowing. "As you command."
I pace my study like a caged beast, shadows writhing around me in violent patterns. Why would she leave? Where would she go? We're supposed to have the crown ceremony tomorrow—she knows the Light Court delegation is arriving.
Unless... unless she's more afraid of me than I realized.
The garden. The blood on her arm. The horror in my eyes when I saw what my shadows had done.
She's running from you, my Alpha snarls. Your Omega is running because you HURT her.
The door opens and Emmett enters with Ivy trailing behind him. The fairy looks genuinely confused, her silver-blonde hair shifting through curious shades of teal and gold.
"Well, this is dramatic," Ivy says, eyeing the sealed exits with raised eyebrows. "Should I be worried, or is this just your normal level of brooding intensity?"
"Where is she?" I demand, shadows sealing every exit.
Ivy blinks, her playful expression faltering. "Where is who? If you mean Sera, isn't she supposed to be in her chambers doing... lady things? Embroidery? Plotting world domination? The usual?"
"She left the palace last night," Emmett says quietly. "No one has seen her since."
The color drains from Ivy's face, her wings stuttering mid-beat. "She... what?"
