Chapter 111
==================================================
The sun had yet to rise, and it seemed the overnight guard duty would stretch indefinitely. Her replacement from the Escort Knight Division had been pulled for a different assignment, leaving Adi stuck on shift.
She eventually made it back to her room, desperate for even a few minutes of rest. However, the second she crossed the threshold, a foreign, chilling sensation hit her. Her hand flew to the dagger at her hip. Someone was hiding in the shadows of her private quarters. She couldn’t pinpoint their location or guess their intent, let alone understand how they had bypassed security to get inside.
Adi gripped her weapon tighter. Her pulse quickened as she realized her intruder was already adjusted to the pitch-black room, while she was still blinded by the transition from the hall. A soft rustle came from the side. She pivoted, blade ready to strike, when a voice cut through the dark. “Lower your weapon. I am no threat.”
The tone was instantly recognizable.
“I have not come to hurt you.”
It was a voice she had heard countless times during her years at the manor, though she had never actually seen the man’s face. He was the shadow that trailed the Count everywhere.
“Adrina Grimaldi.”
She saw no reason to be polite if he was merely a servant. Their social standings were worlds apart—especially since he had pointedly used her full family name, a title she loathed.
“The Count requires your presence,” he stated.
“How did you get past the guards?” Adi demanded.
“There was a lapse in security this evening. A rare occurrence.”
She realized the man was right; the palace banquet had pulled every available man to the main halls. While it was comforting to know the perimeter was usually tight, the fact that a single event could create such a glaring blind spot was a massive liability. She made a mental note to report the lapse to Bert.
“Will you follow?” the man asked.
“And if I choose not to?”
“Then I am authorized to use force.”
Adi narrowed her eyes. “The Count is currently a guest at the Crown Prince’s residence. I have no way of entering those grounds unnoticed.”
“There is a hidden corridor we utilize for transit.”
“…”
This caught her off guard. She knew every high-ranking estate and royal building possessed concealed tunnels, but their locations were the most guarded secrets in the kingdom. Only the monarchs and their inner circle knew of them, and even then, a royal usually only knew the secrets of their own specific palace.
“It is an emergency evacuation route,” the man explained. “We can move through it without being seen by a single soul.”
“And you’re just allowed to show me this?” Adi asked skeptically.
“The Grimaldi family is granted that privilege.”
“On what grounds?”
“Because in the event of a crisis, it is our duty to escort the Crown Prince to safety.”
Adi found this hard to swallow. If the Grimaldi family was so vital to the crown, why had Spencer been living in exile away from Ionad for so long? The logic didn’t track. When she pressed for an explanation, the man answered simply.
“The Count holds His Highness in the highest regard.”
He continued, “He has looked after the Prince since the boy was small. It is for that very reason the Prince pushed so hard for the Count’s return to favor.”
Adi felt the man was deluding himself. If he had been privy to the cold bargain Claude had offered back in Pallesa, he wouldn’t be speaking of affection. She kept that information to herself, however.
“So, he ‘cherished’ him, did he?”
A bitter smirk touched Adi’s lips. It was laughable. The man who hadn’t spared a thought for the survival of her or Adrian had spent his life training the King’s heir and memorizing escape routes to protect him.
“Indeed. He took great pride in it,” the man said, his voice swelling with misplaced honor.
“A truly glorious task.”
Glory was the last thing on Adi’s mind. She wished the whole system would just burn.
Unlike the ancient wall-tunnels in Pallesa, the newer passages in Ionad Palace were integrated into the landscape. The man led her toward a wooded patch near the palace grounds, and Adi followed, her hand never leaving her dagger. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was walking into a trap.
Her heart hammered against her ribs until they reached an old, dried-up well. It was choked with overgrown vines. The man reached into the greenery and found a hidden mechanism; the dead plants were nothing more than a clever disguise.
They descended into the well, where a waist-high opening led into the earth. Adi hesitated, wondering why she was even doing this. She could have stayed behind, but then she imagined the humiliation of being dragged before the Count by force.
She had been a Grimaldi her whole life, yet she felt like a stranger to her own bloodline. She didn’t even know the name of the man currently leading her through the dirt.
The crawlspace eventually widened, allowing her to stand. The tunnel was a straight shot of cold masonry, wide enough for two people. It was designed for speed and simplicity—a true escape path where no one could get lost.
She wondered if Claude had authorized this, or if the King himself had handed over the keys to the kingdom to the Grimaldis. What could possibly justify that level of trust? Lost in thought, she didn’t realize they had reached a heavy stone door at the end of the line. She pushed it open and stepped out into a palace hallway.
Spencer Grimaldi was already there. He held a single candle, the flame carving his features out of the gloom. Even in the dim light, Adi’s eyes—now sharp from the dark tunnel—recognized him instantly.
“Spencer.”
The Count’s brow twitched. He looked as though he wanted to reprimand her for using his given name, but he merely turned and said, “Come.” Adi wanted him to speak his mind and get it over with, yet she found herself following him. The instinct to obey him was a poison she hadn’t yet purged from her system.
“The Duke is hosting a gala tonight, I understand,” Spencer remarked.
Adi went cold. How did he have eyes inside the Duke’s home?
“Pasalis Macauliffe is the host,” Spencer continued. “Surrounded by a pack of exiled nobility.”
“Do you have a mole in our house?” Adi asked sharply.
Spencer stopped and looked back at her, his expression unreadable.
“What a peculiar choice of words. ’Our house’? You think you belong to Woodpecker now?”
“You are a Grimaldi, first and always.”
Adi decided to stop engaging with his provocations.
“Furthermore,” Spencer added, “every knight in this city is beholden to me in some way.”
The leak was coming from the Escort Knight Division. Adi realized this was a major security breach. It explained why Bert had been so careful about which knights he selected for the banquet. But if Bert knew the Ionad knights were compromised, why hadn’t he just used the Duke’s private forces?
When she didn’t respond, Spencer let out a long, weary sigh.
“Adrina.”
“I want Macauliffe dead. Kill him.”
Adi blinked. “…What?”
“Don’t bother asking for reasons. Just do as you are told.”
“I don’t take orders from you anymore,” she countered.
“The man is a cancer to Dalkatir,” Spencer spat.
“And why should I care?”
Spencer looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. He seemed genuinely shocked by her apathy.
“I am doing this for the Crown. What do you mean, ‘why should you care’?”
Adi felt a wave of disgust. She had seen plenty of nobles hide behind the veil of loyalty, but this was different. She recognized this specific brand of self-delusion.
“I used to fear I was just like you,” she said quietly.
There were moments when she caught her own reflection or heard her own voice and saw Spencer staring back. It was a terrifying thought that had haunted her for years.
“But seeing you now… I think Lev is the one who took after your personality.”
She took a step closer. “This isn’t loyalty to the King. This is just you playing God.”
Spencer understood the insult immediately. It mirrored the very critique he had leveled at Lev recently. A flash of genuine shame crossed his face, followed quickly by the defensive rage of a man who couldn’t handle being seen for what he was.
The shadows couldn’t hide the way his face turned a violent shade of crimson. Adi knew what was coming; she had seen this prelude to violence a thousand times. Spencer swung his hand, but Adi was faster, slipping back out of his reach.
“You…”
The man was losing his grip on reality.
“I’m going to forget this conversation ever happened,” Adi said, her voice cold.
He was unstable. She couldn’t tell if his motives were for the kingdom, the King, or just his own ego. He was wrapping his personal vendettas in the flag of the “greater good.”
“I’m leaving.”
She turned to walk away, but Spencer lunged forward, reaching out to grab her arm.
“Stop.”
the command rang out through the stone corridor. Claude was standing at the far end. Despite the summer heat, he looked frail, wrapped in a thin cloak as if he were freezing. He walked toward them, his eyes locked on Adi as he addressed the Count.
“What is your daughter doing in this wing? This area is restricted.”
He didn’t look at Spencer once. His focus remained entirely on Adi.
“Did you take the secret path?”
