Chapter 363

Elain didn't think she should have been looking at Lucien the way that she knew that she was. Not in this moment, and not while this was going on. She couldn't help it, however. The way that he was guiding herself and Sheera through the palace, his head held high, as he confidently led them from one of Helion's private libraries to the next was utterly enrapturing. She could see the confidence in him growing with each corner they turned and, even without his magic, he seemed to be glowing with some kind of inner light. She couldn't look away from him, and she knew that it was turning her on.

Watching Lucien's broad back as she followed him up another hallway, Elain tried to force her thoughts back under control. She let her eyes wander over him, moving down his narrow waist, and coming to rest on his backside, and she couldn't help but smile. That smile vanished a moment later when she reminded herself that people were being tortured and killed, and it definitely wasn't the time to be lusting after her mate, even if what he was doing was incredibly sexy.

The elbow that Sheera directed into Elain's ribs told her that her friend had seen the way she had been looking at Lucien and had evidently had the same thought she had. She gave Sheera a sheepish grin and quickened her step when Lucien moved ahead of them and gripped the handle to a door off the hallway. He cast a glance back at them and they both went still and silent as he opened the door just a crack. Peering inside as he angled his head just right, Lucien checked for any threat before he pushed the door further open and slipped inside. Elain moved in on his heels, knife gripped tightly in her hand.

The room was a mess. Chairs were overturned and pushed all over the place, books strewn across tables and on the floor. Elain released a slow breath, her eyes sweeping the room and taking it all in, coming to rest on one of the heavy curtains which half hung in front of the window, half off of its rod, as if it had been yanked from its position.

"They're not here, then…" Sheera said, still standing in the doorway.

"Come inside." Lucien told her, voice flat. "You don't want someone to see you just standing there…"

"Why stay?" She asked, "If they aren't here…"

"Someone has been." Luicen told her as she closed the door quietly and stood to take in the room as Elain just had.

Elain moved to pick a chair up, setting it properly on its feet. "Can we tell who?"

"That's what I'm looking for." Lucien said, moving around the room, his metallic eye clicking and whirring as he looked at various objects. "Any sign that this could have been them…" he sounded worried, and Elain took a step toward him.

"It could have been anyone…" She said, hoping to ease some of that worry. "They might never have been here at all…"

"True…" Lucien righted a chair and gave a sigh. "There's nothing here to indicate if it was them or not…"

"Then we keep looking." Elain took several more steps across the room, until she could reach a hand out and lay it carefully against her mate's chest. "How many more of these rooms does your father use?"

"Four." Lucien wrapped an arm around Elain's shoulders, bringing her in closer to himself, and she smiled a little when she felt his warm lips pressed to her forehead. Still trying to be reassuring, she rubbed her hand up and down his side. "They could be in the next one…" he said, and Elain nodded against him.

"They could." She looked up at him and he released her, allowing her to step back again. She gave him a small smile and bent to right another chair.

"Maybe we shouldn't touch anything…" Sheera put in and Elain raised an eyebrow at her, "If someone who knows what happened here comes back and sees that things have been fixed…"

"You're right." Elain told her, "Good thinking."

Lucien nodded his agreement and stepped around several upturned pieces of furniture as he headed for the door again. "The next room is several floors above us…"

"Shit." Sheera sighed, and Elain had to agree. The stairs were more difficult to move through as there were no doors to escape into if somebody happened to come their way. Lucien winked at them, and Elain felt herself smile again.

"Come on." He said, "We've gotten this far."