44

AEROS

“A car just pulled out of his house a few minutes ago,” Jonathan announced as he walked into my study, still holding a phone to his ear.

He was clearly talking to our man stationed at Xavier’s house. I had kept a close eye on Xavier ever since the incident with Blair, using this spy because I became suspicious of him when I lost her. Over time, I had tried to let go, realizing I was just paranoid when I lost her. Xavier had no real reason to want the woman he loved dead.

“Who left the house?” I asked, looking up from the report I had been reviewing.

I had asked one of the guards to gather any information they could find on Vienna, the young woman currently in my dungeon, hoping to find some sort of connection. But there was nothing. She lived with her mother, who was a healer in Xavier’s pack. Nothing about her stood out, and the more I looked at her details, the more it dawned on me that Xavier could be right.

Maybe I was grasping at straws. Maybe Elarian wasn’t there. But the