Chapter 249

Agnes

The girl was terrified, and instantly, I felt my anger melt away. She was so young—hardly older than eighteen, and now that I was seeing her up close, I recognized her face. Ruby. She was one of the newest members of our staff, a sweet girl who would never hurt a fly. Even Elijah’s tense shoulders relaxed slightly beside me at the sight of her.

Crossing the room, I knelt down in front of her. She shrank away, but I took her hands and offered her a gentle smile.

“Ruby,” I said softly, “we just want to know what happened to a very important object that was taken from our safe. It looks like a small blue-green stone. Did you take it? Or do you know who did?”

The young maid’s eyes darted to the door, then back to me, then to Elijah, who was standing with his arms crossed. She looked absolutely terrified—not just nervous or worried about getting in trouble, but genuinely afraid for her life.

“Are you afraid?” I asked gently.

Ruby nodded reluctantly, which took me by surprise. Elijah and I had always prided ourselves on being kind to our household staff. We weren’t the type to easily fire someone over a mistake, let alone physically threaten them. So why was she so scared?

But then I followed her gaze, and realized it wasn’t us who she was looking at. She kept looking at the door as if she feared someone might burst in at any moment.

“Is there… is there someone in the house who’s frightening you?” Elijah asked, clearly picking up on the same feeling I had.

Ruby’s lower lip trembled, and she gave the tiniest of nods.

“Who?” I asked.

But she just shook her head, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Listen,” Elijah said, “whatever’s going on, we can protect you. But you have to tell us the truth.”

She glanced at the door again, still hesitant.

“Would it help if I got you something?” I offered. “A cookie, maybe? Some warm milk?” Food always seemed to help Thea calm down when she was upset.

The maid’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. “Y-yes, please.”

“I’ll be right back,” I said, patting her knee before rising. I found a guard outside the door and asked him to fetch milk and cookies from the kitchen.

When I returned to the study with the snack, Ruby was sitting a bit more upright, although she still looked terrified. I handed her the glass of warm milk and placed a plate of cookies on the small table beside her.

“Thank you,” she whispered, taking a small sip.

“Now,” I said, settling into a chair across from her, “please tell us what happened. Start from the beginning.”

Ruby took a deep breath, her fingers white-knuckled around the glass. “It… it all started weeks ago,” she began haltingly. “I was up late one night, getting a glass of water from the kitchen. I couldn’t sleep.”

I nodded encouragingly.

“On my way back to my room, I passed by the library. I heard voices—you and your friends,” she said, looking at me. “You were… talking about fire. About you having… abilities.”

My stomach dropped. I remembered that night—Evelyn and Gertrude had come over, and I’d confided in them about my powers. We’d thought we were alone. So someone had overheard us, although not deliberately. I exchanged a glance with Elijah, noticing the muscle ticking in his jaw.

“I thought you were just playing a game or something,” Ruby continued hastily. “I didn’t think much of it at the time. But then…”

“Then what?” Elijah prompted when she trailed off.

“Then Miss Lena moved in.” Ruby’s voice had dropped to barely a whisper. “Almost immediately, she started asking me questions. About the family, about Thea… particularly if Thea had any… special abilities.”

My blood ran cold, and I felt a string suddenly pull taut within the bond, evidence that Elijah was having the same feelings. Lena had shown curiosity about Thea’s abilities before. She had asked him outright. We’d mostly chalked it up to her simply wanting to ensure the best care for Thea, but now…

“What did you tell her?” I managed.

“I told her Thea seemed normal to me,” Ruby said, and her expression appeared honest. “But I did mention… what I’d overheard that night. About you.” Her eyes widened, and she blurted out, “It was just gossip, I swear! Or… So I thought.”

“How did she react?” Elijah asked.

Ruby’s face crumpled. “She… she threatened me,” she said, her voice breaking. “Said if I told anyone about our conversations, s-she would kill me. She told me she had special powers that could make a person’s mind snap and their body break with a single look. She was so scary.”

“Goddess,” I muttered. I highly doubted the part about the special powers was true, but I couldn’t deny the way my heart was pounding now. “And then what happened?”

“I was too scared to say anything,” Ruby admitted. “So I just… did what she asked. Little things at first—telling her about your schedules, who came to visit, that sort of thing.”

“And tonight?” Elijah sounded like he was on the verge of snapping, and his anger radiating through the bond further proved that, although we were both trying to stay calm so as not to make the poor girl clam up again. We needed to know everything.

Ruby took another sip of milk, her hand shaking so badly that some sloshed over the rim. “Tonight, she ordered me to get a stone out of your safe while you were all gone, and bring it to her. She told me exactly where the safe was hidden and what the combination was.”

I exchanged a stunned look with Elijah. We’d kept the code between us—how Lena had figured it out was beyond me. Had she eavesdropped at one point? Had she watched us punch the code in without us noticing?

“I was just bringing her the stone when you caught me,” Ruby finished. “She must still have it now.”

My mind was reeling. Lena had been playing us all along. She’d gained our trust, infiltrated our home, learned our secrets—all while working against us. And for whom? My stepmother?

My father had been right. Our home had been compromised. Lena was a liar, a thief, and had threatened a young girl. And I’d fallen for her act completely. So completely, in fact, that I had believed her tears just twenty minutes ago.

I had held her. Apologized. Felt my heart break when I thought I had hurt her.

Had she really been lying that whole time?

“Thank you for telling us the truth,” Elijah said to Ruby, already heading for the door. “Stay here with the guards. You’ll be safe. And you won’t be punished severely.”

I followed him out into the hallway, my heart breaking with every step. All those moments with Lena—cooking together, shopping, talking late into the night—had they all been lies? Was every kind word, every gesture, every smile just part of an elaborate deception?

But why? What did she want with the stone? Was she working for my stepmother? Had I invited the enemy right into our home, handed her my daughter to care for?

The thought made me sick. But there had to be an explanation. Maybe Lena was being forced into this, blackmailed or threatened, just as Ruby had been. Maybe my stepmother had some hold over her.

We ran back to Lena’s room without hesitation. Elijah pushed the door open. “Lena—”

We froze. A scream died in my throat.

James was lying on the floor, face-down and motionless.

“James!” Elijah shouted, dropping to his knees beside his Beta. He rolled James over, revealing that his eyes were glazed over and staring lifelessly at the ceiling. He had no wounds that I could see, but he wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing, and was already beginning rigor mortis. “No, no, no…”

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. James. Our James. Elijah’s Beta. Our friend. Dead on the floor of the nanny’s room.

Movement by the window caught my eye. Lena was there, no longer in her nightgown but dressed in dark clothes with a hood pulled up. She was halfway out the window, one leg already over the sill. At her hip hung a small pouch that emitted a faint blue-green glow through the fabric.

The stone.

Lena paused, her eyes meeting mine across the room. In that moment, I felt my heart crack into a thousand jagged pieces. Heat rushed through my veins, unbidden and uncontrolled, until flames licked from my fingertips, dancing up my arms. I was going to burst.

“Lena…” I choked out. “You were my friend.”

For the briefest moment, her face softened, a flash of what looked like genuine regret crossing her features.

But it was gone just as quickly as it came. Because within an instant, the flames had arced out of me and toward her. She gasped and fell out of the window as the edge of her cloak caught on fire, and then she was gone.

“Lena!” I rushed forward, gripping the windowsill and looking down. I expected to see her laying in the grass below, but she had apparently caught the trellis, because she was quickly scaling down the wall.

The last I saw of her before she took off into the woods was one final ember dying on the hem of her cloak.

When I turned, I found Elijah still cradling James’ body, shouting for the guards. They came running, bursting into the room with weapons drawn, but it was too late. By the time they reached the window, Lena was long gone and James was completely beyond saving.

And all I could do was just stand there, frozen, my heart broken, flames still dancing along my skin.

Utterly betrayed.