#Chapter 90: Fumes

Evelyn I was running on fumes, instinct, and a childhood recollection of the palace. The halls of the old estate blurred around me, its stone walls a twisting maze of dark corners and shuttered windows. Every creak of the floor and echo of footsteps made my heart leap, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Not until I found Emma. To find her, I was looking for clues, retracing her steps throughout the palace. I was learning her routines and frequent haunts and working backward from that. I had heard from a guard I questioned earlier that she was spending a lot of time in the library recently. It was a good enough place to start. Emma had vanished after the chaos with Jesse, slipping through our fingers like smoke. We had sent dozens of scouts out to search for her, and none of them had returned successfully. I was acutely aware that every second she was out there, free, felt like a threat clawing at my throat. I tore through the west wing, then doubled back through the servants