The room was empty.
The sheets were rumpled, creased in a way that showed someone had been lying there not too long ago.
Pillows were scattered haphazardly, the imprint of a body still visible on the mattress. The curtains swayed lightly in the breeze from the open window, and a single candle flickered on the table, casting erratic shadows across the floor.
But there was no sign of Eirik.
Kaelix's pulse surged, panic constricting his chest like an iron vice. His heart pounded in his ears, each beat amplifying his rising fear. "Where is he?" The words escaped him as a broken whisper, thick with alarm, as he turned to Drystan.
Drystan's gut twisted with the realization. Eirik wasn't just missing, he had been taken. His mind raced, connecting the dots.
The fire, Sadiki's strange behavior, and now this. "We need to search the palace," Drystan muttered, already turning, his heart pounding in his chest. "Now."
