But she wasn't wrong to curse. She had been off the grid for over an hour.
By now, Samuel—that overprotective, calculating bastard of a fake husband—and her grandfather would have definitively realized she was missing. The Vanguard didn't just sit around and wait for ransom notes. They acted.
'System,' Heena called out internally. 'Scan the perimeter. Are they here?'
By the window, the digital lion's ears twitched. It peaked its glowing head out into the dark night. "Oh, Host. They aren't just here. The palace roof is practically crawling with them. I'm counting at least twenty Vanguard shadow guards in the immediate vicinity."
Heena had to hand it to her family. The Emperor's forbidden palace was supposed to be the most secure fortress in the empire, yet these high-ranking officials and military generals treated the ancient walls like it was a free, open playground.
