I froze for a moment, straining my ears, holding my breath. The faint sound of the wind whistling through the palace corridors felt deafening, each second stretching longer than it should. My heart thumped in my chest like a war drum, echoing in my ears. I pressed myself against the wall, forcing my pulse to slow, forcing my mind to think, but every instinct screamed that something was wrong. The Empress wasn't here. Not anywhere I could see.
A sinking feeling settled in my chest, heavy and bitter, and I swallowed hard. My fingers tightened around the edge of the window frame before I slipped back inside, moving with careful, deliberate steps toward her room. Shadows clung to the corners of the halls, the soft creak of floorboards underfoot threatening to betray me. That's when I saw it—her disk, gleaming faintly in the morning light, sitting alone on the polished floor. And on it, a single envelope, stark against the cold metal: Read Me.
