Kaelen's POV
Corvus's private quarters were not the official rooms. They were at the end of a corridor that most palace staff had no reason to use. I knew where they were because I had spent months learning every door in this building.
I waited in the shadow of the doorway across the corridor. Patient. Still. The old habit.
The door opened.
A young man came out. Not a servant. The clothes were too fine for that, but not fine enough for nobility. Someone in between. Someone who had been let in through a private entrance and was now being let out the same way, at an hour when the corridor was empty. He was perhaps twenty. His hair was not entirely in order. He did not look left or right. He moved quickly toward the far staircase and did not look back.
I watched him go.
Waited thirty seconds.
Knocked.
