CHAPTER FIVE - Framed for Death

LIORA'S POV

The walk felt endless and each step down the corridor echoed too loudly in my ears. 

The tray felt  heavy, and beneath the silver dome covering the master's plate, I swore I could hear my own heartbeat pounding.

I knocked softly on the study door.

"Enter," came his gruff voice and I did.

Lord Cassius sat behind his massive oak desk, papers spread before him, his reading glasses perched on his nose. 

He looked up as I entered, and I was struck by how tired he seemed, probably older than I had ever seen him, with deep lines carved into his face.

"Your breakfast, my lord," I said quietly, setting the tray on his desk, careful not to shake anything.

He grunted, barely acknowledging me as he moved his papers aside. I poured his tea with shaking hands, the liquid steaming as it filled his cup. 

The entire time, my mind raced with scenarios of what could go wrong, what Anna might have planned.

But nothing happened.

Lord Cassius took a bite of his food, sipped his tea, and waved me away dismissively. "That will be all."

I bobbed my head and practically fled from the study, relief flooding through me so intensely that my knees went weak. 

Whatever Anna had intended, it hadn't worked. I was safe.

As I made my way back toward the kitchens, my thoughts drifted inevitably back to yesterday and Alpha Lucas.

Especially the way his hands had felt at my waist and that look in his eyes when he had held me, as if he'd seen something in me that no one else ever had.

A scream shattered my thoughts.

It came from the direction of the master's study, high and piercing with terror. I froze, my blood turning to ice, as more shouts erupted. 

Footsteps thundered through the corridor and Lady Becca's voice rose above the chaos, wailing with grief.

"No! No, this cannot be! Cassius!"

My legs moved before my mind caught up, carrying me back down the corridor I had just left. 

A crowd had already gathered outside the study, mostly servants, and they were all all pressing forward to see. I pushed through them, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Lord Cassius was slumped over his desk, his face was a sickly color of blue and his eyes were vacant.

"Poison!" someone shouted, raising the teacup I had served him. "He's been poisoned!"

The world tilted beneath my feet and I staggered backwards. What… what was happening?

Lady Becca's tear-stained face suddenly swung toward me, her eyes blazing with fury. "You," she hissed, her finger stabbing in my direction. "You served him this morning, you're the one who poisoned him!”

Every eye in the room turned to me and I was shaking from head to toe. 

"My lady, I only… I just brought what was prepared-”

No one was listening to me. 

"Seize her!" Julian stepped forward, his face twisted with anger. But beneath it, I saw something else. Satisfaction. "She served him alone. No one else touched his food. It had to be her."

"No," I breathed, backing away as hands reached for me. "I didn't do anything. I swear, I would never do that!”

But my protests fell on deaf ears. Two servants grabbed my arms, holding me fast as Lady Becca advanced on me like an avenging fury.

"You poisoned him," she said, her voice shaking with rage. "You murdered my husband in cold blood."

"I didn't!" My voice broke with desperation and tears were starting to blur my vision. "Please, Lady Becca, you have to believe me. I would never do something like that, please!”

My eyes found Anna in the crowd, standing near the back with the other maids. And she was smiling. It was a small smile, but I could see it as clear as a day.

Understanding crashed over me like a wave of ice water.

The sudden order to serve the master directly. The prepared tray, already waiting. The convenient timing. 

She had set me up perfectly, and I had walked right into her trap.

"Anna," I gasped, trying to point at her with my captured hands. "It was Anna! She's the one who-”

"Silence!" Lady Becca's hand cracked across my face, the same cheek she had struck two days ago. "How dare you try to blame others for your crimes. Guards! Send for the palace guards immediately!"

I was dragged to the cellar and locked in one of the storage rooms while they waited for the authorities. I beat my fists against the door until my hands were bruised, screaming my innocence until my voice went hoarse. 

But no one came. 

When the palace guards finally arrived, I was hauled up the stairs and into the main hall where Lord Cassius's body had been laid out. 

The head of the guard listened as Lady Becca and Julian took turns accusing me.

"She's always been trouble," Julian said, his voice smooth and convincing. "We took her in out of charity, and this is how she repays us."

"She served him alone," Lady Becca added, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "She had the means and the opportunity. What other explanation could there be?"

I tried to speak, but the head guard held up his hand in silence. He examined the breakfast tray, the teapot, and Lord Cassius's still form. 

Then he turned to me with the kind of coldness that made my stomach drop.

"The evidence is clear," he announced. "You stand accused of murder through poison. Given your status as a wolfless servant and the circumstances of the crime, I see no reason to delay judgment." 

He looked at me with something that might have been pity. "Liora of no last name, you are hereby declared guilty and the sentence is death by execution, to be carried out at dawn three days hence."

The words didn't seem real. They echoed in my ears like sounds heard underwater.

"No," I whispered, the tears falling now. "Please, you don't understand!”

"Take her away," the guard commanded.

Rough hands seized me again, and I was dragged toward the door. 

The crowd parted to let us through, their faces a mix of satisfaction, indifference, and something that looked like relief that it wasn't them.

I searched desperately for a friendly face, for anyone who might believe me, but found nothing.

And then, deep inside me, the hope I had held onto my entire life broke at that moment.