WHAT LYRA LEFT BEHIND

CHAPTER 19

"Alpha."

The messenger's voice cracked through the study before Roman had fully straightened his shirt.

"Lyra's old study. Someone forced open the locked drawer."

The colour drained from Roman's face.

"What was taken?"

"We don't know yet. Nothing else appears to have been disturbed."

"Who found it?"

"The night guard. Ten minutes ago."

Roman was already moving.

"Seal the wing. No one in or out."

"I'm coming," I said.

"No."

He didn't even look back.

"You don't get to decide that for me."

That stopped him.

For one second, the man from the garden, the man who had almost kissed me, collided with the Alpha who needed to take control of the situation.

Something shifted behind his eyes.

"Stay beside me," he said finally. "Don't touch anything."

"I know how to follow instructions."

The corner of his mouth almost lifted despite everything.

Then the moment was gone.

The study door showed no damage.

The lock hadn't been broken.

But the drawer beneath the desk had been forced open, splinters scattered around the frame.

Roman knelt beside it, examining the wood carefully.

"What was inside?" I asked.

He didn't answer immediately.

"Roman."

"Documents."

His jaw tightened.

"Connected to my investigation."

"Which ones?"

"A witness statement." His voice had gone flat and controlled. "And a record referencing an evidence transfer I've been trying to trace for almost a year."

"Both gone?"

He nodded.

I looked around the room.

The old furniture remained exactly where it had been. A jewellery box sat untouched on the dresser. Nothing else appeared to have been searched.

"They knew exactly what they wanted," I said.

Roman's eyes met mine.

"Yes."

"Who knew those documents were here?"

Silence answered before anyone else could.

A guard cleared his throat.

"Alpha, the perimeter logs show no breach. No alarm was triggered. There was no forced entrance anywhere on the grounds."

"Then how did they get inside?" I asked.

The guard hesitated.

"They didn't break in."

Roman stood.

"What do you mean?"

"The access log shows the study door was opened using legitimate credentials."

Roman went very still.

"Whose credentials?"

"We're checking."

The guard looked uncomfortable.

"But there's a problem."

"What problem?"

"The identity marker on that entry is incomplete."

Roman's expression hardened.

"Incomplete how?"

"Corrupted. Or altered. We can't tell yet."

His hands curled slowly at his sides.

"So we don't know who opened the door."

"Not yet, Alpha."

Roman looked toward the drawer again.

Someone had entered without breaking a lock.

Someone had known where to look.

Someone had taken only two specific pieces of evidence.

Roman walked through the room again, slower this time.

He examined the desk, the shelves, and the cabinets.

I'm not searching randomly.

Remembering.

Cataloguing what had been there against what was missing.

"The documents that were taken," I said. "Are they the same ones you've been trying to piece together?"

"Exactly the same."

His voice dropped.

"Down to details I only connected recently."

A chill moved through me.

"You think someone has been watching your investigation."

"I think someone knows what I've found."

He looked at me.

"Which means they may have been watching for longer than I realized."

"How long?"

"I don't know."

That answer frightened me more than certainty would have.

I glanced at the damaged drawer.

"If the door was opened with legitimate credentials, does that mean it was someone you trust?"

Roman's expression tightened.

"Not necessarily."

I looked at him.

He continued.

"Credentials can be stolen. Copied. Altered. Until we know whose identity marker was used, we don't know whether the person who opened that door was authorized to be here."

"So you don't know if it's someone inside Blackthorn."

"I don't know anything yet."

His voice was controlled, but I could hear the strain beneath it.

"And I don't intend to accuse anyone until I have proof."

That was the Roman I was beginning to understand.

The man who could carry fear without showing it.

The Alpha who would rather have an answer he hated than an accusation he couldn't prove.

He turned toward the guards.

"Cross-reference every entry involving this wing from the last month. Check every staff member, guard, healer, and official with access."

The guards straightened.

"I want the complete list by morning."

"Yes, Alpha."

They scattered immediately.

The room fell quieter.

Then Roman looked at me.

And I watched the walls return.

The warmth from earlier disappeared behind the same guarded expression I'd known when we first met.

"You need to go back to your room."

I folded my arms.

"You're shutting me out again."

"I'm keeping you safe."

"Those aren't always the same thing."

His jaw tightened.

For a moment, I thought he might argue.

Instead, he looked away.

"I need you to be careful."

"Careful of what?"

"Everything."

"That's not an answer."

His gaze returned to mine.

"Someone entered this room without breaking the lock. They knew where to look. They knew what to take. And we don't know how they got the credentials."

He stepped closer.

His voice lowered.

"And now you're close enough to this investigation that they might notice you."

I swallowed.

"What happens if they come back?"

Roman's eyes darkened.

"I don't know."

It was the first honest answer he'd given me that night.

Then his expression changed.

"But if they do, I won't let you face it alone."

The words settled between us.

For a second, I remembered his hand against my cheek.

His almost-kiss.

The unfinished words he'd been about to say.

There was something between us now that neither of us had named.

And suddenly, that something felt much more dangerous than it had an hour ago.

Whatever had happened to Lyra wasn't simply an old story Roman had been unable to let go of.

Someone had just reached into the past and taken pieces of it away.

Pieces Roman had spent two years trying to recover.

I looked at the damaged drawer.

The witness statement.

The evidence-transfer record.

Someone wanted those particular pieces gone.

But I still didn't know why.

And that was what frightened me most.

I had thought Roman's investigation was about uncovering what happened to Lyra.

Now, I was beginning to wonder whether someone was still determined to make sure he never found out.