Lisa waited outside the palace gates with a handful of guards who had gone with her earlier to search for Meret.

The others had followed Bruce and Meret inside, but she remained, pacing restlessly across the wide stone pavement.

The night was quiet, though the lights from the palace walls flickered at intervals due to the insect hovering around it.

Their faint glow threw flickering shadows across the ground, and every shift of the guards made her nerves flare.

She kept glancing toward the ...