Arianna woke in the dead of night to the sound of snarling.

For a disoriented moment, she thought the sound was coming from inside her own mind—Lily restless and prowling. But then she heard it again, muffled but unmistakable, coming from somewhere within the King's quarters.

She slipped from the bed, her heart hammering. The main room was dark except for the dying embers in the fireplace. She moved toward the sound, every instinct screaming that she should go back to bed, that whatever was happening wasn't her concern.

The snarling was coming from Duncan's study—a room she hadn't entered before, separated from the main quarters by a heavy wooden...