Page 117 of Forsaken Royals

“We’re at an impasse, then. If you torture and accidentally kill me, you won’t have any connections to finding the Order. If you let me go, then we can eradicate the plague that is the Forsaken Lunars. We know exactly where they are and what they’re planning,” he said. His eyes slid over to me, an amused twinkle in them. “The two things Iwilltell you are that friends aren’t always friends, and you should never underestimate someone.”

Lex put his hand on my shoulder and gathered us just outside of the larger room that held Elias’s cell. He put up a privacy spell so we couldn’t be overheard.

“We have to torture it out of him,” Jagger said. “I’m ready to. Any patience I had for this fucker has already evaporated. Not that I had much to begin with.”

“I know Elias—he’s surprisingly tough, especially since he knows we can’t kill him. Torturing him might not be as effective if he just has to manage the pain for hours on end. He really is our only connection to the Order,” Lex said, digging a hand into his curls.

“Can we talk to him more?” I asked. “Convince him to help us without letting him go?”

“Talking to him will only make things worse.” Lex sighed through his nose. “It’ll be like trying to undo a knot, but you end up making it tighter the more you pull. We can’t make any concessions.”

“And we have information on where the Forsaken Lunars might be, so we aren’t entirely dependent on him telling us. We just need him to tell us about the Order.” Flint looked over his shoulder, as did I. Elias was watching us intently, even though he couldn’t hear a word of what we were saying. “I say we wait it out until after the festival. Or until after the prophecy comes to fruition.”

“That might be years from now. We can’t tell,” I said. My stomach sank. “It might never happen.”

“It’ll happen, Kitten. It feels right. All of these things happening right now have to be leading up to something.” Lex put his hand on my lower back. “Also, the eclipse is tomorrow, and the party is after that. We have to be there for the ritual and the blessing, but after that, we’ll have a lot more mental time and space to handle Elias’s shit.”

I shifted my weight from one leg to another, biting the inside of my cheek. “But what about security?”

“We’re not going to leave your side. Ever. And between our powers and yours, plus all the enforcers, we can keep the Order at bay, at least until the big party is over.” Flint squeezed my upper arm. His serious, steady nature was perfect right now. I tucked myself against him, and he kissed my forehead, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“Okay. Then we’ll wait to deal with him. He’s safe here.” I sighed. “We’ll—”

My entire reality shifted so suddenly that my head throbbed. It was as if someone had dropped me right into the middle of a movie without warning. My body was in two places at once—here and in Flint’s arms. My thoughts were stuck here, even as I felt him shake me.

I was in the palace, near the vault where we kept the artifact. I drifted down the hallway, passing by the door that led to the first layer of the vault and into the adjacent room, which was mostly empty. Had I ever seen this room before? I dug deep into my memory, back to when I’d broken into the central palace to steal the artifact in the first place. If I was remembering correctly, the adjacent room was storage for some less-precious resources, like books, some records, and other things.

But now, someone had cleared out the chests and cabinets to make the room open and cavernous. Lex, Flint, and Jagger were in the middle, laying on their backs. At first, I thought they were dead, but their chests slowly rose and fell.

The rest of the room was packed with fae, at least fifty of them, working together on a spell to keep them asleep. It took all of their combined energy to even match theirs, and from the looks of it, they were straining to keep themselves in control.

I was drawn to the large window on the far side of the wall, passing through the bodies like a ghost. Smoke rose up from Rouhaven from afar, and the buildings were alight with flames. A pit grew deep in my stomach. How long had the Royals been asleep like this?

My body was on the move again, this time passing through the window, floating above the palace grounds as if I were walking on air. Seeing the palace and the city below was surreal, especially the closer I got to the city itself. Everything was in disorder—cars flipped, fae running in the streets, explosions.

The recognition made me jolt. I was back where I was when I had my first vision, the one where the Moon Oracle had taken over. But this time, it was so much clearer. So much more vivid.

I looked up. The moon was passing over the sun. The eclipse.

This vision was happening tomorrow.

“Arden?Arden?” Flint said, finally bringing me out of it. I gasped as if I’d been held under water until my lungs were out of breath. He steadied me, cradling me in his arms. “What happened?”

“Another vision,” I choked out, putting my hand to my chest. Pressing down did nothing to slow my speeding heart. “They’re going to capture you and hold you in a sleeping spell. The city is going to fall. It’s going to happen tomorrow under the eclipse. Right before it. Or during it. Whichever. I saw the moon start to pass in front of the sun.”

“What do you mean?” Jagger pushed a lock of hair behind my ear and cupped my face. “How is that going to happen?”

“I don’t know!” My stomach turned. “I just know it’s going to. It felt so real. I’ve never had a vision like that before, but I was dropped right into the middle of it. They’re going to hold you in the room next to the vault. Rouhaven is going to collapse into shambles. That’s all I know. I don’t even know where I’ll actually be during all of it.”

Flint, Lex, and Jagger stared at each other. The thunderous crashing of Lex’s and Jagger’s emotions made my own toss and turn inside of me. How were we supposed to deal with this threat when we had a huge gap between now and then?

Chapter62

Jagger

This ritual was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. I needed answers. I needed Arden to be safe. I needed my kingdom in order.

But fuck, maybe it was what we needed. The eclipse ritual was supposed to bless the kingdom for a thousand years to come. I hoped it was going to make things right.

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