Page 16 of Forsaken Royals

“I’ll take you back to your room,” he said.

I followed him without protest, studying his broad, well-muscled back as I walked. Someone in their animal form must have slashed him across the back. His shirt had three tears across it, and the skin underneath was faintly pink from being recently healed.

“Are the kids going to be okay?” I asked.

“Yes. We’re having some temporary housing built for them on the palace grounds until we can figure things out with the orphanage they were taken from. The orphanage was destroyed as well, so they have nowhere to go.” Lex stopped outside of my room, and an enforcer who’d trailed us the entire walk opened the door. “But they’re safe now, so that’s what matters.”

“It is.” I swallowed. I’d spent the whole time I was in captivity with my walls up, but my mind was changing. How was I supposed to act now, especially since I was still captive? “Bye.”

“Bye, Arden. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Lex stepped aside, and I went into my room, the door clicking shut behind me.

I kicked off my shoes and wandered toward the bathroom. The scent of smoke clung to me, so I stripped and turned on the shower. I groaned when the hot water hit my head and back. The water pressure was perfect, and getting cleaned up gave me time to process what had just happened.

The abrupt shift in my head from “the Royals are pure evil” to “the Royals might not be awful” had me reeling. Did they regularly go on rescue missions themselves? I doubted they had set up an entire kidnapping scenario just to save kids in front of me to win my trust.

But that meant my view of them was wrong, and I’d held that view my entire life. I wasn’t so stubborn that I’d ignore evidence right in front of my face. They weren’t all bad, so if they got the artifact, they might use it for legitimate reasons.

The thought of caving still pulled at me, even with evidence against my old view piled up. They’d given me one reason to trust them, but I wasn’t ready to give up who I’d given the artifact to yet. I had to sleep on it.

Chapter11

Jagger

Iwoke up the next morning with residual feelings from last night pumping through my veins. We’d gotten all the kids out alive and unharmed, my biggest priority. As much as I loved fighting, I never let innocents get in the way.

But killing and maiming pieces of shit like those kidnappers gave me a rush like nothing else did. Pulling off limbs, letting my fire slowly work its way up someone’s body, drawing out the agony, and just beating the shit out of someone? Nothing came close to that high.

I rolled out of bed and peered out the window on my way to the bathroom. The palace staff worked quickly. Almost overnight, they’d built the foundation of the temporary homes for the orphans on a plot of land that we used for outdoor events. By the looks of it, they’d have it done in a day or two. We had virtually unlimited resources and powerful magic, so whatever we wanted, we got.

I thrived in chaos, but I didn’t like to see kids swept up in it. Those kids needed a stable place to feel safe, even if we were going to break the building down once they found a better home. If they did. We always tried to help children in the city, but fuckers really liked preying on the weak. Saving kids, busting kidnapping rings, and straightening up schools where kids were being mistreated were constantly on our agenda.

I dressed, then went to the central section of the palace to see Arden. The female didn’t make sense to me. She’d spent the entire time we were grilling her resisting and basically telling us to fuck off. But she’d had a chance to run away last night, and she hadn’t. The enforcers who had been in the van with her said she’d actually helped the orphans to safety inside the vehicle.

What game was she playing?

I wasn’t going to wait for Flint and Lex to strategize on how to talk to her. I needed answers, and I was going to get them myself.

“Is the prisoner awake?” I demanded of one of the enforcers posted outside of her room.

“It sounds like she is.”

Why had I even asked? I was going in either way. Her door was unlocked to anyone except for her, so I threw it open and stepped inside. She was in one of the cotton robes we had put in the bathroom, her cheeks flushed from just coming out of the shower. It covered too much skin. I needed an aide to get her a flimsier one. Silky, see-through.

“Hey!” She glared at me over her cup of coffee, but with less heat than she had the day before. “You can’t just come in here like that!”

I laughed. “I absolutely can. This is my palace, and you’re a prisoner. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the nicest guest room we have.”

Arden clutched the collar of the robe closed with one hand and put her coffee on the side table next to her bed. “Well, what do you want, then?”

“You’re just as feisty before you have coffee?” I asked, coming closer to her. “You seem to forget that you’re speaking to a Royal.”

“I know who I’m speaking to.” She took a step back when I entered her personal space. “One who’s invading my privacy when I’m not dressed.”

I kept walking, standing next to the window instead of crowding her. “You don’t make any sense.”

She raised an eyebrow, reaching out for her mug and downing it without flinching. It must have been cold. “Neither do you.”

I grinned, leaning against the sliver of wall between the large windows. “How do I not make sense? If you ask me, I’m the most straightforward of the three of us. I’m not going to bullshit you.”

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