Page 5 of Forsaken Royals

Chapter4

Arden

Successfully pulling off a potentially fatal heist made me exhausted. Once I got back to my apartment from the Moon Oracle’s house, I passed out face down on my bed. It was the kind of sleep where I might as well have been in a coma. Well, until I felt the presence of someone standing over my bed.

At first, I stayed perfectly still, despite my pounding heart. Whoever had broken into my place was ridiculously motivated—I had protection spells that took time to undo all over the place. Waking up and trying to fight the fae off when I was barely awake was stupid, and I’d already pushed my luck enough with the heist.

“We know you’re awake, Arden,” a man said.

His voice was so sexy that I nearly forgot that he had broken into my apartment.

I slowly opened one eye and saw a pair of long legs in dark jeans. Then, I opened the other and looked up…and up. The fae had clear blue eyes and dark brown hair, which fell into his eyes as he looked down at me. His face was just as handsome as his voice—strong jaw, regal nose, a nice mouth that seemed familiar.

Being woken up by strangers in my apartment from a deep sleep after a crazy night made the reality of my situation settle in slowly.

Oh, no. He was Flint Nordin.

I sat up with a gasp, pulling my covers up around my chest. Seeing the other two fae with him confirmed it.

The Royals were in my bedroom, staring down at me. Seeing them in the flesh was crazy, but seeing them in my apartment while I was in nothing but an ancient, threadbare t-shirt and panties? Surreal.

All three of them were larger than life, especially from my place on my low bed. They were at least ninety years old, if I was remembering my history classes correctly. But they didn’t look older than thirty, like most fae their age. The way they carried themselves made them feel their actual age, somehow.

Jagger Laurent stood the tallest of the three, his enormous bulk blocking out the light from my tiny window. I wasn’t sure if the sunlight hitting him from behind was making his eyes look ink black or if they looked like that all the time. Maybe it was his slightly crazed yet amused look that made his irises appear that way.

If I had to choose one of three to deal with, I would have chosen Lex Conrad, the third Royal. He was lethal—all three of them were—but something about his curly brown hair and long-lashed brown eyes gave him a more boyish look. Not that it put me at ease. He was just as annoyed as Flint was.

Flint assessed me with his cool blue eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. The steel in his gaze sent a shiver down my spine, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of cowering.

“Good morning?” I said, looking between the three of them as casually as possible. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“The artifact,” Flint growled. “Where is it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, wishing I could put the words back into my mouth.

I hadn’t anticipated anyone asking me about the artifact now that it was out of my hands. But they weren’t stupid.

“Wrong answer.” Jagger ripped my blankets off of me. “Where’s the artifact?”

“Hey! I don’t have it!” I curled up and tugged the hem of my t-shirt down as far as I could, not that it helped cover me. Jagger’s eyes skimmed all over my body, up my legs, to my barely covered ass, to my breasts. He wasn’t doing a great job of hiding it, either.

“Don’t lie to us.” Flint dug into his pocket and pulled out a handheld tablet. “We know this is you.”

He turned the screen to face me. My entire body chilled as I watched myself walking through the halls of the palace—not me with the glamour, just me. They must have had a spell to look right through mine. I was so stupid. How did I think I’d gotten away with this so easily?

“Okay, maybe that is me,” I said, swallowing. “But I don’t have it. I promise.”

“Where did it go, then?” Lex asked.

“Can I at least put some pants on before you interrogate me?” I asked, my face heating.

Lex’s eyes flicked to my bare legs for a moment, making me hot in a way that was entirely inappropriate given the context.

“Fine.” Lex stepped back, and I slid off my bed, grabbing some sleep shorts to tug them on.

Jagger crowded me, forcing me to back up against the wall next to the window. He was outrageously tall now that I was standing next to him, invading my space and enveloping me in his body heat and campfire scent.

“We can tear this whole place apart to find it,” he said, his deep, raspy voice low. “That was my plan, but these two are much nicer than I am.”

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