Page 66 of Forsaken Royals

I went straight to the library, not even changing out of my usual work outfit of jeans and a button-down shirt. Flint was already there, his head bent over the books. Seeing him still made my heart flip in my chest. He’d let his scruff grow in, making his jaw look even more delicious than it usually was. His hair wasn’t tidy, as if he’d been running his fingers through it in frustration.

“Hey,” I said.

He lifted his head. “Hey, Arden.”

“Any luck so far?”

“No.” He made space for me to sit down next to him. “We’re basically where we started—we know your mother was a part of this Aridunn family line in one way or another, and that the Order killed her and your father.”

I sighed through my nose and grabbed a book anyway, tentatively opening the cover. Ever since one of the most promising books I’d found had turned blank, I didn’t open books recklessly.

I skimmed. And skimmed. And skimmed some more. Nothing jumped out at me, and again, whenever the name Hardy was mentioned, it was either referring to someone else, or it led me to nothing. And the Order wasn’t mentioned whatsoever.

“Try this one,” Flint said, handing me one of the last books in the pile.

I slid it in front of me. Like the others, it was a thick, leather-bound tome. Maybe it was just me getting my hopes up, but it felt powerful.

I tried to pry open the cover, and it didn’t open.Shit.

“Ugh, it’s sealed.” I threw my hands into the air. “Again? What if I unseal it, and it turns blank, too?”

“And what if you unseal it and find something important?” Flint asked. “Try it.”

My unsealing spells had been good already, but now they were great after doing all of this research. I tried the easier ones first, then moved up to more complex ones. When my skills topped out, I passed the book to Flint. He ran through a few of them, too, until he stopped.

“I think it needs a long-term spell,” he said. “Something I can start now and come back to in a few days.”

“A fewdays?” I asked.

“Yes.” He held the book up, its spine on the table. “But maybe it’s a good sign. Most would have given up after the other spells didn’t work.”

He had a point. But knowing that didn’t make it any easier for me to accept it. I wanted answers. I wanted to fill the gap I’d wanted to fill for my entire life.

Chapter38

Jagger

I’d gotten used to my mate bond with Arden, but that didn’t mean feeling her distress through our connection was any easier to take. It was the worst fucking feeling, knowing she wasn’t happy. I had to fix it.

I made my way from the palace offices to my quarters, which Arden had moved into. The closer I got, the more I felt the details of her distress—annoyance, frustration, anger. Mostly frustration. Her research on the Order with Flint must not have gone well.

“Little Flower,” I called out when I stepped into my quarters. “Where are you?”

“In the closet,” Arden replied with a long sigh.

I found her there, rifling through a pile of clothes on top of the island in the center of the spacious room. She was in one of the flimsy silky robes I’d gotten for her. A bolt of lust shot down to my cock, even though I’d fucked her before she went to work. I never got enough of her.

“What are you doing?” I brushed some of her red hair behind her shoulder. Her cheeks were flushed the way they often got when she was upset but trying to hold it in. “Did the research not go well?”

“Nope. I don’t even want to talk about it.” She sighed again, this one longer than the last, and pushed aside a pile of clothes. “I want to go out to take my mind off things, but I need to find something to wear. Do you think Lex would come? Flint said he had some work to handle.”

“You think he’d come out, anyway?” I snorted.

Flint’s insistence on not sharing Arden was fucking ridiculous. He was cutting himself off from her and from all the fun we were having.

Arden deflated. “True.”

“Hey.” I grabbed her hips and pulled her toward me. She rested her forehead on my chest. “Don’t worry about him right now. We’re going to have such a good time tonight that you won’t even remember the shitty parts of today. I know just the place to go.”

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