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Then again, the Forsaken Lunars had tried to kidnap me right in the middle of the festival because the crowd offered them a place to hide.
I rolled off of Jagger and went to the bathroom to freshen up.
The eclipse was in two days, so we had more rituals and blessings around dusk. Aside from that, I had most of the day to spend at the coffee shop. Maybe it was just what I needed to take my mind off of everything.
“We should go with you, Kitten,” Lex said as he went into the bathroom. “Chad’s vibe didn’t sit well with me.”
“Under a glamour to change your face?” I asked, turning on the shower. “Or will you be invisible?”
“Invisible,” Jagger said, striding in behind Lex. “I want to see how he acts when he thinks you’re alone. I don’t trust that motherfucker.”
“Chad’s harmless, seriously. If anything, he’s just a little weird, and I know how to put him in his place.”
Lex and Jagger exchanged a look, and the apprehension coming from both of them irritated me. Did they really think Chad was a threat? They were protective, and I loved that about them, but I could verbally shred Chad without a second thought.
“We’ll get Flint to come, too.” Lex got into the shower with me. “It won’t hurt.”
The thought of Flint made my heart ache. Seeing how much he still cared about me and was willing to protect me helped, but I hadn’t suddenly fallen out of love with him. If anything, I loved him more every day.
“He’ll want to, Little Flower. I might be pissed at him for breaking your heart, but I know he cares a lot about you,” Jagger said. “He’d rather die than let anything happen to you when he’s not there.”
“Fine.” I sighed and reached for my shampoo. “All of us can go.”
We got ready and went to find Flint. As Lex and Jagger anticipated, Flint demanded that he go along before we even asked. A car whisked us over to my old neighborhood and stopped about a block away. The guys had implemented some new street cleaning initiatives, and a few locals had put together funds to build a playground in the small park on the far end of the block, which was finally open.
Coming back was nostalgic, even though I hadn’t been away from Muddy Mugs all that long. The Royals cloaked themselves, their magic so strong that they were entirely undetectable. I knew they were close to me because of the mate bonds between me, Lex, and Jagger. The cloaked enforcers always gave off the faintest hint of magic. I walked the short distance from my drop-off spot to the coffee shop and went inside.
“Arden!” Lucy exclaimed the second she saw me, dropping everything and rushing toward me. She tackled me in a hug. “You’re here!”
“I am!” I squeezed her tight. I missed her warm, bubbly energy. “This place is the exact same.”
“It always is. Besides Phil.” She turned me around to face the kid at the cash register, who was barely out of his teens, if I had to guess. “Phil, this is Arden. Arden, this is Phil.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
“Likewise.” I tucked my hands into my pockets. “Chad asked me to swing by for old times’ sake. He said that you’ve been making some crazy lattes?”
“I have.” She glanced over her shoulder at the new kid, and in a low voice, said, “And to keep myself entertained without you.”
I snorted. “Can you make me one? Surprise me?”
“Of course.” Lucy went back behind the counter. “How have you been? How’s the boyfriend? You have to bring Mitch around, so we can get to know him better.”
Up until that moment, I had forgotten that Jagger had used a cloaking spell to pick me up at Muddy Mugs once. I’d introduced Jagger to my co-workers as Mitch.
I hoped that Lucy and Chad would forgive me for the lie when the truth about my guys came out. The news was going to get out, anyway. Even if I wasn’t an aristocrat, a mate bond was a mate bond, and everyone respected those. But telling Lucy right now in the middle of the shop wasn’t how I wanted to tell her.
“I’ve been really good,” I said. “And Mitch is busy with the eclipse, so maybe after that.”
“Right.” She reached under the counter to get her mystery ingredients. “I’m looking forward to it. He must be truly wonderful to pin you down.”
The door to the back office squeaked open, and Chad came around the corner. Just like the shop, he hadn’t changed a bit; his hair was still in a buzz cut, and he still wore slightly oversized clothes. He grinned when he saw me. The irritation rocketing through my mate bonds was almost comical.
“I thought I heard your voice,” Chad said. He gave me a quick, polite hug. “Thank you for coming.”
“It’s good to be back.” I dug through my bag for the bottle I’d hastily grabbed on our way out. “And happy early birthday.”
“Shit, Arden.” He examined the bottle. It was some mead he liked. The much more expensive version, since the Royals only had the best. “This is my favorite. Thank you.”
