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“This is where you’ll be staying,” I said. I gripped the chain between her cuffs, separating them but keeping the metal loops around her wrists to keep her power contained.
Arden wandered in, looking around with a hint of awe on her face. I could admit that I found her beautiful, as much as the feeling unsettled me. She was the enemy and an enormous pain in my ass already. The repercussions of her stealing our artifact were going to linger for a long time—it had more power than anything else in the world. I shouldn’t have been drawn to her like this.
I cleared my throat, looking away from her lithe form. The enforcers at the prison had given her a plain gray shirt and pants instead of her flimsy pajamas. They should have looked dowdy on her, but they didn’t.
She wandered over to the closet, which our aides had stocked with clothes in her size. She glanced into it but didn’t turn on the light or investigate further. She scoped out the rest of the room, probably planning an escape route. Not that there was one.
“Is this a joke?” Arden asked, coming to a stop in the middle of the room. “You’re putting me here? After locking me up in a stuffy, hot cell?”
I tucked my hands into my pockets. “Yes.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s the catch?”
“There is no catch. You’re going to be staying here while we figure out the situation with the artifact.”
She glared at me for a moment before stepping into my space. She looked me straight in the eye. Up close, her eyes were a deeper green around her irises. I stood my ground, even though a tingle ran down my spine. Why? I wasn’t weak, especially compared to her. She was just a female, one that couldn’t shift and didn’t even have an elemental power.
“If you’re going to put me up in what’s basically a fancy hotel, you should let me go. I’m in the middle of the palace, so you obviously trust me enough.” She paused. “Or I’m guessing you’ve improved your security.”
I snorted. “We’re definitely not letting you go.”
“Why not?”
I clenched my jaw, so I didn’t snap at her. “Because you’re a criminal, Arden.”
“A very fancy one, apparently.” She gestured around the room.
“Whatever you want to call yourself.” I sighed again. “But the short of it is that you’re staying here. No more questions. We’ll come talk to you when we need you. For now, you’ll be here. Understood?”
Arden didn’t respond. She just wandered toward the window.
I turned to leave, but the moment I did, Arden sprung into action. I whipped around right as she threw a hand up to try a spell. She winced when the cuffs around her wrists prevented her from doing so, growling in frustration. Then she launched herself at me like she was going to take me down.
I dodged her with ease, sending her flying past me. Her toe caught on the rug, and she nearly face-planted onto the floor before I caught her. One hand landed on her side, my fingers curling around her ribs to brush the bottom of her right breast. The other landed just below her ass.
To my surprise, she didn’t smack me for touching her so intimately, even if it was an accident. She looked up at me, her eyes wide and stunned. Words died in my throat, my body overtaken with the strangest, most intense feeling I’d had in a long time.
It wasn’t pure lust, though that was part of it. And it wasn’t rage or affection or even irritation. Whatever it was, it unnerved me. I yanked her to her feet and stepped back.
“Really? That was your plan?” I asked. “Trying a spell on someone like me? Then trying totackleme? You’d have more luck running headfirst into a brick wall.”
Arden’s cheeks flushed red with anger, and she stormed across the room. Fine, then. I left, too, shutting the door behind me and trying to forget what I’d just felt.
Chapter8
Arden
The Royals had put me up in the softest, most comfortable bed I’d ever been on, but I hardly slept at all. Whenever I did, I woke up minutes later—or at least it seemed like minutes—in a panic. I was a prisoner in the palace, and the Royals wanted me to tell them about where the artifact was.
Except I had no idea where it was. That wasn’t my job. I stole whatever the Forsaken Lunars wanted me to, delivered it, and was done. Whatever they did with the stolen goods after that was up to them.
Of course, all I had to do was tell them I’d given it to the Forsaken Lunars, but I didn’t want to do that, either. The Forsaken Lunars did things that most considered criminal, but their cause was just, in my opinion. They, like a lot of fae in the world, didn’t like how much power the Royals had and had pledged to break them down, little by little. I still wasn’t sure what the artifact actually was, but the Moon Oracle had made it seem like it would tip the power balance in their favor. Allowing the Royals to have this artifact on top of the power they already had was the last thing I wanted.
I hadn’t trusted the Royals before, and I certainly didn’t now. I wasn’t going along with whatever game they were playing by putting me up in this room and not torturing the information out of me. They had to have an ulterior motive. I wanted to find out what it was, but I didn’t know how much time I had before they changed their minds.
I finally gave up on trying to sleep when the first hints of sunlight streamed through the windows. The view was stunning, the golden light glinting off the windows and buildings in the distance.
I rolled out of bed and shook out my limbs. No time to appreciate the scenery. I had to figure out what I was going to do.
