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But with him standing above me, the gentle lighting of the vault casting a shadow behind him, he seemed evil. Not at all the goofy boss that I’d worked with for years.
Your friends aren’t always friends—wasn’t that what Elias had said? He’d known. He’d known that Chad was somehow involved in this.
“I know you’re probably lost, and I understand,” Chad said, tucking his hands into his pockets and wandering around. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? You’re sorry?” I sputtered. “Who are you, really? Are you even Chad?”
“I am Chad. But I’m also the Moon Oracle’s brother. The real head of the Forsaken Lunars.” He rested a hand on his sister’s shoulder. Seeing them side by side made their similarities jump out at me—their mouths, the angle of their eyebrows. “All the jobs I sent you on were at my command. Cynthia here was just the figurehead. It’s easier to convince people to follow someone they believe is on a higher plane than them, and she fits the bill, doesn’t she?”
I swallowed, trying to shove this information into a neat box in my brain, but it spilled out everywhere. This just wasn’t adding up.
“Why did you kidnap me now when I worked for you for years and years? Did you hire me because of who I am?” I frowned. No, that didn’t make sense. How would he have known that the artifact would unlock my powers? My heart raced. Had he known about my mother this whole time? Did they know about her vision?
“Nope, it was a pleasant accident,” he said. My heart slowed. “I hired you because you needed a job and could do it well. I noticed you had street smarts and were handy with spells, so I had some members of the Forsaken Lunars reach out to you. You refused to join, but we made it work. And I tried to take you that day when you were attacked, but someone else wanted to take you out in a permanent sense. I’m glad I got away and got help.”
“So you weren’t involved in that?”
“No, of course not. We need you alive. We need your power. You complete us.” Chad wandered closer to the next door, which led to the next layer of the vault. “We’re going to end the tyranny of the current Royals and take their place with your help.”
“What? Why?”
“You know how it really is out there, Arden,” he said, trying to put his hand to the door. It hovered over it, blocked by an invisible barrier. “Kids—the same ones that we’ve brought into our group en masse—don’t have futures. All the power is with the Royals, and we’re sick of it. Why not use this opportunity to make a change? To help out those who need it? To bring those kids you have on your palace grounds back into our fold?”
I scoffed. Arguing with him about whether the Royals were good rulers or not wasn’t going to get us anywhere. He was deeply set in his ideas.
“But you?” I asked. “The Moon Oracle—Cynthia, whatever—is so much more powerful than you. Any idiot could see that. What makes you think that you’re worthy of being a Royal?”
“The prophecy told us that those who hold the artifact at the most auspicious alignment will harken in a new era. The combination of the full solar eclipse and the alignment of the stars is a once in a millennium event. Between that and you being a rare shifter, it has to be our time,” Cynthia said, stepping forward. “The artifact will increase Chad’s power, just like it increased yours. We just need you to break through these seals so I can grab it.”
I waited for him to say something else, to make his stupid idea make sense, but he didn’t.
“No.” I laughed, throwing my head back. “You really think I’m going to help you with this ridiculous plan?”
“Yes, because your mates are on the other side of this wall, being held under a sleeping spell by our strongest Forsaken Lunars,” Chad said, his expression turning dark. “In their state, we were able to give them a strong tincture to weaken them more. I can send in Cynthia and have her help them drain the life out of them.”
My entire body went cold. Chad wasn’t bluffing. My vision had come true, right down to the chaos in the city. And if they had enough strong fae to put the Royals into a deep sleep, they had enough to actually do serious harm to them. Especially with Cynthia’s natural power. How had she let Chad run this when she was so strong? Did she not think she could? I wanted to know, but I wanted her dead and out of my sight more.
I ground my teeth together, trying to form a plan on the fly. If I got the artifact, my powers would be even stronger. I had to get it from Chad once we got to it, then kill both of them. But then what? I had to use the element of surprise to my advantage and save the Royals. The plan had a lot of weak spots, but what other option did I have?
“Fine.” I shifted my weight, the cuffs chafing my wrists. “I need help with the cuffs. I can’t undo all of those with whatever you drugged me with in my system.”
“Very well. But remember our threat.” Cynthia helped me to my feet and guided me to the door. She undid the cuffs and handed me an antidote to the tincture. I chugged it, and it worked immediately, clearing the fog in my brain.
I started on the spells, grimacing when their power pushed against mine. The outer spells were put in place by aides, so I was able to crack through them relatively easily. But the deeper we got, the more Flint’s, Lex’s, and Jagger’s power would be in them.
I worked in silence, biting the inside of my cheek and praying that I didn’t hit a spell I couldn’t crack. Over the course of an hour, I got deeper and deeper, and the further in I got, the more reassured I was. The pulsing power of the artifact deep in the vault pulled me toward it, spurring me. Was it giving me power, even though I wasn’t touching it?
I cracked through a spell just outside the innermost vault layer. It had to be helping me. My head spun, hope rushing through me. I didn’t have to touch the artifact to use it.
“There,” I said when the last protection spell cracked. “It’s done.”
Chad grinned, opening the final door while Cynthia cuffed my hands in front of me. He paused, obviously confused by the size of the vault and the amount of stuff inside. It looked more like a mini-library than anything else. Shelves lined the walls, and the middle had jewels, sculptures, and more.
“Where is it?” he asked, wandering around.
Cynthia did the same.
I knew exactly where it was. It was calling out to me, begging for me to grab it. But I stood there, unmoving, trying to grab onto the power. The more I concentrated, the more I felt it inching into me. I bit back a gasp. The entire room silently vibrated for me.
