Page 56 of Forsaken Royals

We rushed out back, and I yanked the gate on the ground off its hinges. I jumped down instead of taking the rickety ladder, straight into the darkness. Jagger followed, creating a ball of fire to illuminate the way. The basement was more of a hallway leading down to what I assumed was the apartment. I pushed ahead of the enforcer to the door.

I pulled it off its hinges, too, revealing a studio apartment in complete disarray. The dresser drawers were open, clothes spilling out, and someone had yanked everything out of the tiny closet as if they were packing in a hurry.

“He was here recently,” Arden said, wandering into the room. She stopped next to the stained mattress on the floor, then fell to her knees. “Look at this. This book.Thesebooks.”

I went over to see what she was looking at. The books were about the Aridunns. My heart pounded in my chest, as if Tommy himself had jumped out of the closet.

“How did he have these?” I asked, picking up the other book and handing it to her. It looked hand-bound, like it was extremely old, or someone had thrown it together themselves at home.

“I don’t know. But we should take them.” Arden held the books to her chest. “If Tommy could read them, they likely don’t have any spells on them.”

“Good.” I scanned the room one more time.

“I’ll gather evidence around here to take back, Your Highnesses,” the enforcer said.

“Bring it to the central offices. We can comb through it together.” I looked at the others. I shared the disappointment on their faces. “We should go back to the palace. He managed to get away from us.”

Now that Tommy knew we were onto him, we had even less time to track him down. But he only had so many places he could hide.

Chapter31

Lex

Iwoke up with a start the next morning, even though it was barely light out. What had startled me? The only sounds in the room were the faint tapping of rain outside. It shouldn’t have woken me, especially after last night.

We had stayed up until two in the morning, debriefing with the enforcers who had searched for Tommy elsewhere. The only evidence we had was from the apartment we’d broken into. Tommy had the books on the Aridunns for some reason, and he had left a notebook behind on the floor of the closet.

Lists and lists of names covered the pages, so we spent most of our time figuring out who these people were. Some had been missing for months or even years, but others were adults who were easily accounted for. Their only commonality was their age—all of them were under twenty-five.

Knowing that should have put me at ease, made me feel like we were making progress. But it just made me sick. Were these kids kidnapped, too? Maybe the dread was what had woken me up.

I stretched and rolled onto my stomach. I hated how much space I had to myself, but even sleeping in the same bed as Arden was asking for something to happen.

I wanted to see her, though. A mate bond was intense, so the fact that she still had feelings for me after that was a relief.

I dressed and went to the central palace. The moment I crossed into it, something felt off. Violated.

I stopped in my tracks, closing my eyes and feeling the magic around me. I walked around the palace so often that it had become background noise to me. The shift in it was subtle, not something most fae besides Royals would feel.

“You’ve been at your post all night, haven’t you?” I asked an enforcer standing watch.

“Yes, sir.”

I dug deeper into the magic, and it clicked. Someone had broken in. My eyes flew open.

“Call the central palace security right now. There’s been a breach somewhere, and I need everyone on it,” I said.

I took off, my heart racing. We had break-in attempts all the time, but most intruders didn’t get past the external protection spells. Whoever had gotten this close must have been powerful and skilled.

Maybe they were still inside.

I had to get to Arden.

She was strong and had gotten even stronger with more training, but she wasn’t invincible. What if someone from the Forsaken Lunars had finally tracked her down?

I turned down the hall where her quarters were and found the enforcers posted outside of her door slumped over. I grabbed them and reversed the sleeping spell they were under. Both of them awoke with a start, eyes wide. Why hadn’t they stopped whoever had done this? Our enforcers were strong and should have been able to fight off a sleeping spell.

I didn’t have time to question them now. I yanked open her door, which was unlocked, the hinges creaking.

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