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“Arden?” I shouted.
Her bed was empty. I checked the living room, the bathroom, the closet. All empty. She was gone.
“Call Jagger and Flint right now!” I shouted to the partially dazed enforcers outside of her door. “Arden is gone!”
I tore apart the room, half out of rage and half out of fear. She wasn’t going to be hiding, so what was I searching for?
I flipped over the couch, dug through her closet, opened every drawer. I made it back to her rumpled bed and stopped. Someone had left a note.
Thank you for unlocking Arden’s powers so we could finally take her. The Moon Oracle sends her thanks.
“Fuck!” I crumpled the note in my hand, my chest heaving.
Flint burst into the room, his hair still messy from sleep. “What happened? Where is she? Why didn’t the enforcers stop whoever took her?”
The wall next to the door shook, and Jagger shouted something almost unintelligible, the air around us heating at least fifteen degrees in an instant.
“Why thefuckdid you let her get taken?!” he yelled, his voice breaking.
I went into the hallway. Jagger had the enforcer pinned to the wall, and based on the look in his eye, he was fully capable of seriously hurting him. I yanked Jagger back, but only got him to let go when Flint helped.
“I don’t know, Your Highness!” the enforcer choked out, gasping. “One minute, we were standing post, the next, we were being woken up.”
“Doesn’t she usually spend the night with you?” I asked Jagger.
“She does.” He ran his hand through his hair, his fingers trembling. “And I was here. But I woke up about an hour ago and felt restless, so I went out for a jog. Fuck, this is all my fault. I felt something off when I was out there, which is why I even came back in the first place.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said.
“Really? You think someone could have stolen her straight out of my arms?” Jagger scoffed. “No. I should have protected her.”
“Arguing about it now isn’t going to do anything,” Flint said. “We need to find out where she went.”
“It was the Forsaken Lunars. Here.” I unfolded the crumpled note and held it out for them both.
“Of course they’d leave a note like this.” Flint swallowed. “Jagger, do you think you can feel Arden through your mate bond? At least enough to track her down?”
“I can try. I’m still not used to it yet.”
“We have to start somewhere,” I said. “Let’s go get her.”
Chapter32
Arden
Rouhaven was falling apart. Gangs of young people ran in the streets, destroying everything in sight. Buildings were on fire. Children were crying for their mothers, huddled into corners.
Part of me knew what I was experiencing wasn’t real, at least right now. I was in the world, but detached from it, like a ghost. However, something inside of me was one hundred percent sure it was going to be real at some point.
I walked through the chaos, passing through solid objects as I tried to figure out what was going on. Eventually, I reached a large park, one I used to eat lunch in when it was nice out. The entire area was trashed. Someone had even ripped the statue of the Royals out of the ground and toppled it over. Those who had gathered were furious, and the entire park was right on the edge of blowing up into a riot.
“We need the Royals again!” an exhausted looking male shouted. “The Moon Oracle—”
“She’s our savior!” someone else yelled from within the crowd. “Don’t you see how awful it was before the Moon Oracle killed them? When they were tyrants? We’re rebuilding!”
My heart leaped into my throat. The Moon Oracle had killed them? Or was going to?
“And this is better?” another voice chimed in, getting a murmur of approval. “This is rebuilding?”
