Page 121 of Ascendant King

“Everyone back. At least to the edge of the park.” I looked at Heather and Gabe, who immediately nodded, joining with Evelyn and Pablo to shoo the pack back into a safer range.

I crouched where Emilio was, taking the chains from him. “You too.”

Emilio stood, clapping me on the shoulder and squeezing once before retreating.

Cade looked at me, his mouth set. He glanced significantly at the edge of the park. I could hear the silentyou too.

But he would never say it. He had too much respect for my position and how tenuous he knew it could be.

I shook my head, and he snorted out softly. Then, he raised his hand.

“What are you doing?” Phelan demanded.

“Undoing something that never should have been done.” The pain in Cade’s voice saidcorrecting my father’s mistake.

His magic flowed from his fingertips like a shadow, dripping directly into Phelan’s eyes.

For a long heartbeat, Phelan stared blankly up at Cade’s palm. Then, his spine arched, his mouth going open, his entire body twitching.

“House Morrison ends its compact with its ley lines.” The words themselves seemed to have power, an audible boom rushing through the air.

When Cade opened his eyes, they were black, pinpricks of light streaking through them. “I can see Leon. I can see all of them. All of the houses, all of the ley lines.”

Cade’s head went back, and he lurched to the side, landing on his hands and knees, coughing up amber-colored poison.

Chapter

Forty

Irushed to Cade’s side, dropping down next to him and wrapping my arm around his shoulders. He was hot to the touch, his skin burning.

He coughed up more liquid, the scent of bile thick in the air as he gagged, continuing to cough, his arms braced on the ground. Carefully, I pulled him up, getting him to his feet and guiding him away from the liquid.

I ignored the chaos around me, the wolves shifting back into their human forms, Rhys cooing at Nia, drawing their fingers through her hair and reassuring her that everything would be fine. Someone else had taken over with Phelan, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. He was staring up at the sky blankly. The only sign of life was the rise and fall of his chest.

Whatever Cade had done, it had worked. The fight had gone out of Phelan.

I sat Cade on the edge of the fountain, crouching between his legs, pressing my hands to his trembling thighs. “We need to get someone to burn the poison out of you.”

“No.” Cade shook his head. “I’m fine.”

I frowned skeptically. “Right. You look fine. I’m sure it’s completely normal to be vomiting up poison you didn’t even drink. You should start a new magic show.”

“It’s all the rage in Vegas. Come see the amazing man who can vomit up poison he didn’t ingest.” Cade looked over at Phelan. “It’s just remnants. Hints at what was there. Like House Bartlett, Morrison had been consumed by this for a long time.”

“I still don’t like it. We need to have you checked out by…” I looked around the battlefield, but who was familiar enough with the poison and the effects of it to examine Cade?

Rhys looked tired, sweat giving their skin a dull sheen, the strain of all the magic we’d asked of them clear in the wrinkles at the corners of their eyes. Isaac was working on Jay at the corner of the battlefield, his magic wrapped around him like a blanket.

“Miles, I’m fine.” Cade’s hot hands covered my own, and when I looked up into his blue eyes, I didn’t see any hint of the amber poison. “You don’t need to worry about me so much.”

“I’m always going to worry about you,” I admitted. “That’s what we are.”

I stopped. This wasn’t the time or place.

But Cade’s eyes went wide, and he seemed to understand immediately. We were two men whose entire lives had been defined by one thing. And then we met each other, and he had demanded I protect him.

Now, we got to be defined by something else. We got tobesomeone else to each other.