Page 127 of Ascendant King

I scrambled out of the way, spinning to see what had taken him down. A worn gargoyle had his paw pressed against Benjamin’s back, pushing down until there was an ominous crack, and Benjamin went still.

Austin shuddered, his brother’s name on his lips, blood dripping down his face. Cade fisted his hand, and Austin went still, whether from the pain or death, I didn’t care.

Heather pushed her way up, the green magic flaking off her. She limped closer, and I nuzzled her face, licking at the blood left behind. Hesitantly, the rest of the pack came close, surrounding her.

I turned, facing the gargoyle. He was the leader of his own kind, the gargoyle from the supernatural council at the Zoo. I owed him respect, but not enough to bow my head to him.

He observed me, his rock eyes impossible to read. A glowing trail danced through the air, spinning in delicate circles as the fairies approached.

“Well met, Emperor Wolf.” The fairies spoke with one voice, their thousand tiny voices speaking together. “We are glad you have remembered your promise.”

“The Los Santos Pack remembers its allies,” Cade said, approaching and resting a hand on my shoulders.

His fingers dragged through my fur, a gentle stroke I wasn’t even sure he was aware of.

I had to shift back. I had to be able to communicate with the supernatural council. But the part of me that was an alpha needed to turn around, sniff and check the rest of the pack for injury.

Cade’s fingers gentled even further, running in slow circles until his hand stilled. I closed my eyes, forcing the shift to come. My skin jumped, oversensitive, highly aware of the blood now dried on my skin, of the ache in my jaw from where it had almost been wrenched apart.

“Where is the rest of the council?” I asked.

The gargoyle growled, looking over its shoulder, its massive stone wings shifting, dust drifting to the ground.

“They work with the rest of your pack and the mages. They attempt to hold off the inevitable.” The fairies cooed the words, rising in the air to form a triangular shape, pointing toward the riverbed.

“Leon?” I asked.

“What’s left of him.” The fairies spun again, coming closer and closer until I could make out the individual ones in their group. “Have you come to kill him?”

“We’ve come to defeat him,” I hedged. “If he gives up, we intend to break the connection between all mage houses and ley lines.”

“Our stories tell of a time before the mage houses owned magic.” The fairies circled my head before moving over to Cade. He didn’t flinch away, but his eyes struggled to latch onto one of them.

The ground shook, and the fairies darted away, settling on the gargoyle. “Go now. It is almost too late.”

Chapter

Forty-Two

There was a part of me that wanted to sprint through the woods by myself, tear out Leon’s throat now before he could do more damage. But that was the part of me that had been Declan’s right hand for so long, the part of me that belonged to Declan. It was the part of me that knew that an enemy on his back foot was an enemy ripe for defeat.

I looked at Cade, his blue eyes trusting, and that brought me up short. It wasn’t that we were different, although we were. It wasn’t that we should have been enemies, although we should have.

It was that, despite everything that had passed between us, he trusted me. More than that, he believed in me. When he looked at me, it was with the complete faith of someone who had bought into me, hook, line, and sinker.

I raised a hand, brushing a bit of ash and dust off Cade’s delicate cheek. My whole body shivered, as though touching him was connecting two live wires. I wanted to lean close and kiss him.

Kissing him would make the world around us dissolve. All of this would disappear with a brush of his lips. His mouth parted,his eyes going wide, as though he was feeling the same thing, as though it was just as tempting to him as it was to me.

He swallowed and didn’t pull away.

I didn’t deserve that trust, not the way he gave it, reluctantly, hesitantly. He trusted me because he had every reason not to, but somehow, we had come together. It wasn’t just our common enemy or the past that bound us together like barbed wire.

Part of him and part of me would always be connected, but he trusted me because he thoughtIdeserved it.Me.

So I didn’t run off on my own, tearing through the forest until I found Leon. Because Cade was a king, but he believed I was an emperor.

Branches shook and leaves parted as the rest of the pack arrived, mages coming with them. I looked them over. We still had forty people.