Page 74 of Ascendant King

“Poison,” I answered when Cade remained silent. He didn’t move, his attention focused on an unseen ceiling above us.

Every other time we’d been in this room, the single light source had been from above the wooden table, leaving the room in darkness. Now, the room was outlined in pale gold, as though the magic was bioluminescent.

“We need to leave,” I said immediately. “Cade!”

He shook his head sharply, blinking and turning to me, eyes wide. “This is… This is our house. This is in the magic every Bartlett mage uses.”

“If this is poison, we need to remove it from this room!” Sonja’s voice rose, her ferocity matched by the growl that came out of Tyson’s throat. They were both loyal to House Bartlett in a way that I barely understood.

The house had almost killed them, and still they wanted to protect it.

“I know that you are bitter about what happened with Leon, but you are just as much a Bartlett as I am,” Sonja said. “Help me!”

“No!” Cade’s words were too late.

Sonja pressed her hands out, her swirls of red ink spinning through the air and hitting the sap on the table. They sliced through the sap, and there was a hissing noise, but then the sticky poison slid down, covering Sonja’s magic, and she screamed.

Tyson roared and began to shift, but as he did, red ink peeled itself off his skin, drawn to the sap. Sonja’s eyes followed it as the sap consumed their magic.

“Sonja, we need to leave.” Cade closed his eyes, running a hand over his wrist, drawing out lines of ink.

“What is it doing?” Sonja stared. She reached helplessly toward the poisonous sap, but I grabbed her wrist tightly and squeezed before she could touch it.

“Don’t, or it will consume you and Tyson along with the magic.” I glanced over at Cade. “Are we getting out of here?”

Cade grunted, the magic in his hands disintegrating as a droplet of sap pierced it, shredding the transportation spell before he could complete it. I felt something tighten in my stomach. If we couldn’t get out of here… if we were stuck here, we would be drunk dry like the werewolves we’d found in the city.

“Fire,” I told Sonja. “We need magic that will burn away the sap so Cade can get us out of here.”

Cade’s eyes were still screwed closed, his expression tense. A drop of sweat slid down his temple. Finally, he opened his eyes.

“If she can burn above us, we can get out of here.” He glanced up, shaking his head. “If it’s this bad here…”

He didn’t finish the thought, but I didn’t let myself worry about the unfinished part of his sentence. I looked back at Sonja. “Fire.”

“Okay.” She exhaled and extended her hands, thrusting them up toward the ceiling. A line of red flew up, then fell back down. Her magic was exhausted.

Sonja screamed, pushing her hands back up, but no other magic flew off her skin. With a frustrated shriek, she said, “No!”

Her skin was pale, nearly gray, the colorlessness accented by her striking black hair. Strands were coming loose in the front, sticking to the sweat on her forehead.

Tyson grabbed her arm before she could try again. “Sonja.”

He brought her hand to his neck, where lines of red ink swirled. The gift she had given him when they had become consort and master, the lines of tattoo that were the last bit of Sonja’s magic that remained.

“Take it,” Tyson growled.

“No,no. It could kill you.” Sonja tried to yank her hand away, but Tyson clutched it so tight that both of their skin went white.

“Cade, can you do both?” I asked him. “Or can I use the magic on my chest to burn it?”

Cade stared at me, his blue eyes so wide that I could see the white around them. “I can’t do both and guarantee we’ll all return safely. The magic on your chest would just get eaten. None of it is designed to burn.”

“We need to do something.” I felt something above me and jumped to the side just as a large drop of sap fell, splashing on the stone floor. “Can you give me some magic to burn, and I’ll use my wolf?”

The room exploded into flame.

Red flew from where Tyson and Sonja were wrapped around each other in a tight hug. Cade didn’t wait, clapping his hands together and bringing them apart. He drew his hand through the air, as though spinning the world around us.