Page 78 of Ascendant King

She shook her head. Then she looked at Petrona, raising an eyebrow.

“Long story, but it looks like Cade will be king after all. Long live and all that.”

She nodded. When she waited expectantly, I stared at her blankly. She huffed a sigh. She put one palm out flat and held the opposite fist out, thumb up. She drew the hand in a circle around her flat palm.

I didn’t recognize the sign, but the meaning was clear. Patrols.

“Yeah, have some people continue searching the house. Two patrols, one closer to the house, one further out, but not as far as the woods. How is it going with the consorts in the ballroom?”

Nia winced. She shook her head.

“I’ll be right there as soon as we’re done here.”

In the room, Petrona lifted both hands, clapping them sharply. Blue cards made of pure magic flew from her hands, out of the house. Instantly, I heard some pops as mages teleported in, holding Petrona’s invitations in their hands. Two at first, then more, until the room had fourteen new mages in it. With Sonja and Petrona, that meant a quarter of the council was missing. I tried to remember if they were in the ballroom.

The last time I’d seen them, I’d been pretending to be Cade’s consort. Now I was his equal, his partner, if not his lover anymore.

Petrona was already talking. “Leon has broken this house from within. He’s destroyed us. We have a duty to the house, a duty to each other to remove him and put the rightful Bartlett heir on his throne.”

There were some murmurs but no protests.

“Leon is a traitor,” Perry Shepherd said. His voice carried. I had never liked him because of his habit of speaking over Cade, but his sunken eyes said he’d fared worse under Leon. “I second this motion.”

“Let us vote.” Petrona looked around the room. “All those in favor of removing Leon and naming Cade Bartlett our king, vote blue.”

One by one, the mages tossed the cards into the air until they created a mosaic. With a snap of her fingers, Petrona revealed the vote. There wasn’t a single silver card.

“Cade Bartlett, the remains of House Bartlett council name you king. We give you the honor and the power of your father’s throne.” She raised her cane, bringing it down with a thunderous crack. “Long live the king!”

The cry echoed throughout the room, mages taking it up.

Cade’s eyes were wide, his cheekbones standing out. He wet his lips. “Thank?—”

The room descended into darkness.

Chapter

Twenty-Six

Ididn’t hesitate. There wasn’t time to hesitate. Immediately, I grabbed Cade around the waist, throwing him down underneath me.

Magic exploded against the darkness, tattoos of green, red, and yellow as the members of the House Bartlett council attempted to light the room. It was consumed, every flicker of it. The darkness thickened, becoming so intense that I couldn’t even see Cade beneath me.

“Magic. Someone else is here,” Cade whispered, his hot breath on my cheek. “Let me up.”

“It’s eating everyone else’s magic.” I was still crouched over him, my muscles tense. “Is it Leon?”

I could feel Cade’s shrug. “I don’t know.”

Something brushed past us in the dark, but before it could touch us, I pulled Cade out of the way.

“Protect King Bartlett!” Petrona shouted. “We have not yet started the ritual!”

Her words were stronger than they’d been before, her voice as relentless as an avalanche. There was a sudden flash of blue that threw off the darkness around us, and Petrona stood in the center of a group of panicked council members. The ruby in thehead of her cane had shattered, and her hair hung loose around her shoulders.

“We must finish the ritual,” she said. Her head swung to me. “There!”

One finger, gnarled from arthritis, pointed at the center of the room, where Sonja and Tyson stood back to back, each trying to protect the other.