Page 91 of Ascendant King
Miriam would be a problem for another day or, if she had any common sense, a problem for never. It had been Benji who had wanted to come after me. If Miriam left me alone, I would never have to face her again.
Somehow, that didn’t even feel cowardly. It just felt like an extension of giving up on my past, an extension of forgiving Cade and visiting the old house, only to find the rooms smaller, the memories gone.
As we passed the front door, Nia disappeared, gesturing for two wolves to follow her. With them gone, I could hear the noise from the ballroom in sharper clarity. Voices overlapped, Petrona’s authoritative tone cutting above the rest.
When we walked in, everyone turned. The consorts that had been nearly dead when we arrived were mostly sitting up, their mages next to them. From the scent in the air, I could tell that too many had been crying, the relief palpable. Members of my pack circled with water and food taken from the rations we’d picked up at the dryad village.
A cluster of stronger mages stood together toward the side of the room, a few members of Los Santos Pack nearby, eyeing them. The mages bowed in unison, even the ones who could barely stand.
From her position, face turned toward the floor, Sonja called, “All hail the king!”
Rising, the mages took it up, their voices unified. “All hail the king! All hail the king!”
Cade froze, locking his knees. His body leaned back as he just barely stopped himself from turning and running away. Instead, he glanced over the crowd.
“It is done. I have freed House Bartlett from the poisoned ley lines. We are liberated.” He paused, and the room was silent, anticipation building. He glanced at me, and I offered a sympathetic smile. Both of us were required to give rousing speeches when it wasn’t in our nature. Cade’s voice had been too long silenced by Leon, and I imagined that he was hearing every titter that would have marked any speech he’d tried to give back then.
“House Bartlett has been too long crippled by our attachment to tainted magic. Now that we are free, we are allowed to choose the house we would be.” He looked over the crowd. “House Morrison grows stronger, my cousin remains alive, the otherprincipal houses will be looking to see what we do next. They are vultures, and we must show them that we are not dead yet. We are House Bartlett. And we will prevail.”
For a second, the room was silent, and then Sonja and Isaac shouted, “All hail the king! All hail House Bartlett!”
Their prompting made everyone else take up the chant. When the cheers died down, Cade and I approached Petrona.
“Gabe said that something happened with the mages who were with Leon.” The room buzzed with voices as the mages and consorts that had been half dead when we arrived spoke excitedly. Whether the fresh mages and consorts or the selection of a new king had been what animated them, I couldn’t tell.
“Yes.” Petrona blinked, her eyes focused on Cade. The deep lines in her skin smoothed slightly as she looked him over. “This way.”
She led us to a corner of the room where the three remaining mages we had fought were sitting on the ground, their iron chains pooled at their ankles.
One of them sat straighter when he saw Cade. His eyes went wide, and he bowed his head.
“King Bartlett.” He cleared his throat. “We deeply apologize for our actions. The wolves here can verify that when you snapped our connection with the ley lines, we… reacted.”
“You’re suggesting you were controlled by the ley lines?” Cade’s voice was cool, but he and I had both been pulled like puppets in a perverted play under the ley lines’ control. I wasn’t sure why he sounded so doubtful.
“No.” He shook his head, glancing at his companions.
“We take responsibility for our actions,” another mage said. Her brown hair had come loose from a braid and covered part of her face. “But when we started receiving the magic from Leon, from the house, it made us thirsty. You have to understand, my entire life, I’ve been told that I’m not good enough, thatmy magic would never be enough. And then to get more…” She shook her head, another strand falling loose. “It isn’t any excuse. But it felt like the magic itself made me thirsty for more. When you cut our connection to the ley lines, I was finally able to see clearly.”
Cade frowned. “The magic itself made you ‘thirsty’ for more?”
He used her term, but I could see him turning it in his mouth, and I made the same connection he did. If this was how it was for House Bartlett mages, was it similar for House Morrison? Did the simple act of gaining more magic make them addicted? Was that why they allowed painful surgery to be performed over and over again?
“Yes. I couldn’t stop myself. Even though I knew something was wrong.” She swallowed, then leaned forward, prostrating herself on the floor. “I apologize.”
Cade exhaled, sighing. “I accept your apologies. We still cannot trust you until my cousin is found. We heard the last place he was seen was in the council chambers.”
The mages shook their heads. The first mage spoke again. “We don’t know about that. We only know that he said he wouldn’t be available for some time, that he had to go speak with other mages knowledgeable in the transfer process. That was the last we saw him. There were other mages, ones who had gained more power, who were closer to him…”
The mage looked down, and the woman took up speaking again. “You weren’t wrong. We were pawns. We see that now.”
“We were all played by Leon,” Cade said sharply. “You were not the only ones.”
He glanced at me, his expression closed off, but I saw vulnerability in his eyes. Cade was a language only I spoke, and I knew what he needed. I wrapped my arm around his waist,tugging him free from the conversation. Petrona and Sonja followed us, Isaac and Jay joining.
“We need to find Leon,” Cade said.
“Is there anywhere else he would have hidden? Is there more secret Bartlett property? We found the one in Big Sur, but are there others?” I looked between the mages that had been in House Bartlett’s inner circle.