Page 110 of Contested Crown

Cade huffed a laugh. “You’re probably the first person who isn’t in House Bartlett that’s been down here since it was built.”

“The second person. Jay was down here earlier.” Which brought up too many questions. How had Jay gotten in? He and Isaac had been talking like they weren’t working with Leon, but if they weren’t, how were they moving in and out of highly secured places without being caught out?

Cade’s hand tensed on my shoulder, and then he dropped it away. “The second person.”

Up ahead, the stairway ended, and by my count, we had walked almost two stories, maybe three, straight down a narrow staircase. At the bottom, dim lighting showed an enormous room as large as the footprint of the building.

I whistled when we stepped in, my eyes drawn upward. “This doesn’t seem structurally sound. Are you sure the building isn’t just going to collapse directly down onto us? This is a big hole underneath a big building.”

“No. We should be fine.” Cade sounded distracted, looking around the room. He held up a hand, and mage lights lifted up from his palm, joining the ambient light to illuminate the room.

Cade hadn’t been lying when he said that the room was like the one underneath House Bartlett. It had that same stone feel, the walls an enormous cavern, smelling of moisture, deep aqueducts underneath our feet that were full of water and magic.

Cade breathed in, a gasp that made me turn, readying myself for a threat.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You don’t see it?” he whispered. “It’s everywhere.”

I remembered how visible the poison had been with my wolf eyes, and I focused on shifting, not letting myself fully go, just enough that my eyes sharpened, gaining the power that they had as a wolf.

I blinked, turning in a full circle. Poison dripped from every wall, almost clear but stained yellow. I stepped back, jerking away from an enormous drip that fell from the ceiling.

“What is it?” I asked. My words were slightly muffled, and I focused on shifting my mouth back to human form. “The dryads said it was old, an old form of poison.”

“I don’t know. But I can feel it.” Cade cried out, grasping at his chest. He bent over, nearly in half, and I ran toward him, holding his elbow, forcing him to look at me.

“What is it?”

“I can feel it on my magic.” Cade gasped, panting, gritting his teeth and shaking his head. “It hurts.”

“Let’s get out of here. We know what it looks like—it’s the same poison that was at House Bartlett. Let’s go.” I grabbed Cade’s elbow and led him back toward the stairway.

He stumbled behind me, and I turned just in time to see something race forward.

I didn’t even take a moment to react, shoving Cade down and leaping forward, raising my hand to strike. But instead of impacting something solid, my fist sank deep into a thick, sticky something.

When I pulled my arm back out, it came with me, slithering up my arm.

Cade screamed behind me, and I turned to see some of it moving up his legs, leaving him trapped, unable to move.

“Fight it!” I tried shaking my hand, trying to throw some of it off, but I could feel it sinking into my skin.

Then it started to burn. Startled, I couldn’t help the grunt of pain. Something landed on the floor near me with a splat, and I saw more of the poison puddling, inching closer to my feet.

We had to get out of the basement. We had to get free so that we could figure out how to get this stuff off us without ending up coated in it.

“Cade, let’s go,” I growled, reaching for the infected arm but pulling back at the last second. The last thing I needed was two hands covered in the stuff.

“I can’t move.” Cade’s calm words didn’t match the expression of agony on his face. “You go. Get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving without you,” I said.

“I can feel it in me.” Cade blinked, and even in the dark, I could see something glimmering in his eyes, a gold that took over the blue.

“Cade.” I crossed the space between us, only a few steps, even though it felt like too much distance.

I grabbed his face in my hands, not caring about the sticky sap on my palm.