Page 111 of Contested Crown

“We need fire,” I said.

Cade blinked, the blue coming back, flickering orange. “I don’t have enough control. I don’t have enough magic.”

“Then give it to me. Give me everything you have. Give me enough flames to set this entire room ablaze.” I raised both eyebrows. “Trust me, I can take it.”

“No,” Cade breathed. “No.”

“We’ve been practicing for this,” I said. “Come on, Sonja gave Tyson more magic than you’ve ever given me, and he was fine.”

“Miles,” Cade said.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Give it to me.”

Cade exhaled and then put his hands on top of mine, still cupping his face. He closed his eyes and I felt warmth crawling up my arms, as he moved his magic onto me. The lines of tattoo spiraled, and I felt it on my skin. He winced.

“Fire,” I said.

“Okay,” he murmured, and I felt his breath on my skin.

When the last of it was on me, he slumped, and I held him until he locked his knees. When he blinked open his eyes, they were blue, but his expression turned to horror when he looked at me.

“Miles…”

“I’vegotthis,” I said. Then I took a step back, remembering the explosion earlier, the way I’d used his magic fluidly in the fight against the mages. How I could grip it and use it like it was a physical thing.

I broke eye contact with him and pushed at the magic, feeling it merge with my wolf, until it was all-powerful, until the alpha in me broke free.

I shifted, my wolf even more massive than it had ever been. When I was fully canine, I pushed at the magic under my fur andburned.

ChapterThirty-Six

In my wolf form, I could see the power around me, the poison that dripped like sap from all of the surfaces. I knew that it was in my fur, in my magic, but I was a wolf, I was analpha,and I was on fire.

The magic exploded out of me, burning the poison off of my skin and off Cade. It caught, the entire room going up in a blaze, the flames made of dark black lines of tattoo and fierce heat that should have burned my fur but somehow didn’t. I could feel the poison pushing at me, trying to break through the defense of fire, but I was stronger.

Roaring, I pushed my power into the attack, thinking of forests burned, cities razed by flames.

When I didn’t feel the stickiness under my paws, when I was free, I thought about all the practice I’d done with Cade and released my hold on the magic. It should have flowed back to him, the way it always did, iron filings finding their way back to a magnet.

Instead, I felt the magic continue to burn, as though it had caught on the poison and was now burning through the magic in the ley line itself. I yelped, backing away as the flames grew hotter, the dark lines of tattoo running along the edges of the blaze, sharp enough to slice both me and Cade, hot enough to burn our flesh.

Cade came up beside me, so familiar that I didn’t even turn to look at him. He placed a hand on my shoulder, digging his fingers down until they touched my skin.

“What’s wrong?” His voice was hoarse from smoke and heat.

I whined, backing further away from the flames, knowing I should shift back into my human form, but I couldn’t protect Cade in that form. I had to be this big, this fierce.

“Miles?” His voice was low, his fingers tight in my fur.

He was scared; he was counting on me to protect him. I walked forward, crossing into the hot flames, dragging Cade with me. Then I focused on the magic. It didn’t belong to the fire. It didn’t belong to anyone but me.

I was so familiar with the millipede feel of too many feet on my arms and chest, crawling up, Cade’s magic enveloping me, giving me the strength to shift. This felt painful, and I was reminded of how his magic used to feel at House Bartlett, back when we were strangers, before I knew him better than I knew anyone else.

“We’ll do it together.” Cade’s voice came from far away, and it took me a while to translate. He bent down, pressing his hands to the floor.

Yelping, I grabbed hold of the back of his shirt, trying to tug him away from the flames, but he held fast.

We were surrounded by burning magic, everything hot, everything painful. Cade reached up one of his hands and pressed it to the nape of my neck, resting his forehead on my furred one.