Page 18 of Contested Crown

Cade was sweating, panting with the effort it took to keep the spell in place.

“Here.” I offered my hand over, the magic still covering my palm.

Cade clapped his hand on top of mine, and something in me shivered at the strength of his grip, the pressure of his skin against mine. I held tight, raising my foot and swinging it against Vito’s face.

The wolf went still for a second, then let out an enraged scream. Vito shoved up, cracking and breaking Cade’s magic.

Cade wound it back into himself quickly before Vito could break it entirely. I leapt forward, slamming Vito against the hood of our car, pushing him down against the hot metal. He twisted one of his legs, wrapping it around my waist and pulling me close in a mockery of intimacy.

Slapping my hand against his face, I pressed his chin up, wrenching his neck back. My wrist cracked, the angle wrong and the bone giving. Then Cade was there. He spread his hands on the other side of the car, and I knew well enough to leap out of the way when he dropped the magic on top of Vito.

It wound around him, coiling as tightly as a boa constrictor. I grabbed hold of it, then threw Vito to the ground, kicking him in the back of the skull hard enough that his head snapped forward.

Panting, I waited. For a second, he lay still. Then, I smelled the sickly sweet scent of whatever drug he was on. He lurched, shrieking and shifting into his wolf form.

Human on human, we had been more than evenly matched. Wolf on human… I didn’t like those odds.

“Come on!” I leapt into the driver’s seat, and Cade jumped into the open back door, slamming it behind him. His magic slithered across the ground, crawling up the car and in through a crack in his window. As soon as I started the car, I pressed my foot on the accelerator, peeling out of the lot.

For a second, we were safe. Then, something landed hard on the back of our car, causing us to fishtail for a second. Vito growled, throwing his body into the back window.

“What is he doing?” Cade demanded.

“Getting himself killed.” I frowned at the rearview mirror, where I could see Vito’s crazed eyes.

I took a right turn hard, but Vito dug in his claws, the metal shrieking. Cade got up onto his knees, reaching out to the window with a palm. Vito lunged forward, cracking the window, but Cade’s magic passed straight through it, wrapping around his legs and pulling.

Vito went down hard, sliding off the back of the car and onto the street. I slammed my foot down on the accelerator, crossing over a median to get on a freeway on-ramp. We would circle back, use the same strategy I would have used on foot to get back to the safe house. Circle back in increasingly small concentric circles, making sure no one was following us.

Cade lay back on the seat, panting, and I saw trickles of black tattoo coming through the window and landing on his hand. The tattoos crawled up his arms, but he reached up, grabbing hold of them and frowning down at his hands.

We didn’t say anything. By the time we got back to the safe house, it was early evening, and fear twisted my stomach, leaving no room for hunger. I got out first, angrily slamming the door.

I’d been a fool. Stupid beyond saving. I’d let Cade get so much under my skin that I’d lost track of what was really important.

For a long beat, I felt the alpha in me raging, pulling at my skin, trying to yank itself through and come out. But it couldn’t.

I turned. Cade was still sitting in the car, staring at the black mess of ink and tattoo on his arms and hands.

“Cade? Are you okay?” I kept my question low, focused.

Cade looked up at me, his eyes unreadable. Opening his door, I crouched low so that I was looking up at him. My skin remembered the ghost of his touch during the fight, and I couldn’t resist, even though I knew I should. I placed my hand on top of his.

His magic buzzed on his skin, echoing on mine. “Cade?”

“Did you see that?” Cade’s question was rough, hope making his voice lighter, a single line of gold in the dark.

“Yeah. The spiderweb spell? It held them for a while.” I squeezed his hand. His skin was cool, goose bumps rising on my wrists.

“No. I got two spells going at the same time.” This time, Cade’s question was visceral, hard, a demand. “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” I said cautiously. “What does that mean?”

“It means it’s coming back.” Cade wrapped his other hand around mine, gripping my palm between his. “My magic is coming back.”

ChapterSeven

“What do you mean?” I demanded.