Page 35 of Contested Crown

“What—” Cade turned, then broke off. “House Morrison.”

ChapterTwelve

Their magic slid along the building walls, lines of tattoo cracking the brick and mortar. Cade raised his hand, ready to fight.

But I was down all my abilities, and Cade was just gaining back his powers.

“Wait.” I turned on the engine and put the car in drive. It lurched forward. The alleyway should put us out onto Grillo Street.

We were in my town, not the House Bartlett woods, and I had a car. We’d be fine.

My eyes strayed up to the rearview mirror. The House Morrison mages were walking forward calmly, their magic keeping pace with them, sending red dust down into the alleyway. What was their?—

Cade shouted, “Miles!”

I jerked my eyes down, catching sight of two more mages in front of us. Automatically, my foot moved to the brake, but I hesitated, then slammed down on the accelerator, expecting them to dodge.

They both put up their hands, and layers and layers of spells appeared in front of us. Cade shouted, “Wall!”

It was a warning that didn’t do us much good, and the car slammed into the spellwork.

Airbags went off, hitting me in the face, the chemicals burning my skin. I slapped the deflating bags away, turning to face Cade. He was pale, his eyes wide. He panted, and I grabbed his hand, the one he’d just healed, squeezing it tightly.

He was too pale, his skin gray and sweat standing out on his brow. His breathing was sharp—he was in shock.

“Come on!” I opened my door, dragging him over the center console with me. We fell out, the gravel of the asphalt biting through my jeans.

The Nissan had practically been squashed. The entire front end had collapsed in on itself, crushed to an uneven line.

One of the mages we’d almost hit was lying on the sidewalk, clutching his arm and screaming. His magic floated into the air in delicate streams of dust. When we’d hit it, it had destroyed the magic.

Like cutting off a limb, Cade had said. Well, this field amputation had been horrifyingly painful, and he didn’t look like he was getting up.

His partner glared at us, still standing behind a crackling wall of magic. Her hair blazed with color, and her tattoos looked like bird feathers, filling in the gaps that our car had created.

“Pretty boy! You think you canrun? We smell the magic on you!” Her voice was furious, rising to a shout that echoed through the air, a sonic boom that went off in our faces.

Cade and I stumbled back, and I turned to look in the other direction. The mages were approaching us slowly, almost patiently.

“You can’t run,” the woman shouted. “We’ve got your scent now.”

“What do you want?” I called out, giving us a bit more time.

“What do you think?” She laughed. “You set off our booby trap, and you think you can get away? I’m not wasting magic onyou.”

The snarl in her voice was fierce. Cade squeezed my hand. When I looked at him, his eyebrows were raised.

They didn’t know who he was.

The woman turned, pulling her hands together and twisting them around each other. It made the light catch on her badge. House Morrison’s crest—a bear holding a cudgel—was crossed with a white line.

Before I could make sense of that, something screeched to our left. Someone opened one of the alleyway doors into the commercial building, a man poking his head out, frowning uncertainly.

“What’s going on?” he asked, but I didn’t wait. Dragging Cade with me, I shoved through the door, pushing the man aside and then grabbing the push bar to yank it shut with a slam. Around us were stacked boxes labeled with sizes and colors, inventory numbers scrawled in Sharpie on the sides. We might be in the back room of a store.

The man swore and pulled back, holding his hands up. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t want any trouble. We don’t have the code for the safe, okay?”

I ignored him and turned to Cade. “They tracked us from Krista’s.”