Page 38 of Contested Crown

“I think we’ve very well proven that I’m not a nice boy at all,” Cade said. “I doubt there’s anywhere you could show me that would be beneath me now.”

“Really? Not even the bar we met at?” I smirked, licking a long drip of ice cream before it could reach my fingers. The vanilla was crisp and fresh, the cold sweetness distracting me for a second. One of the mages was twenty feet away on our left, his head turning as he searched.

I grabbed Cade’s hand with mine and held it tight. A fissure of pleasure spiked up my arm. Cade’s cheeks went pink, and then he turned back to his own cone. He licked it, his pink tongue swirling, and for a second, I lost all sense of place or time.

His hand squeezed mine, bringing me back. We were nearing the edge of the park, and at a shout, I turned to glance over my shoulder. One of the mages had bumped into someone and was now drawing a crowd. The other three were pushing their way toward him.

I let out a long breath, and Cade grinned at me. We stepped onto the street, and we were golden. We werefree.

Cade swore. “Don’t move.”

He was staring at the air in front of us, and I squinted, trying to see what he did. It took a moment.

In front of us, magic was pulled into an intricate spiderweb, each thread no thicker than silk. The people walking through it were moving as though they didn’t notice.

“Well, looks like this spider finally caught her big, fat fly,” said a voice from behind us.

ChapterThirteen

Iturned, and a new mage shimmered into existence. Once upon a time, what felt like the entire Paleolithic Age ago, mage teleportation had been frightening, shocking to me. Now, I didn’t even hesitate. I rushed toward her, and she took a surprised step back.

Every part of me wanted to shift and growl and tear her limb from limb at the implied threat. Instead, I sprinted past her, Cade following in my wake. We were on the other side of her, nearly free, when her magic arced in front of us, landing like a bolt of lightning, cracking the sidewalk.

It may as well have been a bomb. Tourists scattered, and a crowd from inside the park pushed out into the street, causing cars to slam on their brakes. The sound of horns and screams echoed around us, and the chaos seemed to throw the mage off.

She looked around, eyes wide, and I grabbed hold of Cade’s hand, pulling him into the street and following the panicked crowd.

We made it one block, around the corner before we slowed. His palm was warm in mine, and part of me surged, something primal and satisfied. Hetrustedme, and I’d kept him safe.

The crowd around us had mostly dispersed, and I chose a building at random, pulling Cade into what turned out to be a hotel. At the door, I saw the bellhop eyeing both of us. For a second, I tensed, but then I relaxed, realizing what he was looking at.

I held up my free hand, crushed ice cream coating my palm. “Some crazy mage is attacking the plaza. Is there somewhere I can dump this before I get the elevator buttons all sticky?”

Seeing my wide eyes, the exaggerated panicked expression, the bellhop relaxed and gave me directions to the lobby bathroom. He pointed to the trash can on the street with a soft, “So you don’t drip on the carpet.”

Cade and I threw out the ice cream and crossed the lobby. I didn’t let myself look around, searching for the next attack. Instead, I kept my gaze forward. I was a tourist, freaked-out that our plans had been disrupted by a random mage.

With the door shut, I bent low, checking the stalls, but they were empty. Cade actually went to the sink, washing his hands, drying them, as I paced back and forth.

They were coming for my pack. Again. We had to get out, regroup. I couldn’t let them take my mate, all that I had?—

I pulled myself up short. What the hell was I even talking about?

“What do we do now?” Cade asked.

He looked at me in the bathroom mirror. With different hair, glasses slipping down his nose, he looked almost unrecognizable, but I saw him in his eyes. That blue was incisive, cutting down to my bone. If I could see his eyes, I would know him with a glance.

“If we get them off our tail,” I said slowly. “Would they be able to find us again?”

Cade turned his eyes back to his own face in the mirror. He took off the glasses, making them disappear back into his shirt pocket. He tousled his hair with his hand, making it look purposeful rather than from running for our lives.

I couldn’t resist coming forward and touching a strand. It was dark between my fingers, and I wondered if I could get used to it.

For a heavy moment, Cade watched me in the mirror. I let him go, stepping back. We needed to focus.

“Yes.” Cade wet his lips. “Maybe if I had more magic, I could disguise us long enough that we could escape them. But right now, the best I can manage is to… distract them. If we make everyone in the building have the same magical signature as us, then their spell will get confused.”

“It’ll turn the hotel into a Where’s Waldo,” I said. “They’ll have to search each individual person.”