Page 50 of Contested Crown

Larissa stared at me, her smile dropping off. Her gaze was hungry, as though she was drinking in the sight of me. I leaned back, finding myself put off by the desperation in her stare.

“Larissa, where is Valentina?” Cade asked.

Her attention wrenched to him, and I felt like I could breathe again, a great weight lifted from my chest.

“My consort chose to leave.” She said the words forcefully, each one pressed into existence by her will. No doubt was allowed through, no question in her voice.

“Shechoseto leave?” I asked, thinking of how I had yet to see any consorts, even among the highest-ranked members of the house, how Elizabeth had implied that they had no place for wolves here.

“It’s true that House Morrison doesn’t favor consorts. Few houses do these days,” Larissa said. “And I released Valentina from her bond. I haven’t seen her in ten years.”

I glanced at Cade, but his profile was uninformative. I couldn’t read anything in the line of his lips, the angle of his eyes.

“So, you got here, to House Morrison, and have just been holed up in your room for ten years?” I asked.

“No, of course not. I came just at the start of the House Morrison expansion. They never asked anything of me, but I went from being on the House Bartlett council to having nothing to fill my days. When Howard made clear his ideas, Ihadto help, given all the help House Morrison had been to me.” Larissa leaned forward, her tea sloshing into the saucer. She made a face and put it down, grabbing a napkin for her lap. “Caroline and I worked together to create the training program so that all new initiates would be able to integrate fully into the house culture. After all, it’s entirely different from living on your own—which is what most of them were doing.”

“You’re the one who came up with the badges and the barracks,” I said. “All the neat little brainwashing tricks to push them into being good little soldiers?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that. If there’s one thing an independent mage knows how to do, it’s take care of themselves.” Larissa smiled indulgently. “I’m sure you’ve figured that out, Cade. Being on your own is hard.”

There was a solid knock on the door, and Larissa looked up, her brow furrowed for a second before it cleared. I saw trails of yellow magic slide under the doorframe and wrap around her wrist.

She gestured, and the door opened, more yellow magic returning to her. Three people were crowded in the doorframe, each in high-necked mage clothes, their badges slashed with different colored lines. The woman in front had her crest crossed with a white line, while the two behind her were black and red.

When they caught sight of us, they relaxed. The woman in front turned, directing the man with the black slash, “Tell them we found the prince.”

I noticed that I didn’t even get a mention.

“Here are a few of my trainees,” Larissa said, smiling. “Come in. Cade was just asking about the training program.”

Bowing low, the woman said, “We couldn’t possibly impose, Lady Lucas.”

“Oh, stop with all that, Jayna,” She waved her hand. “Cade, this is Jayna and Fred. They’ve been with the house for years. Jayna is about to earn her status as a full-fledged member!”

“White means that they’re close to membership.” I looked at Fred’s badge. “What do the other colors mean?”

“All initiates start at black,” Larissa said. “And as they move closer to white, they get closer to membership.”

“All initiates? Cade included?” I asked, smirking when Larissa shot me a sharp look.

“I’m sure we don’t need to talk about that now.” She moved to the kitchenette, gathering two new cups.

Jayna and Fred sat on two chairs close to us. Jayna sat with her back straight, her eyes darting between Cade and Larissa. Fred shoved his palms between his knees, his foot tapping on the floor.

“Initiates, huh?” I asked. “So did you come to Morrison voluntarily, or were you kidnapped like we were?”

Fred froze, his whole body tense. Jayna looked at Larissa, eyes wide. She swallowed.

“We are more than happy to be with our own people, here at House Morrison, where we’ve been welcomed.” Her words had a tone of formality, a recitation of something she’d heard too many times and started to believe because the other option was to lose her mind.

“Sure,” I said, dragging out the word.

“Your magic.” Cade gestured to the cuff of Jayna’s shirt.

She jerked, grabbing at her wrist. I frowned. Red and purple tattoos swirled around the back of her hand, forming butterflies and moths, their wings delicately flapping.

Opening my mouth, I started to ask, but Cade dropped his hand to my knee and squeezed in warning. I shut my mouth. Both Jayna and Fred stared at where Cade was touching me, and then they glanced away, embarrassed for us.