Page 6 of Contested Crown

“Any magic you have,” I said. “And my sharp good looks.”

“Miles, you know my magic…” Cade trailed off, looking at me, his blue eyes trying to tell me something I knew well enough. He had no magic, I had no shift. What a pair we were.

“We’ll get through this,” I said.

“Miles.” Cade swallowed. “I know why you stayed.”

I stared at him, feeling something in my chest squeeze. “You do?”

He pursed his lips, nodding. “And I?—”

The entire wall of the motel exploded.

ChapterThree

Ithrew my body on top of Cade, rolling us out of the way of a flash of yellow magic that sped over his head. He trembled against me, and I kept us on the ground, rolling again until we were behind the bed.

Letting go, I peeked over the top of the mattress. The entire wall was gone, wires hanging loose and snapping with electricity. It was still too dark outside to make out anything, but a flash of yellow magic briefly illuminated the mage I had seen earlier.

He stood in the parking lot, halfway between our door and the field. When I looked at Cade, I held up a single finger. Cade’s expression wrinkled, his brows drawing together.

He held both hands palms up, mouthing,What?

“One mage,” I said. “I don’t see anyone else.”

Cade’s lips went flat, the expression on his face fierce. His eyes weren’t empty anymore; instead, there was a tight rage on his face.

“One?” His lips pulled back. “I’m the heir of House Bartlett, and they thinkone personcan take me down?”

He opened both hands, then looked between them. The meager magic from his chest had crawled down his arms and floated in the air between his palms. His shoulders slumped.

“One person means if we get to the car fast enough, we can lose him.” I raised both eyebrows. “We can do?—”

Magic hit the wall just above our heads, then dripped down, trapping our limbs against the floor like superglue.

“Cade Bartlett,” the mage called. “I represent House Morrison, and I have a proposition for you. Will you hear me out?”

The formal language had my eyebrows going up. To my untrained ears, that sounded like an offer of hospitality. I struggled against the yellow magic holding me in place, but my knees and the one hand I had been bracing against the filthy carpet were glued tight. The yellow felt warm against my skin, wrapping around my flesh in fine threads that seemed to stitch themselves into the ground.

Cade was squinting at the magic holding us down, then looking up at the web that still hung above us, a threat that it was about to fall, and then it wouldn’t be a choice whether or not to listen to the House Morrison mage.

Cade’s lip curled up in a smirk. He leaned forward as far as he could and whispered into my ear. “Count to five, and then ask for their rules of parlay.”

Everything I had been worried about melted away. Cade’s expression exuded confidence.

Mentally, I counted down, and Cade extended his hand, his thin magic winding down his chest and forming a long line that stretched between the net above us to where the yellow magic trapped his hand against the floor.

“We’ll hear your terms for parlay,” I called out over the bed.

“A smart choice,” the mage yelled back. It was hard to tell, but I thought he might be getting closer.

The yellow magic above us slithered down Cade’s magic, wrapping itself around the black of Cade’s tattooed lines. When it was all gone, Cade closed his eyes, sighing in relief.

Then, Cade’s magic seeped through the yellow trap. The magic snapped closed against itself, and Cade wrenched his hand free. I felt his tattooed lines spear my own hands and knees, and when it hit me, I felt what was going on. Cade had somehow tricked yellow magic into thinking it was trapping something new when, in fact, it was merely attaching to itself, two pieces of tape that had stuck to each other rather than the paper they’d been intended for.

I pulled my hands and knees free, then moved quickly—I didn’t want to give the mage any time to recover. Reaching under the bed, I flipped it on its side, rushing forward, pushing it in front of me like a massive shield.

Cade was right behind me, sweating and pasty, but his own black magic was coiled in his hand.