Page 76 of Contested Crown

I nodded. Decision made, we needed to get ready. Shutting off the water, I watched as Cade pulled the cloudy tattoos back to himself, away from the listening spells.

We dressed, getting into bed for the second time that night. It was still dark, the sort of pitch-black that could only happen so far from the rest of civilization that there were no streetlights to block the stars. Once we were settled, the door opened.

Elizabeth stood framed for a moment before shutting the door behind her. Cade sat up, glaring.

“Aren’t we allowed privacy?” he asked sharply.

“No,” she said. She moved across the room, headed for one of the chairs. If she was in the room with us, we wouldn’t be allowed to escape. There would be no chance of finding a mage with more power than Cade who could get us to or maybe eventhroughthe outer wards.

“Elizabeth, we require privacy to discuss our future,” Cade said.

“Is that the royalwealready, or are you suggesting that aprinceactually consults with his consort?” Elizabeth’s expression was unreadable, and when she took a seat on one of the chairs, she was nothing more than a shadow in the darkness. “I’m here because Howard might still hold out hope, but I saw the two of you, and I don’t want to have to chase you down again tonight.”

“Get out.” Cade’s voice was sharp, but I heard the hitch of panic in it. We had relied on only needing to escape the room, not on having to fight one of the most powerful mages in House Morrison. Did we have enough power for both? I felt something crawl up my arm, a sliver of pressure that meant it was Cade’s magic.

Move now, Basil hissed in my ear. I didn’t care if it was me imagining it or if it was real, I leapt out of bed so fast that by the time Elizabeth started to stand, I was already on top of her. Landing on the chair she was sitting on, I brought my hand up, trying to use the spell like gauntlets again.

Instead, my fist impacted her face, and she raised her hand, a glowing blue tattoo swirling in the dark, about to hit me, when Cade’s magic leapt off my skin, covering her face and dragging her against the wall. She hit it solidly, the painting above her cracking down on her head, and then she was still.

Cade swore. He rushed over, checking her pulse. I was still crouched on the ground, my blood going too fast, my heart jumping in my chest.

Good, Basil hissed.

Standing, Cade extended his hand and drew his magic back to himself. “She’s alive. But someone must have heard that. We don’t have any more time.”

His brows twitched together, and he pressed a hand to his chest. I could see the thought in his head.

“No. I don’t care if you just got another shot of magic via me. I’m not risking your life—ourlives—if you don’t have enough.” I came close, wrapping my hand around his. “Let’s go.”

Jerking his head in a nod, Cade raised his hand, and I realized we couldn’t go just yet. “Wait.”

I rushed for the bed, dragging the bag out from under it. I’d kept a few changes of clothes for me and Cade inside, all the money we had left from our time on the run, and my box of memories. Slinging it over my shoulder, I nodded.

Cade’s tattoos wrapped around us, swirling like the night sky had come inside with us, and we reappeared in Larissa’s rooms.

“What—” She stood in the doorway of her bedroom, a nightgown hanging loose around her. With it, she looked smaller, younger.

“We need your help,” Cade said.

Larissa’s eyes scanned over us. “You’re not going to let them kill him.”

“Wait,what?” I asked.

“I wish I’d been that smart. I wish I’d been that strong.” She looked down at her hands, fisting them, her thick, arthritic knuckles pulling the skin tight.

“They’re planning onkillingme?” I asked. “They just said that they were going to force Cade to let me go.”

The look Larissa shot me was venomous. “Let a werewolf go when he knows all the secrets of House Morrison?”

And when she said it like that, oh, man, it was obvious that there hadn’t been a chance I was going to leave House Morrison in anything other than a body bag.

“We need help,” Cade said. “We want to get out.”

The smile on Larissa’s face looked cracked. “Do you know what it is to lose a consort?”

“No,” Cade said slowly. He backed a step away, coming shoulder to shoulder with me.

“A constant companion, the only person in this harsh world who prioritized you over anyone else.” Larissa’s eyes went distant. “Alover. Theonlylover that ever mattered. You know. You know how it feels to give your magic to another and not feel it break off, not lose it, to know instead that it’s binding you closer together so that you are one. They are the other half of you. Cutting off magic might hurt, but can you imagine cutting off your own soul?”