Page 77 of Contested Crown

I was reminded of Jesaiah, the crack of his neck, the way that his body had gone limp. For the first time, I didn’t just feel guilt over killing an alpha, killing one of my kind. I felt worry.

What had that loss done to Leon? What would losing half of himself turn him into?

“Help us,” I coaxed, my voice uneven from the thought of Jesaiah. “We don’t want to lose that either. We need to get out of House Morrison lands.”

Larissa exhaled sharply, and when she looked at me, her eyes were filled with a terrible yearning, a hurt desire for something long gone. She traced her eyes over my face, then dropped down to my neck.

“I gave it all up—I gaveherup for House Morrison because I believed, because I knew that it was the only way to survive, the only place I could be safe. And you’d have me risk that for a wolf you can’t evencollar?” She sneered. “I won’t let you take this from me. I gave up too much to keep it.”

“Larissa, please,” Cade said. “I won’t give him up.”

“Fool.” Larissa’s lip pulled back. “House Morrison will give you safety. The legitimacy you need to get your throne back.”

“It will lose me Miles,” Cade said. “You might have been weak and desperate, but I’m not. I willnotgive him up.”

As he spoke, magic seethed out of him, pouring from his skin and eyes. It formed a protective bramble around us. Anything that was going to come close would have to go through its razor-sharp thorns.

“We need your help,” I tried again. “You couldn’t save Valentina, but you can save me.”

“I don’twantto save you.” Larissa’s face scrunched into a tight expression. Every wrinkle deepened. She panted, drawing her breath deep into her small body. “You don’t even wear a collar! You have no idea what it is to be a true companion. I won’t letyoulive when I had to let Valentina die!”

I wanted to feel sorry for her, but we’d already spent too long here. We didn’t havetime.

“Cade?” I said.

I could fight whoever was coming with my bare hands if I had to. I could… try. I couldtryto get us out, and then at least we’d go out in a blaze of glory.

We’d never know what Leon and Declan were planning. We’d never find out what Isaac and Jay had done. We’d be talked about with pity, but we wouldn’t put our heads down on the chopping block, waiting for the axe.

“No,” Cade said sharply, and I turned to look at him. More magic seeped from his pores, like he was making it himself, like he was breathing it into existence.

The bramble wrapped around me, shielding me, and Larissa moved forward, her power an ocean of yellow, a supernova that burned away at some of the outer branches of Cade’s powers. But I leaned into the assault, throwing my body in front of Cade’s.

His magic held, a shield around me that I could use to protect him. I felt him give me more and grab hold of my shoulder, taking some back. It flowed between us, thrown back and forth, gaining power as we each touched it.

“I won’t let them take you,” Cade said, as though each time he repeated it, it was more true, as though he was going to guarantee it with his body, with his entire being. “No onecan take you from me.”

The words shook the room, and they settled into my bones, so exacting I was sure they were going to cut down to my essence. No one could take me from Cade. And no one was going to take him from me.

Around us, the room was covered in dark black power, the tattoos covering every surface. Larissa shrieked when one touched her. They flowed from Cade to me to Cade, a circle of power that grew with each passing second.

“Cade, we have to go,” I said, still straining against the seemingly endless yellow of Larissa’s magic.

She yelled, but Cade raised his hands, the brambles coming closer and closer, wrapping around us. I glanced over my shoulder, and Cade was pale, sweating. He couldn’t do it. Even with all this power, he couldn’t take us where we needed to go to get free.

I raised my own hands, grabbing hold of his magic, feeling the thorns rip into my palms, and dragged them in a circle, remembering how casually the mages at House Bartlett had spun the magic around us. They made it look like they were spinning a globe, as though it took almost no effort.

The thorns gouged my palms, but the magic moved, twisting around us, flowing back into me, then out and into Cade. It spun faster and faster, destroying the wooden floor. Someone banged on the door, and I heard the crack of it as it hit the wall, but it was too late.

We landed in Summer’s studio.

She looked up from her painting and said, “Good. You’re almost too late.”

The palette in her hand was covered in black and white and all the shades of gray in between. She tossed it on a table next to her and picked up the bag at her feet.

I swore, turning to Cade. “Can you do that again?”

“Yes,” he panted. His chest expanded and contracted, but when he forced the magic to move, it was sluggish. He stumbled, collapsing down onto his knees, then sitting. I crouched down, but he waved me off, irritated.