Page 86 of Contested Crown

“Stop. Yes, I’m sure. I don’t need a nursemaid.” Cade glared at me. “My god, if I had known that asking you to become my consort formally would result in you being this overbearing, I wouldn’t have done it.”

I crossed my arms, annoyed. “It’s a reasonable question. After we left House Morrison, you didn’t have enough magic to light a candle.”

Stop, Basil hissed, his voice annoyed.You woke me up. I need my sleep.

“You just barely came back to life. What do you need sleep for?” I asked the snake.

Cade was staring at me, squinting, one eyebrow cocked. I waved a hand.

“Basil,” I said.

“Tell him I give him permission to eat one of your fingers each time you ask if I’m all right.” Cade leaned back in his seat, smirking.

“Basil, you donothave permission to do that,” I said quickly, glancing down at my chest.

Too late. I already heard.Basil sounded satisfied.I will start with your thumb.

“It’s not unreasonable.” I tried to keep my tone light, my words flat, but I knew exactly how patronizing that would sound, how much it would itch under Cade’s skin.

“I’m fine.” Cade raised his eyebrows. “Stop worrying so much.”

Huffing a sigh, I leaned back in the driver’s seat.

The car we were in looked as though it had been left on the street for weeks. From the outside, it was covered in a thick layer of grime, leaves trapped underneath the wheels, a windshield so filthy that it would be impossible to see out of.

Inside, it was as pristine as if it had just been driven off the lot. JD had good taste in vehicles, I’d give him that. Stealing his car had been a no-brainer, especially when he’d thrown the keys at me, assuming I was a valet because of the glamour Cade had placed on me.

I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, Cade interrupted.

“Yes, the tracker on the car is gone. Yes, I still have enough magic to maintain the glamour on the vehicle. No. I am not about to faint, die, or do anything else dramatic.” He glared at me.

I held up both hands.

“This isn’t going to be fast,” I said.

We were outside one of Declan’s favorite clubs. The Tangerine was the highest of Declan’s high-end establishments. It catered to wealth—humans, mages, anyone who had money in their pockets.

On most nights, the line got so long that it stretched nearly the entire block. The three or four people who got in without being on the list had the same luck as lottery winners.

But during a weekday, in the middle of the afternoon, the street was quiet, the guard at the door the only indication anyone was inside.

“What are you even hoping to see?” Cade asked.

“Rick said that Declan went to ground. That means we need to find him.” I gestured at the club. “We’ll know if he’s here, depending on how many runners come in and out.”

Cade closed his eyes, leaning back. “If this is going to take hours, I’m going to take a nap.”

I ignored him, my eyes still fixed on the front door. Traffic flowed. People walked down the street. Parked cars moved. The guard didn’t.

I squinted at him, trying to remember his name. He was one of Declan’s personal guys, but that didn’t mean Declan was inside. He just as often pulled his personal bodyguards to run errands.

I looked down at the notepad I’d listed Declan’s clubs on. We’d already crossed off three: Firefly Lounge, where Cade had almost been poisoned; Lion, which had been boarded up when we drove by; and Luz, the restaurant JD had been overseeing, the one we’d stolen his car from.

Underneath the establishments, I listed the apartment buildings that Declan controlled but didn’t own and the three homes I knew he maintained in the city. There was also his new girlfriend’s place, but she was more sex worker than girlfriend, so I didn’t think there was a chance he was there.

His old girlfriend had lived at a town house Declan kept for his side pieces, but she’d left already, and I’d been the one to clean the place out. Declan likely wasn’t there; he rarely even went there when someonewasliving there.

I was still annoyed that JD had been such a bust. All of my math said he should have taken over as second when I went down. But instead, based on his loud complaints at the bar, he was now overseeing two of Declan’s restaurants and not invited to the inner circle of Declan’s trust. He definitely hadn’t risen to the position of second.