Page 96 of Contested Crown

The troll stumbled to a halt, breathing heavily, his teeth exposed. There was a shriek, the gargoyle landing behind me, between me and Cade.

I spun, ignoring the troll and leaping for the gargoyle. But before I could even make contact, the net I had used earlier sprang from Cade’s hand, the lines of tattoo thicker. Magic dug into the concrete, binding the gargoyle.

It screamed, struggling. Dust flaked off its body as it wore away against the magic. It screamed again, so loud that I knew his pride would show up soon. I stalked around it, growling, placing myself between Cade and the creature.

Cade was panting, his chest rising and falling quickly, his breath coming too short. He reached out, placing a hand on my shoulder. I adjusted my stance, letting myself take some of his weight.

Then something moved. I’d been distracted by the fight, but now I realized we were surrounded. Things crept out from between trees, and the fairies’ lights now seemed more menacing, a red tone to them that threatened violence.

We were going to be fighting ten to one, twenty to one, and I tensed, readying to meet the next attack.

“Well, it seems like we both landed on our feet,” a voice said.

I spun, the growl rising in my throat, but the woman who came into the circle our fight had created held up both hands. She had aged in the few weeks since I’d last seen her.

Her dark hair was looking less glossy, her roots showing gray. She waved a hand, and the Zoo relaxed around her.

Moving to the side, I crouched low and shifted, coming back to myself. My flesh broke, bones popped, everything cracked and reformed. When I was human again, Cade reached out. For a brief second, I thought he’d hug me, but instead, he threw my sweatshirt around my shoulders.

I took the pants he offered and put them on.

When I saw my hands, they looked like mine. Cade’s glamor must have worn off.

I cleared my throat. “Tabitha.”

“Miles,” she said.

At my name, I startled, my oversensitized skin jumping, and she smirked. When I’d met her before, I hadn’t introduced myself.

“Yeah,” she said, her voice the same. Worn, familiar, so like my mom’s that I had to look away. “I asked around after you scared me off. Everyone said Declan killed you.”

“Well, he didn’t.” I offered a smile, but Tabitha wasn’t looking me in the face anymore.

Instead, her eyes traced over my chest, and I glanced down to see Basil settled just below my collarbone, and the magic that Cade had given me nestled between the curves of his body. It still looked thick, like thorny vines that could slice through Basil’s skin.

When she looked up at me, she was frowning. Her eyes cut to Cade, then back to me.

“Are you okay?” Her voice was low, intense. She was asking an entirely different question.

Had I become a consort of my own volition? Was Cade doing something to me that I didn’t want?

“Things get complicated when you’re running from Declan. But I’m fine. Really.” I let my lips twist up.

She made the assumption that I always had: in a relationship between a wolf and a mage, the mage had all the power; the wolf was a slave. Now that I was with Cade, I realized it was more complex. Cade might have power, but so did I.

Without me, he almost had no magic. I had been the one protecting him since we left House Bartlett. I was the one he trusted to keep him safe, when he didn’t even trust himself.

“What are you doing here?” Tabitha looked around, raising a hand to gesture at the creatures around us, some still creeping closer, although it seemed like they were now curious instead of threatening.

“I wanted to talk to you about Declan.” I left it there, unsure how much she wanted to reveal.

Most of these creatures couldn’t talk, but some had basic language. And I wasn’t sure what other people were living in the Zoo.

“Come on.” She gestured, and we followed her deeper into the Zoo. As we got closer, I realized that the trees weren’t trees at all. They were dryads, their faces slack from the deep sleep that dryads entered. It could last a single night or years, even decades.

There were some fairy tales about dryads waking hundreds of years after they went to sleep, everything changed around them.

The fairies had built a hive in the branches of one of the trees, complicated layers with doors that they darted in and out of. Sunset had turned officially into the night, and the fairies looked magical, their glow like moving stars.