Page 132 of Exiled Heir

I knew exactly what that was like. I knew what it felt like to lose who I was, to lose who I would ever be, and only come to consciousness when it was too late, when I was already Declan’s favored enforcer, when the only person I could be was someone I never would have wanted to meet.

“I feel like you’re the only person who’s even seen me in years,” Cade said. He reached out, cupping my cheek. I raised my hand and covered his hand with my own. We both smiled sadly.

“We should sleep,” he said. I nodded in agreement.

“Good night,” I murmured.

“If I hurt you in the night, wake me up,” Cade said. Then he turned his body to me, curving in a semicircle. He reached out, grabbing hold of my hand, and I had no choice but to curve into him, becoming the second half of the circle.

His eyes closed instantly, and I tried to follow him into sleep, but too many things swirled in my head. Before I could make sense of any of them, darkness took me.

When I came back to consciousness, Cade was dying.

ChapterForty-One

Cade screamed, the magic on his body smoking. His tattoos shifted into weapons, every single one of them. He writhed, and when I reached out for him, some of his magic crawled onto my skin, twisting the flesh so tightly the bones in my hand popped and broke. They swirled up my arm, twisting around my forearm. I rolled backward, trying to claw them off, but the tattoos were in my skin, in my flesh.

Basil slithered down my arm, looping twice just below my elbow. His scales pulsed, creating a barrier between me and the attacking magic.

“Cade! Cade!” I yelled his name, but Cade’s eyes rolled back in his head, and his body jerked.

My stomach twisted. Was this what it was like? Was this how he went over the edge?

His body wrenched, arms twisting, neck cracking. His mouth opened, blood pouring over his lips and staining the white sheets.

Someone pounded on the door, but I could see the magic crackling around the doorframe, sealing us in. Thick, thorny vines of tattoo wrapped around the cracks in the door. The entire room was Cade’s nightmare, and his magic was eating him from the inside out. Soon, there would be nothing left of him.

“Cade!” I risked grabbing him again with the arm that Basil was protecting.

When I shook him, he went slack, and for a second, I thought he was dead. Then, one of his fingers twitched, and he brought it up, wrapping it around my wrist.

The magic leapt from my skin to his fingers.

“Get away.” The words were slurred, garbled by the blood pooling in his mouth.

The pounding on the door intensified, and I saw layers of other magic, gold, red, blue, around the edges of the door as whoever was on the other side tried to get in.

“No. Never.” I swallowed. “Give it to me. Feed me your magic, give your body a rest.”

Cade’s eyes rolled to me, one side of his lips quirked up. Then he closed his eyes, shaking his head.

“Cade, I can take it.” I wasn’t even sure what I was offering. But I couldn’t let him die like this, not when I needed his presence at my side.

“I couldn’t.” Cade gasped, reaching his arm toward the window. The thorny, black vines that were growing over it drew themselves back into him, and he coughed up more blood, the liquid spreading on the bedsheets obscenely. “Miles, get out. They’re going to blame you. Run for the dryads’ territory.”

I tightened my grip on him, “No. You didn’t pay me to run.”

The door burst open, shards of wood flying toward us. I threw my body on top of Cade’s, trying to protect him.

“Get that animal off him!”

Hands grabbed at me, but I resisted, trying to stay with Cade. Magic wrapped around my neck and arms. I screamed when it reached the broken wrist and hand.

The agony ripped through my brain, sending my vision spinning. As I collapsed down, magic yanked me off the bed and pinned me against the wall. The thorns from Cade’s vines dug into my back, drawing blood, binding me against the wall, and I was forced to watch as Cade seized on the bed, his spine arching.

Leon, Petrona, and Sonja were in the room. Tyson hung back by the door, but Jesaiah was at his master’s side. I didn’t understand what the mages were saying, only catching snippets of it. The vines wove their way under my flesh, digging in. I felt Basil slither over my body, but he was no match for Cade’s out-of-control magic.

“He’s tearing down the house.” Sonja gestured to the walls, then stalked across the room to me, her face furious. “How dare you. Poisoning your master?”