Page 142 of Exiled Heir

But I couldn’t move from Cade. I couldn’t leave him in this room unprotected, even if it meant shielding him with my own body.

Cade exhaled unevenly. “Don’t leave me.”

Leaning forward, I pressed my forehead to his. “Never. You’re not paying me to abandon you.”

Cade held one of his hands between us, and the rocks swirled around us, creating a whirlwind as they came closer and closer until he was holding a spinning ball of pebbles in his palm.

He pressed his other hand on top of it, and a muffled explosion shook the room.

“Get me out of here,” Cade whispered.

I grabbed hold of his hand and tugged him out the door, past Sonja and Tyson, down the stairs, as far away from the scene of his nightmare as we could get. Sonja followed behind us, and I glared at her until she raised her hand to the wall, shutting whatever magical doorway Cade had used to open the stairs in the first place.

“What happened?” Sonja asked flatly.

“We tracked the spell that was used to corrupt my magic from my bedroom to the third floor.” Cade opened his hand, revealing a ball of black rock. The pebbles had melted together and sat heavy in his palm.

“That magic—” Sonja frowned, reaching out and taking it from Cade. Her eyes widened. She raised both eyebrows, blinking at Cade, her mouth dropping open slightly. “You’re sure this was the magic that poisoned yours?”

“Yes.” Cade met her gaze, his own expression shutting down until even I couldn’t read it.

“This magic belongs to Isaac.” Sonja offered back the rock, which glittered with veins of orange.

“Yes.” Cade raised his chin, turning to me, his face blank, nearing on frigid. “Find my cousin.”

“Where does he live?” I asked.

House Bartlett grounds were immense. Isaac’s home had to have clues about where he was and what his plans were.

Cade hesitated, a blink only I saw, but Sonja stepped in anyway. “I’ll take us.”

Her magic wrapped around us, coloring the world red, a shimmery, sheer piece of gauze that separated us from the room around us. When it cleared, we stood on a winding path that led to a small house in the middle of the forest.

This wasn’t the house that Jay had gestured to when showing me around town.

I glanced at Tyson and jerked my head toward the house. “Follow.”

He fell in behind me, the easy, familiar place of a beta in my pack. We moved together, me in front, crouching low and slinking off to the side so I could glance in a window in the front of the house. Inside, it was dark and still.

I gestured with my fingers for Tyson to check the other window, but when he looked in, he shook his head. Standing, I positioned myself in front of the door, raised my leg, and kicked it in.

In the doorway, I waited, bracing myself. Straining, I listened for any hint of noise or movement. Nothing. No hidden heartbeats, no movement. Isaac and Jay weren’t home.

I glanced at Cade but hesitated. I had no idea how much magic he had left, but he had looked low last time we had traveled. Instead, I turned to Sonja.

“Can you check for traps?”

She nodded immediately and extended out her hand. A thread of red magic slithered off her palm, sweeping down the hallway quickly. When it returned to her, she said, “You’re clear.”

I headed inside, a significant glance at Tyson keeping him tight on my tail. The house was still full of their belongings, every room packed with signs of a life lived together.

On one side of the couch, a book had been left open; on the other side, the remote sat next to an empty glass that smelled like beer. In the kitchen, the stove was still on, a pot of water boiling.

It overflowed as we entered, hissing against the open flame. Tyson reached over and turned it off. My foot crunched on an open bag of pasta spilled on the floor. A chair at the table had been tipped over, a glass of water shattered on the ground, and a few drops of blood.

They had been here. One of them had been making lunch, and the other had been sitting at the table when they collapsed, knocking over the glass and the chair, startling their lover.

Then they ran. The keys were still on a hook near the back door, but there was an empty spot beneath them that didn’t have the same amount of dust as the floor around it.