Page 148 of Exiled Heir

“They didn’t believe me. So you have to. When he finds out, he’s going to kill you.” She grabbed hold of my shoulders, jostling my dislocated arm.

I let out a soft yelp, and she shook her head again. “You’re not listening either.”

“I’m listening. But I don’t think Cade or I are going to live long enough for him to kill me,” I said.

“Use the resources you have.” Siobhan looked me over, frowning. She opened her mouth to say more, but Jesaiah came back in, a key ring clinking at his hand. He walked over to me, and Siobhan moved aside.

When he unlocked me, I realized that for all my struggling, for all the pain, I had barely made any progress on the lock. Siobhan was crouching next to Cade, brushing her fingers across his forehead and through his hair.

He blinked, and she helped him sit up. Jesaiah readjusted how the lock was attached, giving me just enough room that I could reach for a plate. Then he stepped back, ushering Siobhan out before him.

“You die in three hours,” he said.

The door slammed, but at least this time, we were left in light.

“I don’t know why they bothered to wake me up,” Cade grumbled. “I think I’d prefer to end my misery unconscious.”

“I tried that. Some mage rescued me out of the back of a bar,” I said.

“Oh, that’s right. And how is that going?” Cade reached for the food, the picnic basket filled with sandwiches and chips, fruit that we could eat with our fingers.

“Three out of five stars. And I’m rating on a curve because of how handsome my rescuer was.” I grabbed a sandwich myself, having to lean forward before the chains tugged too uncomfortably on my arm. As I ate, I felt like my brain was coming back online. “One star if we’re just rating the rescue.”

“I admit, my follow-through does leave something to be desired.” When Cade looked at me, I found myself checking to make sure his pupils were the same size, searching his face and neck for any sign of his magic.

“I just can’t believe it was Leon. Why save me when I was a child only to kill me now? And he’s always been so good to me. He helped sneak me in and covered for me whenever I made a mistake.” Cade picked at a slice of apple.

I slid a chip into my mouth, the salt exploding on my tongue. My thirst crept up on me until my throat felt so dry even my spit didn’t help. I searched through the picnic basket and came up with a small plastic container of juice.

I had to move my dislocated arm to get it open, and when I unclenched my hand, I saw what Siobhan had slipped me. It was my mother’s gold signet ring.

For a moment, I hesitated. Her words echoed in my brain. When Cade knew who I was, he was going to kill me.

I slipped the ring onto my finger backward so the face was against my palm.

“Leon was never helping you,” I said.

Cade frowned. “He was. He used to sneak me in through the servants’ doors. He would make excuses for me at council sessions. When my magic failed, he gave me workarounds.”

“He walked you right past the servants, who were on the payroll of other people in House Bartlett, so that they could run back and tell their employers all about whatever you were getting up to. He made obvious excuses for you in front of the council so they began to see you as unreliable.” I searched again for any hint of his magic, but the sliding black tattoos were just… gone. “He gave you alternatives for your magic so that you never learned to control the full force of it, so that it was always just outside your control. So other people would notice that you didn’t have the same power that he did.”

I thought about every time Cade had used magic in the past few weeks, how whenever anyone had seen him, they had gaped, unaware of the immensity of his power or what he was capable of doing with it.

“No.” Cade’s voice was small. “He saved me when those monsters attacked.”

“So that he could have eleven years to show everyone in House Bartlett exactly how incompetent you were. What would the political bloodbath have been like if you had died with your parents? Would he have come out on top? Or did he need eleven years to consolidate power, to make it clear who the council should crown king?” The image came to me clearly. It was what Declan would have done. A child was easier to control. A child who everyone assumed was going to inherit the crown would be the easiest pawn on the board.

“No. How did he know that the werewolves were going to attack, then?” Cade blinked, coming to the realization himself. “He arranged it. He led them right to my parents’ room. He probably even let them in.”

Cade frowned, the sandwich in his hand completely crushed.

“Or they never attacked at all. It wasn’t them. It was some other wolves.” I opened my palm, ready to show him the ring. The ring had been found here, and if it was here, that meant my mother had been held here against her will.

Cade ducked his head, his breathing going fast. “We need to get out of here.”

“I don’t think that Elena Castillo attacked your parents,” I said.

“We need to get out of here!” Cade shouted, hyperventilating, his eyes searching around the room, sweat beading his brow.