Page 149 of Exiled Heir

“Cade,” I said. “Cade, stay with me. Tell me one thing you smell.”

He inhaled unevenly. “Cured meat.”

“Something you can feel,” I said.

“The bread,” Cade said. He looked down, dropping the crushed sandwich. “The chains on my wrists.”

“And one thing you see,” I said, lowering my voice, bringing the temperature of the room down.

“You,” Cade said, his eyes finding me. “The only person who hasn’t betrayed me.”

“Okay.” I exhaled. Even looser, my chains weren’t going to be easy to break.

Something hissed in my ear, and my eyes widened. “Basil! Can you cause an explosion, break the chains?”

It depends, the snake drew out thesinto a hiss.How much do you like your hand?

ChapterForty-Six

“Alot, Basil. I like my hand a lot. We need to figure out a way to get these chains off without me losing it.” I winced, the pressure from the snake sliding down my dislocated arm. He wound around my wrist, and I shut my eyes, readying myself for pain.

The explosion cracked the bone. The entire joint gave, but the cuff was still there, weakened but hanging on.

“We’re going to need to go again, Basil,” I said through gritted teeth. Basil didn’t reply, and I brought my arm up closer to my face and saw he was in fragments on my arm. His patterning shredded, fragments of the head and the tail on opposite sides.

“Basil?” Cade asked.

I shook my head, unable to explain.

“The iron. It’s why we bind mages in it,” Cade said. “If I try to use my magic, the same thing would happen to me.”

“Okay, what else do we have?” I asked.

No magic, no shifting, no Basil. The picnic basket was empty of convenient flatware or lockpicks. I looked around the room, squinting when I realized that the shape I had taken for an odd shadow in the corner was something else.

I couldn’t crawl, my hands tied too close to my feet, but I managed an odd wiggle across the room. Cade followed me with his eyes, tilting his head.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It looks like a rock, but there wasn’t one in here last time.”

The rock moved, and I shoved myself backward. A gargoyle face came into view. With the mage lights, I could see its face cracked almost in half. It made a soft half-chirping sound.

Lifting my hands, I readied myself for its attack, but it listed to the side. Behind it, I saw the rest of the gargoyles, their pieces stacked on top of each other, a small pyramid made of what was left.

“Oh god,” I said.

The gargoyle rolled its head to look at me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “We didn’t really have a choice.”

The gargoyle arched an eyebrow, and I could read the expression clearly. It hadn’t had a choice either.

“Listen, if you help us get out, we’ll help you get free too.” I extended out my wrists. “What do you say?”

The gargoyle narrowed its eyes. Then it sat up, and I could see that except for a few missing toes, he was nearly complete. A heavy iron band kept him locked to the floor.

The gargoyle bent low and took hold of my chains between his beak. He crushed the metal, and I was able to pull my hands free. The cuffs had to stay on, but the chain was gone, lying limply on the floor.