Page 98 of Exiled Heir

Cade wasn’t looking where he was going, instead typing into his phone. I glanced at the screen and saw it was a chat open with Isaac. Cade turned to head into the dining room, and I caught his elbow.

He startled, jerking away from me, his eyes wide. He fumbled his phone, and it dropped to the marble floor with a sharp crack. I bent, picking it up, offering it over to him with two fingers, and waiting for him to take it.

“The ballroom,” I murmured.

After all of the council sessions I had been dragged to, even I knew where the dinner was being held. It made me wonder what Cade had been thinking about in those meetings if he hadn’t been paying attention to the details at all.

He shook his head, face freezing in a neutral expression. It gave him a pissed-off look, and he snapped, “Of course.”

“I didn’t even know I was invited to this shindig,” I said. “Did my invite get lost in the mail, or does Jay have his information wrong?”

“You were on the guest list. You know how the Postal Service is these days.” Cade gritted his jaw.

The ballroom was on the far side of the house, taking up more square footage than my past two apartments combined. I had only visited it once, during the tour that Jay had given me. Stepping into it now, I was struck by the opulence on display. Mage lights floated in the air, and the entire ceiling looked like a sky of stars. Music played from invisible speakers, and the buffet stretched the entire length of the room. There were tables set around the room in discreet corners, allowing for some people to sit, but clearly, the intention was for everyone to be able to move freely around the room, and gossip as much as possible.

More mages than I had ever seen at House Bartlett were in attendance. They wore robes, long and flowing, and more modern apparel, like Cade. Some had used magic to alter their appearance, making butterflies flap their wings in their hair or their dress glisten like flowing water.

A man in the center of the room wore a white suit that gleamed like a pearl and changed color as he moved, going from pale white to brilliant blue and forest green. He had a crowd around him, and when he turned, I recognized Brett Kulsa.

“Kulsa,” I noted.

Cade’s cheek twitched. “He’s fairly popular. His family has managed to become quite wealthy, even without extensive access to the Bartlett coffers.”

“Is this everyone in House Bartlett?” I looked around the room. There were dozens and dozens of people. When I did a quick estimate, I came up with a hundred and fifty, maybe slightly less.

“Everyone except the children,” Cade said.

“And you guys aren’t concerned at all about House Morrison? Because by the numbers, they’re twice, maybe three times as big as you.” I shook my head again. “You better hope you don’t have to go hand to hand against them. They could take you out two or three to one. It doesn’t matter how weak Leon thinks they are, a chair to the back of the head works just as well as a spell in a fistfight.”

Cade tilted his head, rolling his eyes to me. “Fortunately forallof us, mage houses are not in the habit of getting into WWE fights.”

“Oh, I know how it works. You guys all do dance numbers, ballet moves. I saw the musical.” I hummed a line fromWest Side Storyunder my breath.

Cade stifled a laugh. “Everyone knows it’s not ballet when we attack other houses. It’s tap dance.”

“How could I forget? Fred Astaire, the last great mage warrior.” I grinned at Cade.

“Prince Bartlett!” Kulsa’s voice rose from the center of the room. “Our returning hero who single-handedly took out four gargoyles by himself. Let us raise a glass to him!”

From the titter that circled the room, Kulsa was clearly mocking Cade. However, he did raise his literal glass.

“To Prince Bartlett!” The cry was taken up, and Cade’s face turned stony.

His jaw tight, he nodded and swallowed twice before saying, “Thank you.”

“Regale us! Tell us all about how you managed to take out gargoyles by yourself. Finley is being so tight-lipped about it.” The smirk on Kulsa’s lips made it a challenge, a subtle rumor he could imply with a look. He didn’t even have to give it voice to make the implication clear: Cade had done nothing, and Finley had done everything and was letting his prince take the credit.

“Tell us!” The voices echoed through the room, and I saw snickers hidden behind glasses, sly eyes exchanging amused looks.

Cade’s shoulders went back. His body grew straighter and straighter, muscles tightening.

“I’ll tell you,” I drawled. I let my eyes sweep over the room like I would look over a pen of fatted sheep. “If you want to hear the real story.”

I finally brought my eyes to Kulsa, my lips curled up, but my eyes reminded him exactly what I had done to him the last time we were alone. I remembered the grind of his bones, the way he had yelped and turned tail to run like the coward he was.

His eye twitched, his smile turning wooden. “Oh? Were you there?”

“Cade teleported us halfway across the property to a fire road. As soon as we emerged, we saw four gargoyles, one injured. They were full-size, not the miniature ones you can buy in a gift shop. These had been designed to protect skyscrapers. They’d already crushed one of the vehicles. I helped lure them into traps, and Cade used his magic to net all four of them and keep them down until the cavalry arrived.” I watched the faces in the room, looking for anyone who looked out of place, anyone whose expression didn’t quite match the others.