Within seconds, the tattoos retreated, climbing back up Cade’s arms and hiding themselves under his shirt. The room was empty.
“Why did you do that?” I asked. “There might have been something I noticed in the daytime, with more light.”
“I dismissed Keith from service. I discovered he had been spying on me, and I sent him away.” Cade turned, staring at Nia.
She glared at him, her lips pursed.
“Thatis the story Rhys will spread.” Cade raised an eyebrow. “It doesn’t matter to me what they know. It matters to me what they do with the information. I fired Keith. He had been spying on me for a long time, but he crossed a line trying to listen in at the formal dinner.”
Nia’s face relaxed, hearing the implicit permission. She could tell her mage what had happened, as long as the official story was the only one that got out.
“I’ll go let Leon know,” Isaac said. He opened his fingers, his mage light springing to life.
He looked pale, although I couldn’t tell if it was just from the color of the light, which had the effect of fluorescent lights in a police interrogation room. Jay still stood beside him, listing against his shoulder.
They walked first, Nia close behind. I waited for Cade to move.
Instead, he waited until they were nearly out of sight, only visible from the bob of the light in the forest. Then his shoulders slumped, his breathing going ragged.
He turned to me, and in the dim light from the moon, barely filtering into the doorway, I could see his eyes were wide.
“You’re sure?” he whispered, the demand fierce. “You’re sure it wasn’t a werewolf?”
I looked at where the body had been, where every trace of blood, flesh, and clothes had disappeared. “I’m sure. Trust me. I know what a werewolf attack looks like, and this wasn’t one.”
I remembered the glassy-eyed stare of my older brother, his blood seeping into the tan carpet. Mom had hated that carpet. She’d bugged my father for years to replace it.
Cade’s breath was still jerky, shredded by a fear he had kept so tightly coiled in his chest not even his best friend had been able to see it. Slowly, I reached out, putting my hand on the spot where his shoulder met his neck.
Even through the fabric, I could feel the warmth of his skin.
“A werewolf didn’t do this. Now we just need to find the mage that did.” I squeezed, feeling all the tension in his body.
He nodded, the motion awkward, like watching someone pull his puppet strings. Mechanically, he turned and began walking down the path. I took one last look at the room, all the evidence gone, then I followed him.
* * *
We parted ways in front of the main house, Isaac and Jay going off to inform Leon, while Nia disappeared before the tree line ended.
She’d walked in Isaac’s footprints the entire way back, her eyes scanning the forest around us. Everything about her said she’d once been part of a pack, and I had to wonder what happened, what had been so bad that she decided to become slave to a mage.
Cade and I mounted the wide stairs by ourselves, his shoulders going tense when a servant opened the front door. A few of the staff were gathered in the entryway. They looked at each other nervously, but it was Siobhan who stepped forward and spoke.
“Prince Bartlett, we’re concerned because no one has seen Keith for several hours. He wasn’t working the formal dinner, but he was supposed to be here.” She met Cade’s eyes, but when she saw me looking at her, she dropped her gaze to the floor.
“Keith is no longer employed by House Bartlett,” Cade said. “I found evidence that he had been selling my secrets. When I confronted him, he didn’t deny it. Isaac and Jay drove him to the city.”
I watched the other servants. None of them seemed surprised. It wasn’t as though Keith had been very discreet about his side hustle.
“He left his stuff,” one of the servants murmured.
“His cell phone, his wallet, everything in his locker…” Siobhan swallowed, raising her chin until she met Cade’s eyes. “I can take care of it if you just tell me where they left him.”
Cade’s face went still, and I realized why everyone thought he was an ice prince. Nothing about his expression showed any feeling about what had just happened—the fictional version or the real one where he had burned someone’s remains to nothing.
“Have his possessions delivered to my room. I will make sure he gets them. Let this be a lesson to all of you. I willnottolerate traitors, even ones who have served for years.” Cade turned, heading up the stairs, effectively ending the conversation.
I moved to follow, but before I got more than a step, Siobhan’s quiet voice stopped me.
