“What attacked you? The dryads?” Cade frowned at them.
The two mages exchanged a look.
“No, it was… some sort of magically animated statue.” The guard looked helplessly at his companion.
“We think the dryads are fine. They were defending themselves.” The woman was frowning.
“They are our guests. They hadbetterbe fine. Once they stepped onto our land, the rules of hospitality applied.” Cade stared at the map. “We leave at once.”
The room went silent. I glanced from face to face, watching the expressions. Cade looked completely dispassionate, as though he didn’t care at all.
“Cade, you didn’t,” Isaac breathed. “The rules of hospitality apply?”
“The moment they passed into our territory. Possibly the moment they left their own homes.” Cade gestured to the map. “Where are they?”
Everyone in the room stilled, like mannequins on display in a storefront window. The rules of hospitality were ancient and unbreakable. Rumor had it that they held magic together in the world. When invoked, a host had to provide food, shelter, and safety to any guest in their territory. If a guest came to harm, if the laws were broken, the rumor was it could kill the host.
The two security mages rushed forward, pointing to the map, using their magic to enlarge it. Three pops startled some of the council members, and they jumped, turning in their seats to see the new mages joining us.
As soon as she teleported in, Sonja stepped forward, bracing her hands on the table. She didn’t ask any questions, letting the two security mages finish their explanation.
“Miles and I will go immediately,” Cade said, turning to Isaac. “Follow as soon as everyone else is ready.”
There was a loud pop, and suddenly, Leon was walking into the room through his teleportation spell, Jesaiah following behind him. The alpha looked… the same. No evidence of the torture he had been put through showed on his skin. Shirtless, he displayed his thick leather collar around his neck and a physique that, frankly, I would love to have at his age.
Cade turned around, ignoring his seneschal.
“Are you ready?” he asked me.
The wolf in me howled, clawing at my skin, desperate to get out. But it couldn’t. It was trapped under my skin, as though it was an actual wolf I had consumed, from the old fairy tales that said werewolves were made from humans eating wolf pups, swallowing them whole and letting them grow in their bellies.
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“What’s going on?” Leon said sharply.
“Cade is going to go save the dryads.” Isaac frowned. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t like Cade’s decision to go off on his own, he didn’t care for Cade’s desire to risk his life for dryads, or it was something else altogether.
Either way, Leon and Sonja spoke immediately, their voices overlapping.
“My prince, you cannot think to risk your life—”
“Cade, Tyson and I will be ready in minutes—”
“Wait for everyone else,” Cade said sharply, overriding both of them. “My life is mine to risk. I will not sacrifice my house in what might be a trap.”
For half a second, the room was silent, and then it exploded into noise again. Cade looked at me, the corner of his mouth twisting up. I understood what he was saying. I nodded.
Rolling his wrist, Cade twisted his magic, and I felt it wrap around my chest, then spread over my body, the inky blackness familiar and welcome. I remembered being afraid of Cade’s magic. Being afraid of Cade. Now, I knew exactly what was coming next. Pain.
We arrived in the middle of what looked like a fire road, the sun high and bright in the sky, every drop of the morning fog burned off.
I heard a scream and turned, facing east. Further down the road were three SUVs, the windows tinted dark. One of the cars was completely destroyed, as though an invisible boulder had dropped on top of it, smashing the frame and cratering the roof.
I recognized the flash of magic, the scream of metal as it sheared away from sharp talons. Still, it took a moment for me to understand what I was seeing. Gargoyles spun in the sky, their enormous forms oddly disproportionate, massive torsos and spindly little legs. They screeched and screamed in an unfamiliar language. The mages were immediately recognizable by their high-necked shirts, the fluidity of their movements. They had created some sort of shielding spell, which spun above them in silver and purple. The enormous trees of the forest surrounded them and—
My eyes saw something my brain refused to understand, like I was getting an error message for my own mind.
The trees reached out, grabbing at one of the enormous gargoyles and slamming it into the ground. The gargoyle screeched, loud and unhappy, and forced its way out of the thick wooden trap, shards of wood and leaves dropping to the ground. The tree lost a limb, and the gargoyle’s front talon was shattered, but both the tree and the gargoyle escaped mostly intact.
