Page 81 of House of Mages and Raven

“Barbie belongs to the House of Mages now,” Killian said, his voice carrying no emotion. “She’s no longer my responsibility but my brother’s, and no one shall tell the heir of the House of Mages how to run his house or discipline his new member.” The chaos prince’s predatory gaze fell on Wyatt. “That weasel no longer has the protection of my house. We don’t want a fucking weakling in the House of Chaos.”

Killian had actually sided with me openly. I blinked. Did he still give a fuck about me?

He gives a fuck.Sy beamed smugly.I told you that he gives a fuck about you. He still wants to fuck you, and that’s sweet.

Wyatt wailed, and Jinx’s face paled. They’d thought I was done for and no one would ever back me up. The mob gasped. Whispers traveled. Headmistress Ethel’s mature face hardened, and she stared at me like a vulture waiting for the next hunting season.

I smiled, my teeth bared, and waved at her. I was no one’s prey, and she was just too small a fish for me to bother frying.

Killian rose to his feet, his betrothed with him. Then the golden couple strolled out of Jubilee Haven.

Bile rose to the back of my throat and stuck there.

Grace tilted her head and regarded me. “I was doing you a favor. You’ll wish you never stayed. The second trial of the Brides Selection is coming for you.”

26

Barbie

Cade put me in a basement cell that had iron prison bars.

“I feel good about putting this abandoned facility to use,” the mage prince told me, pleased with himself. “It’s been vacant for too long.”

I stared at him, my arms across my chest. The mage prince and his two aides, Fred and Matt, stood on the other side of the bars.

The dark-skinned, mid-level mage was Fred and the light-skinned one was Matt. When I was still a squire in the House of Vampires, Bea had taken me to Snowflake Café in the business district on campus, where a cluster of shops, restaurants, and the theater Mouline covered two blocks. Fred and Matt had interrupted our teatime and aggressively herded me toward their prince’s table to be interrogated by him. These two mages were bad news.

I sighed and turned to regard the spells that warded the cell. “You might want to have your higher-level minions update the spells, Highness.”

Cade shook his head. “No way. I’m not going to spend more money on upgrading the jail. You’ll just have to live with what we have, Barbie. Plus, no spells can stop you. But this solid iron will prevent you from breaking out of this jail.”

He pulled at the bars to no avail to show me how strong they were, smiling in satisfaction.

“You’ll be in detention for a week,” he announced.

I widened my eyes. “But?—”

“No buts.” He waved a hand. “Don’t give me that wide-eyed, innocent look. I don’t buy it. However, we can reduce the sentence to three days if you cooperate. I’m not an unreasonable man, but I need to show the realm how disciplined my house is. You, on the other hand, need to learn how to be less argumentative.”

“But I’m not argumentative,” I said.

“See? That’s argumentative,” he said. “Anyway, I don’t have time to clean up after you or fix your attitude issue. I have to take more responsibilities in the kingdom now, especially with the new threat on the horizon.”

My heart skipped an icy beat. Was he talking about the Shriekers?

“What threat?” I pushed.

He raised a finger to tell me to shut up. The heirs didn’t like to be interrupted.

“It was amusing when you caused a load of trouble in the other houses,” he said. “But now that you’re in my house, I won’t put up with it. I can’t afford to rush back here every time you cause shit.”

“But I don’t cause shit. I’m always on the defense,” I tried to explain.

Cade gave me a stern look, so I swallowed the long explanation that was ready to flow out.

“No one else would give you a second chance, but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. You should use this precious, quiet jail time to reflect upon your actions, especially your violent actions. Well, I don’t blame you for punching Barbie 2.0. I’d be pissed too if there was a Cade 2.0 running around.” He sighed and pressed a hand to his temple as if I was the one who’d caused his headache. “If you really can’t get rid of your impulsiveness, at least try to reflect upon your attitude.” I’d kissed him to challenge the Fury in him and lied that I’d kissed him because I was impulsive. “You aren’t the only mage in the house, Barbie. I have to take care of hundreds of mages and make sure they’re fed, learning something useful, and not crossing the lines. You think my job is easy?”

“I wouldn’t know, sir,” I said honestly. “I’ve never had your job. The only job I had was being a squire, which was underpaid with long hours.”

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