“If you get arrested for breaking and entering at any point going forward, I’m letting you sit in jail for a day to think about what you’ve done before I come get you.”
“Jono would bail me out within an hour.”
“Then he’ll be sleeping on the couch. Break down the door, but try to be quiet about it.”
Patrick pushed himself to his feet as Wade went to deal with the door. He wasn’t sure if Wade could break them out of their tower prison, but anything was worth a shot at this point. Wade ran his hands over the wooden door, tapping his fingers in areas, before he braced his shoulder against the side the hinges were located on.
“Usually people go for the lock,” Patrick said.
Wade made a face, gesturing at the lock and knob that didn’t have a normal keyhole. “I think I saw a tongue. Fuck no am I getting up close and personal with it.”
Wade shifted his weight, pressed one hand against the smooth wood, then rammed his shoulder against the door. Patrick wasn’t expecting much to happen, so when the door ripped off the hinges and fell onto the landing with a loud bang, Wade on top of it, he winced.
“That was not quiet.”
Wade shoved himself to his feet, a hint of red scales curling over his jaw. “Yeah, but we’re free.”
Patrick shook his head as he walked out of the room. “Your definition of free is very different than mine. Someone will have heard that.”
Wade pouted. “But I got us out!”
Patrick patted him on the shoulder. “Yeah. You did good. Now let’s see if we can’t find Jono before the fae find us.”
Patrick put those odds atterriblefor them, but he didn’t say as much to Wade. Mostly because the damn bracelets were messing with his magic, and his reaction time was for shit.
“Where’s my dagger?” Patrick asked as they started down the winding staircase. Patrick needed to keep one hand on the wall to maintain his balance.
Wade had taken point, and he looked over his shoulder at Patrick. “It’s, uh, hidden?”
“Wade.”
“I didn’t want them to take it, so I put it where the rest of me is.”
Patrick blinked, because that sounded like mass shifting, and he knew dragons shifted differently than every other preternatural creature. “Come again?”
“It’s safe, I promise.”
“Tricky, tricky,” something hissed from far below. “You aren’t allowed to leave unless we let you.”
Wade froze on the next step down, and Patrick ran into him. Wade barely moved from the impact, keeping them both upright. “Um. I guess they heard us.”
Patrick carefully maneuvered down the steps until he stood in front of Wade. He wasn’t in any capacity to really fight, but it was his job to protect Wade.
“Patrick,” Wade said.
“Stay calm. Don’t shift. We’re in a tower. You’ll bring it down on top of us if you do, so Ireallyneed you to not shift, okay?”
“Okay.”
Patrick had to strain to hear what was coming up to meet them. He didn’t fully hear it through the cottony feeling in his head until he saw the shadow stretching up the curved wall below. Patrick recognized the half-human, half-spider creature that came into view from that night in the Wisterias’ nursery.
The fae grinned at them, spider legs clacking against the stairs. “The queen demands an audience.”
“You know what? I think I’d rather stay in the room,” Wade said slowly.
The fae opened its mouth wide, and Patrick tensed. He couldn’t move fast enough to dodge the stream of spiderweb the fae spit out of its mouth. The sticky strands hit him smack in the chest, and Patrick was yanked down the stairs. He managed not to break his face by sheer luck, skidding down the stone steps and feeling every last one of them until he came to a stop against the fae’s spider legs.
Before the fae could grab him, Wade was there, cutting the spider webbing with Patrick’s dagger. The matte-black blade caused the fae to rear back, hissing frantically, all eight of its legs clattering on the steps. The dagger’s magic never rose to the surface, and Patrick reached for it before he thought better of it. Then he yanked his hand back once he realized what he was doing.
