Wait … what the what?!
“Pay them handsomely?” Kian snarled, his brow furrowing. “We own the castle, the land, all of it. That island is rightfully ours. Not only that, fifty percent of the crown’s operating budget comes from us.”
What did he just say? I waited for my grandfather to deny it, but he didn’t. Instead, Grandpa shook his head, his expression tight. “The mage wine—”
“Exactly!” Snade piped up, cutting my grandfather off. “Giving the shifters the seeds to grow the acayanthic blossoms for mage wine all those years ago was a mistake. I knew it!”
Orion nodded. “We’re not even a hundred mages here, nothing compared to the thousands of shifters. We provided them with a way to garner sufficient money for their needs, and in return, they need to manage these minor problems. Not only that, aside from the mage wine fields, we give the crown a stipend—specifically for this type of occasion.”
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa! The mage wine business was what kept everyone making money … and Rage got a stipend as alpha kingfrom the high mages?
Did he know that?
I swallowed hard, listening closer to the details that would affect my mate—and his kingdom.
The door opened to the meeting hall, and a woman strode in, looking flustered. She held a crumpled piece of paper in her fist and handed it to Kian. Leaning forward, she swallowed hard and whispered in his ear, “They’ve formed a coalition, and the king is having them train.”
The only reason I could hear was my shifter hearing, but I was only 72.4% sure who the “they” was she referenced. I was clinging to the 27.6% chance I was wrong.
After the door was closed behind her, Kian faced me and gave me an icy glare. “It seems the lower level mages in Mageville have created a union, an idea the newalpha kinggave them.”
My skin prickled, but my cheeks went pink. Shit, Rage, what are you doing?
“What’s that?” My grandfather pointed to the paper in Kian’s hand.
Kian waved it before them. “A list ofdemands. It seems the lower mages now think they deserve to livehere, on High Mage Island.”
The room collectively burst into laughter.
“That’s preposterous,” Snade hissed. “This is a school. We have limited space. Limited resources.”
“Everything is limited,” my grandfather mumbled and snapped his fingers. Kian handed over the piece of paper, and my heart thundered as I waited for Grandpa’s verdict.
Gramps looked up and frowned. “It seems they now know about the power of the island, and they want equal access to it.”
Kian roared—an honest to all things holy roar—and water exploded from his hands. The spray pounded against the window, making me jump, and I scanned the room to see several wide-eyed expressions, which meant this wasn’t totally normal behavior. My mouth dried as I waited to hear the verdict.
“That good-for-nothing king has screwed upeverything,” Kian growled.
“Maybe we need to teach him a lesson, help keep him in line.” As soon as Snade finished his statement, his gaze jerked to me, and fire crackled along his skin.
Part of me wanted to shrink down in my seat, and another part wanted to challenge them all. They were talking about my mate!
“What did you have in mind?” Kian asked as the heirs around me snickered.
Snade turned in his chair and faced me, the full brunt of his anger wrought on his face, his eyes like flames. “Let’s tell the king to step in line and do his duty, or not only will we burn all of the acayanthic bushes they have, cutting off their main source of income. We’ll halt all stipends and close the portals to our island so he can’t see his mate.”
My breath hitched in my throat, but before I could protest, my grandfather burst into a standing position and then swayed with seeming dizziness.
“Hold on a minute!” His voice warbled, and then he fell back in his seat, but despite his fall, he pressed forward. “He’s anewking. Let’s make sure he’s educated before we declare war against the shifters.”
Heath cleared his throat. “Maybe we just ask the king nicely to honor the contract his uncle signed. Give him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t know his full duties yet.”
That Heath guy was quickly becoming my second favorite high mage.
Kian shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “Very well. We’ll tryaskingfirst.”
Then he narrowed his eyes, and his icy gaze found mine. The message was clear: shape up or ship out.
