Page 10 of Serpent and Shadow

A cold rim of metal touched my lips, which dutifully parted.

Something cool but spiced filled my mouth and I swallowed. It warmed my throat and tongue and I could feel the heat travel down my torso to my stomach. It brought me back to the room and I honestly couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

I blinked to find myself slumped in a high-backed armchair.

The enormous hall with its gilded, white, bejeweled lions, was gone.

A familiar, kind-looking face hung over me, framed by a cloud of brown, bushy, wild-looking hair. His dark eyes peered into mine, punctuated by iridescent, star-like glimmers of pearlescent color. His golden bear peered up at me and sniffed me with its nose, its wide paws resting weightlessly on top of my knees.

It raised one of those paws to wave at me, its dark eyes concerned.

I tried to wave back, but only fluttered my fingers.

“One more swallow,” the wizard urged, raising the cup back to my lips.

I choked down a little more of the spiced, mead-like taste. It flowed down my throat, soothing everything in its path.

It also managed to penetrate the fog around my mind enough to remind me why I’d passed out. I let out a low gasp as the realization gouged deeper, constricting my chest, making it impossible to breathe for a second time. I fought panic, not fully conscious that I’d tried to get up until large hands held me firmly in place.

“She’s not rational,” a colder voice said in disgust. “What more evidence do you need she’s been compromised, Forsooth? That prick of an heir has clearly warped her mind and her magic to make her behave so completely––”

“I’ll hear no more on this,” Forsooth warned. His voice lost every hint of the gentleness he’d aimed at me. “All of you. Get out. The King released her for now. Even he does not think her behind this. Go and take care of the northwest tower, and let me know when you have finished. If you still believe it necessary, the Praecuri can question her in a few days, once she’s recovered from what you did to her.”

“That’s not––” the other voice began angrily.

Forsooth cut him off.

“With Headmaster Voltaire indisposed and likely compromised, I make decisions at this school right now,” he warned.

“This is still a crime scene––” another voice weighed in.

“It is,” Forsooth said at once. “But she isn’t. Make her quarters safe. Change whatever you need to in the chimaeras, and register those alterations with my office. Then do the same for the dormitories housing all of my other students.”

Before they could answer, Forsooth added, “I might remind you this is still a school. The grounds of which, incidentally, no longer belong to Malefic Bones, but to his son, Caelum… and, it should be noted, Caelum’s wife.”

A louder silence followed those words.

Forsooth continued to glare around at whoever stood there.

After a long-feeling pause, he aimed his gaze back at me.

“Your obvious ploy to get the King to your side has failed,” he muttered in anger. “You’ll have to find another scapegoat… or another excuse for not going after Malefic yourselves. Now I suggest you do as ordered and help to secure this school.”

Forsooth’s stare swiveled left before it grew more pointed.

“You too, Valor,” Forsooth said. “Corvid, stay.”

When I realized my cousin was there, listening to all of this silently, I struggled to sit up. Once I managed to pull myself more vertical, I focused numbly on the fire blazing in the hearth. A large raven stood on the high back of the chair across from me, where a black-haired, gaunt, strangely emotionless figure sat, watching me with blind-looking, white-blue eyes.

Corvid Blackstone.

Of course.

As for where I was, I’d already known that, even before Forsooth mentioned our being at the school. We were back in Forsooth’s office, and I was sitting in one of his velvet chairs in front of the fire. From the view through the windows, the storm had worsened from when I’d last looked. The sky was dark, making it impossible to gauge the time. The air was filled with driving snow and gusting wind that blew and groaned around the windows and stone walls.

I focused on Blackstone, my Magical Objects professor.

His long, dark hair looked like it always did, thick and wavy and pushed behind one ear. Silver jewelry caught the firelight on the same side of his head, dotted with dark green emeralds. His angular face remained inhumanly still, utterly without expression.