Page 102 of Serpent and Shadow

At the boy’s startled look, Caelum scowled.

“Why would you tell me you can see that?” he snapped. “If you did that to Sirena she’d likely cut off part of your face. Keep your fucking observations to yourself. All right? Just shut the fuck up about what you see. Don’t tell anyone that stuff. Ever.”

The kid paled even more.

He continued to stare at Caelum, though.

More annoying still, he didn’t look afraid, not of him, anyway.

The boy’s expression flickered between nervous and curious. Half the time, he stared at Caelum in confusion and intense interest, like he was studying an esoteric text, or a complicated alchemical formula. He didn’t hide that, either.

He didn’t hide anything in those intent blue eyes.

“You aren’t going to hurt me.” The kid sounded relieved, and almost surprised. “You’re actually afraid for me. Is that because of Leda? Your not-friend?”

A sick feeling rose in Caelum.

He could have punched himself in the face for mentioning her.

What the fuck possessed him to talk about her at all to this kid? Now Arcturus would never let it go, and Caelum couldn’t even blame him for that. Of course he’d look for something familiar in here, something safe. Who was safer than the person who’d basically raised him? The person who protected him from everything that might have hurt him after their parents got murdered?

The kid wasn’t a moron. He, Caelum, was the moron.

Suddenly, he could barely look at the young mage.

“So Leda’s a soft spot,” the boy said, his voice quieter. “Why, if you’re not friends? Why do you care about her so much?”

Caelum could only shake his head.

He wasn’t even sure what he meant by it exactly, other than wanting the young mage to stop talking. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back as he fought to make his mind blank, or at least as empty as possible. When that didn’t work, he tried to distract himself with other things. He wondered what time it was. Had the attack hit the news?

Would Leda have heard about it yet?

Who would have told her?

Forsooth? One of her friends?

Alaric?

He winced at the pain that rose in his chest.

He’d told her she would hate him.

He’d fucking told her.

Not that it mattered. The fact that he’d warned her didn’t make him feel better in any way. She’d asked him to leave with her. Right before he’d done this, she’d shown up inside his father’s house. She’d somehow figured out how to phase and she’d come here, of all places, and tried to convince him to leave. She said she came for his mother, too. She might have found his mother first, if he hadn’t felt her magic and gone looking for her.

But that was more than his system could take.

He turned his head, and bent over in a sharp convulsion, right before his stomach emptied itself on the stone floor. He couldn’t stop it.

He couldn’t do anything but endure it.

He heaved again, and again. He heaved until there was nothing left but pain as his back and abdomen clenched violently.

When his body finally stopped, he leaned his head back against the wall, gasping.

He’d forgotten all about the kid.