Page 131 of Serpent and Shadow

“Ready for what?” the kid immediately probed.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re lying,” Arcturus said accusingly.

Closing his eyes briefly, Caelum opened them, staring up at the low ceiling.

“You’re too much like her,” he muttered. Running a hand through his hair, which was still damp from the shower, he met the younger boy’s gaze. “I don’t want you to worry, okay?” he said. “She wouldn’t want you to worry, either. She’s not going to do anything stupid. I told her to be careful. I told her not to come here again, like she did before. I told her Malefic would want that, and that he’d trap her here, like he’s done with us.”

Arcturus stared back at him for a few seconds, silent.

The anger and fear slowly leached out of his eyes as he seemed to turn over Caelum’s words. In the end, he nodded, and set down the quill pen, which he’d bent slightly while he’d been listening to Caelum talk.

“Are you going to see her again?” he asked next. “Cal?”

Caelum didn’t really want to think about that. Definitely not in front of the kid. Even so, he winced internally as he turned the question over in his head.

“I don’t think she’s very happy with me,” he said only.

He said it without thinking, staring into the darkness of the dungeon walls. When Arcturus didn’t say anything, he turned his head, only to find the kid staring at him again. Once they were looking at one another, Arcturus let out a low scoff.

Caelum stiffened, but forced himself to smile, to make his voice light.

“What?” he asked. “I’m trying not to lie.” He nudged the young man’s leg with his foot. “Not even by omission. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk.”

He cleared his throat, partly to push the images that wanted to rise again.

He felt his face grow hot and looked away, not really wanting the kid to see him thinking about sex twice in the same conversation about his sister, particularly given everything else the kid had seen since he’d gotten here.

“Why do you think she’s not happy with you?” Arcturus asked, his voice neutral.

Caelum could feel the young, untrained Obeah trying to hide his opinions, too. He didn’t try to probe what was there, but forced a shrug.

“Why would she be?” he asked bitterly.

28

The Pact

Ididn’t end up sleeping much.

I set three magical alarms, and passed out on top of Bones’s duvet for a few hours before three different magical alarms went off, one of which transfigured one of Bones’s footstools into a tall, matronly-dressed skeleton with a pumpkin for a head that shook me vigorously when I tried to doze back off, and eventually resorted to torture.

I’d known I would need more than the usual alarms that morning.

I’d promised Miranda I’d meet her right after breakfast in her and Jolie’s rooms in Valarian. I wasn’t about to screw that up, not after she’d taken that first step to come to me, taking the chance I wouldn’t be willing to make amends. I hadn’t fully admitted to myself just how much I’d missed her and Draken. I’d missed Miranda especially, and not only because she’d been my roommate and one of my first friends in Magique.

I’d missed her.

I’d missed her obsession with primals and rare magical creatures, her adorable and utterly unique clothing style, her inability to keep her room tidy, her artwork, her never-ending optimism, her fierceness, and most of all her empathy and her warmth.

Loneliness nearly suffocated me after Bones melted through that wall.

I’d been feeling pretty damned lonely for a while now.

I knew I had no one but myself to blame, but knowing that didn’t help.

In any case, I refused to be late, even if I was barely conscious.