Page 133 of Serpent and Shadow

I was still backing up, and now I was moving faster.

I didn’t want to turn my back on them, but I broke into a half-jog, half-run, doing my best to widen the distance between us so I could get the wings back on my back. I gripped them in both hands without taking my eyes off the five mages, and tried to unfold them.

Which is probably what caused Norrick and Pants to rush me.

I panicked, and sped my legs, and the combination of moving backwards, trying to keep my eyes on them, and trying to get the wings functioning, ended up being too much.

I stumbled, tripping over a loose rise of earth and grass.

The field fell into a slope behind Valarian College, a slope that overlooked the Faerie River. The path to the bridge was further down, closer to Grathrock, where it was less steep. Here it was just thick, tall grass, slippery in the remnants of morning dew, dotted all over with wildflowers and mole burrows and granite rocks.

I slid partway down the slope, and the wings got knocked out of my hands. I grasped for them, trying to catch hold of the slippery feathers, but they got caught on something and I missed before I was down to the next flat area in the field.

I got back to my feet at once, as soon as I stopped sliding, but it was already too late.

The five mages had run when they saw me fall, galloping down the hill to meet me there when I wrenched myself back to my feet. I had my hand up, poised for a mudra, which is probably the only reason they hadn’t rushed me yet.

I fought to think of a spell, something that might work on all five of them at once. I had things that would definitely deal with one of them, possibly even two of them, but five wasn’t something I’d trained for.

Someone I knew had trained for those odds, though.

BONES! I grasped for his presence, feeling for any hint of him left over in my magic from the previous night. BONES! WHAT DO I DO? THERE ARE FIVE OF THEM! HELP ME! I NEED HELP!

Like with Alaric and Blackstone, only silence answered.

PROFESSOR QUICKSILVER–– I tried next.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Norrick cajoled, grinning at me with his wide, doughy face. He lifted a finger, beckoning me closer. “Let us have some fun, now.”

Scar began circling me from the other direction, a smirk toying at the edges of his lips. “Listen to your betters, mongrel. You must be lonely without Bones’s cock around to suck. We’ll won’t hurt you too bad, if you play nice…”

Pants burst out in a high-pitched laugh.

Christian Orrin, my ill-fated date, grinned at the other three, bouncing on his feet. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for a bit of payback with this slag,” he gloated. “I’m first. You’ve got to admit, I’ve earned it more.”

“Speak for yourself,” Norrick said, his eyes never leaving mine. “You’ve no more claim than I do, just because you were too stupid to take the opportunity when it came.”

Pants laughed again, slapping Orrin on the shoulder. “He’s got you there,” he said.

The tallest of the five, who I knew the least about, didn’t grin at me like the rest of them. Vlad Mordopast had long, black, expensively-coiffed hair and dark, piercing eyes, with a prominent Adam’s apple but a handsome face. He also wore the most expensive-looking clothes. His wardrobe reminded me the most of Bones’s when he’d attended classes.

He hung back slightly, but didn’t take his eyes off me, either.

“Bones won’t like this much, will he?” Mordopast asked.

Out of all of them, he looked the most nervous.

I saw him glance over his shoulder at the back steps of the college, where Elysia had been standing. Relief washed over his face when he saw that she’d disappeared back inside that door. When he looked at me next, his stare was appraising, and a lot colder.

I remembered that he and Warrington had been dating, and I scoffed, unable to help it.

“And here I was, thinking you had a shred of decency,” I said to him mockingly. “You were just afraid of your girlfriend kicking you out of her bed.”

“Shut up, cunt,” Mordopast snapped. “Whores don’t get to play high and mighty here. Especially when they have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Christian Orrin grinned at him.

Then he turned towards me and began walking faster.