Page 141 of Serpent and Shadow

I’d as good as killed them.

I had no idea where the royals had gone who’d attacked me.

If you did, you did them a favor, Bones growled in my head. You’re not going to prison for this, Leda, he vowed. No one’s taking you to the Pyramid. I’ll kill anyone who tries.

I nodded, wanting to believe him.

I remembered the scene I’d found at the base of that grassy slope when I first opened my eyes. I’d thought at first I’d been the one who’d moved. I thought that being I’d made the pact with… that presence… whatever it had been… phased me somewhere else. But as soon as I’d looked around, I’d known that wasn’t it.

I hadn’t been the one to move.

Visible scorch marks had been left behind, darkening the grass where Norrick had fallen from my bloodfyre curse. Fresh blood dripped from crushed grass stalks, pooling on the dirt in at least three different spots around the clearing. Blood spatter covered at least a third of the level area where we’d all been fighting. Even for five large mages, it was a lot of blood.

Too much blood.

None of that blood had dried yet. It hadn’t even coagulated.

It also wasn’t mine.

The grass all around me had been trampled and bent.

A long line of flattened grass led from my sandaled feet to the very bottom of the slope. It was from Mordopast dragging me across the flat to where Scar, Christian, and Pants had been clustered around Norrick, trying to heal him and calm him down.

Just relax, Bones murmured quietly. I’m doing what I can with your magic, but Jolie knows what she’s doing. She’ll be able to fix enough to get you to the hospital, at least.

Pain stabbed at me, catching my breath.

It took another second for me to realize it was his.

I couldn’t miss the rage seething through his aura, either.

A number of conflicting emotions flickered around him the longer I felt him there. Worry eclipsed the anger, then rippled back into fear, then frustration, then more anger, which gradually blossomed into homicidal rage. I could feel him holding back as much as he could, even as his magic wound deeper into mine.

Was that you? I whispered back. Did you take care of them?

A silence fell between us.

In it, I could see him feeling all over me, assuring himself I was all right.

His light hand still held mine.

No, he thought at me. He hesitated, then added, I couldn’t get to you, Leda. I wasn’t able to see anything, not until the very end. Malefic changed the shielding over the dungeon about a month ago. I can’t get to you at all while I’m in there.

I nodded to myself, thinking.

That explained at least some of why I hadn’t felt him much in dreams lately.

After I broke into the Black Tower, his father changed the locks.

You’re outside it now? I asked. The dungeon, I mean?

Yes, he thought back at once. His emotions still felt shielded. I scared the fuck out of your brother. I’ll try to get a message to him in a minute. Let him know you’re going to be okay.

How did you know anything was wrong? I asked, puzzled.

Another silence fell, but it was shorter.

I felt it, in the distance. A denser anguish rose in his magic, mixed with grief, and an anger that heated my skin. I heard you screaming for me. I heard you screaming for everyone, and no one fucking answering. I couldn’t get to you. I couldn’t answer.