Page 149 of Serpent and Shadow

32

Guildford

Igasped as I reappeared somewhere bathed in the last gasp of the day’s sunlight, with a dark blue sky decorated with pinkish-purple clouds. The sun had already sunk below the line of hills in the distance, and most of the valley below had been enveloped in shadow.

Red, orange and gold still colored the buildings below, and it took another handful of seconds for my eyes to understand what they were seeing.

Abruptly, it all clicked.

Fire.

A handful of the buildings below were eclipsed in flames.

I looked up as he released me, and saw who I expected to see by then.

Bones stood there, looking even more rough than he had the other night.

His black clothes were covered in soot, and his face looked bruised and I saw dried blood at his hairline, and a streak of it on his face where he’d obviously wiped it off with a gloved hand but hadn’t gotten all of it off his skin. His face was smudged with soot on the opposite side, and he stared at me, his mouth hard as he looked me over.

“Are you all right?” he asked, gruff.

“I’m fine…” I began, then trailed off when it was clear he wasn’t listening to me.

He stared at me with a concentrated look on his face, his gold eyes visibly out of focus. I saw his lips purse as he assessed my magical aura with his.

It must have been at least a minute before his irises cleared.

“You look like shit,” he declared coldly, like he held me personally responsible. “You’re way too fucking pale. Your heart is obviously exhausted. They did a shit job of replenishing your magic after the attack… it looks like no one replenished it at all. Your nerves are still strained from the lightning spells. Didn’t Blackstone give you something for any of these fucking things? Or did they just heal your bones, pop your shoulder back in, and toss you back into library?”

I fought annoyance, even as I used it to hide my relief at seeing him.

“He did,” I said, fingering a curl of my long hair out of my eyes. “…Give me things,” I added haughtily. “I drank and ate probably forty portions, elixirs, pastes, and codicils over the past three days. It’s just not the kind of thing that’s going to heal overnight.”

I folded my arms at his dissatisfied scoff, staring at the dark circles under his eyes, and the exhaustion I could clearly see on him.

“…And I wouldn’t be throwing stones on others’ appearances, if I were you,” I added tartly. “You look frightful yourself. Or has no one told you?”

Remembering the image of him in the papers that morning, I bit my lip.

Another thing occurred to me then, and I looked around at where we stood.

“Where are we?” I asked warily.

I didn’t really care about that, honestly. I wanted to know if we were alone. I wanted to know where the other Dark Cathedrals were.

I wanted to know where Malefic was.

Bones must have heard me, because he grunted.

“He’s in London,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. “Probably getting fellated and his balls hand-washed by a kneeling Magus Imperius and his entire cabinet by now.”

The dark humor in his expression faded as he glanced at the burning town.

“The others are down there,” he said, jerking his jaw in that direction. “Enjoying the spoils. They can’t see us up here. I’ve got a chimaera erected over this entire hill, with a perimeter of alarm spells that will let me know the instant anyone gets within a few dozen yards. We can speak freely.”

He folded his own arms over his uniformed chest, and now he looked uncomfortable.

“Did you see who it was?” he asked. “In the tower?”