Page 156 of Serpent and Shadow

When I finally emerged from the steam-filled room, a letter waited for me on the kitchen counter. Unlike my hastily rolled up, four-sentence note, Forsooth’s response was folded and sealed with the elaborate “M” stamped in black wax on the fold, the symbol for Malcroix Bones Academy. It also looked surprisingly thick.

Assuming that whole thing was his response, he must have been writing it for over half the time I spent in the shower.

Rubbing a towel over my head as I wandered into the closet, I dressed in black pants, a thin, pale blue camisole, and a wide-necked, cropped jumper before winding my hair up into a bun and holding it in place with two silver rods.

I walked out of the closet and back to the counter, only pausing when it occurred to me I hadn’t seen Wraith anywhere, not even in Bones’s hamper in the closet, where she often liked to hide. She definitely would have come out to greet me by now. She would have emerged from her hiding spot before I got in the shower, but definitely by the time I got out, even if she’d been in a sound sleep, in the depths of Bones’s sock drawer.

I walked back to the kitchen, frowning.

Alaric must have brought her with him, wherever he went.

That sounded like something he would do. He wouldn’t want to leave her alone, even if he only planned on being gone for a day.

Miranda had asked me to open up the chimaeras around Bone’s tower apartment for Alaric the day before. She hadn’t wanted me to worry about Wraith, she said, so she wanted Alaric to cat sit for me. After I did as she asked, she sent a note to Greythorne, telling him to see about getting Wraith from my room, and either taking her to his dorm with him, or staying in the tower himself. Alaric already had the spare key, so he was the obvious choice.

Jolie also told me Alaric was still working on finding ways to remove Bones’s collar. Supposedly he’d traced a new text on magical suppressants of various kinds to the Andhakarah, the “Dark Archives” that supposedly lived under the Sanctum Occulus. I wondered if he’d gone there, and if he’d really brought my cat with him to wander around the Sanctum, if so.

Again, it wasn’t exactly an un-Alaric thing to do.

I looked around the room as these thoughts occurred to me, frowning.

Obviously Alaric wasn’t here now, and Wraith wasn’t here, but I wondered if either of them had been up here when the amulet went off, signaling the nearby presence of one of Malefic’s Dark Cathedrals. Alaric himself couldn’t have set the amulet off. He never took the actual oath, despite the tattoo he’d been given and had since gotten removed.

My vague, uneasy feeling now felt closer to full-blown worry.

It was ridiculous though, wasn’t it? Alaric hadn’t been kidnapped. He’d merely gone somewhere and brought Wraith with him.

Was Alaric possibly taking Wraith to the Sanctum really what was bothering me?

Or was I picking up on something else?

I sat heavily on the couch, still frowning, but now with Forsooth’s wax-sealed letter gripped in my hand.

After another second of thought, I cast a quick spell, the same one I’d used before my shower. The drakai appeared almost instantly, flying through the still-unlatched window and doing a quick spiral in front of the fireplace before landing on the coffee table in front of me.

He smiled at me gravely, his red beard rippling, and gave a deep bow.

“Can I help you again in some way, Missus?” he asked politely.

“Yes… please.” I hesitated. “Can you find Alaric Greythorne for me, Elwood? If he’s on campus, please ask him to come see me right away.” I bit my lip. “If he’s not on campus, could you try to find out where he is, and come back here and let me know?” I hesitated, then asked it anyway. “Also, let me know if he’s got my cat with him?”

The drakai bowed again, his green flames flaring brighter.

“Of course, Missus,” he said in his strangely resonant voice. “I will be back as soon as I have news.”

Before I could thank him, he darted back out the window and into the night.

Exhaling in an attempt to relax, I fought Alaric and Wraith out of my mind as I finally unfolded Forsooth’s letter. My eyes scanned the page quickly at first, as I read his elegant script, then I forced myself to take a breath, stop, and begin again, reading more slowly.

Ms. Shadow,

I appreciate the note about your amulet being activated in the northwest tower. I am sending over a team to assess the recent magical history of the tower as a whole, and to ensure that presence has not lingered. That team shall include your cousin, Valor, who was here for other business, along with at least one obeah and an oracle employed by the Praecuri. The obeah will pull and assess magical imprints and the oracle will conduct vision walks and time jumps to determine exactly who was there in the time period you indicated.

From my own examinations of the magical record of that part of the castle, I believe it is probably safe for you to leave the tower via those stairs now, if that offers any reassurance. That said, I would appreciate if you would wait for the team’s full assessment to be completed anyway, as I would like us to err on the side of caution due to other recent events.

To elaborate on the specific events I mean, I regret to tell you there is news.

I urgently need to speak with you about that news, tonight, preferably as soon as they finish their evaluation. Your cousin has agreed to escort you to my tower when they finish, if you are so agreeable. As that work will take at least an hour, I feel it is necessary to give you some prior warning as to the subject matter of our upcoming discussion.