Page 161 of Serpent and Shadow

Behind me, I heard a rage-filled screech that echoed up and down the halls.

“WHERE IS SHE?” Sirena screamed. “WHERE IS SHE?”

“Go!” Valor snapped, motioning at Quicksilver who’d turned to stare at the Dark Cathedral agents standing just inside the north corridor. He motioned sharply in the direction of Forsooth’s tower. “She might have another way out. We have to go, now!”

I saw Quicksilver’s jaw harden, right before he glanced at the Dark Cathedral mages and witches. He stared at them, an instant too long, and one of them threw a fireball of magic in his direction. He threw up a shield, moving impressively fast, then turned and followed Valor at a run, moving a lot faster than they had with me between them.

They sprinted for the northeast tower and I watched them go.

I couldn’t help wondering if I’d made a mistake.

The talisman clicked off right as I found a shadowy area to hide among a small copse of trees. I’d managed to disentangle myself from the crowd milling around the northern balcony and the back lawn less than a minute earlier.

I immediately cast a regular invisibility spell.

I didn’t try to leave the copse, and not only because I was blind.

Unlike what Alaric had done with the delicate magic he’d woven into the talisman, not only were ordinary invisibility spells buggy and blindness-inducing, they leaked wisps of the wearer’s magic. An experienced Magical could potentially see me, particularly if they knew what and who they were looking for. I could still see dark robed mages and witches on the northern balcony, casting magic over areas of the field.

I was still closer than I would have liked to Malcroix Manor.

It had taken longer to get out the door and down the stairs than I’d hoped, with everyone running in different directions and some stopping dead in the middle of the stairs to pull out sets of wings and shoulder them onto their backs, oblivious to how much of the stairway they blocked with their massive gold-boned and feathered appendages outstretched.

I’d been incredibly tempted to steal a set of those wings off some unsuspecting student, and not only because they blocked the way out for the rest of us. With Alaric’s talisman, I actually had some chance of finding my friends, and helping them get out.

In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Steal, that is.

Even so, it was that thought that convinced me to make for the Eyrie before trying to get back to Valarian. Too many flashes of magic lit up the pathways between the mansion and the colleges. I had no concrete knowledge of where Miranda, Jolie, Draken, and Luc had been when the first attack came, but they’d likely been back in their dormitory.

They might have gotten out on wings of their own, but as I’d seen multiple Magicals shot down by spells as they tried to escape, I had my doubts they would have risked it, not unless they figured out what was happening before most of the students. Ordinary invisibility spells seemed to be useless against the anti-magic spells being cast in wide nets at the air and exits of the buildings.

Alaric’s talisman seemed immune to those spells so far.

I had to hope that continued to be the case.

The Eyrie had dozens of sets of wings inside the lower stairs, hanging on the walls, all different shapes and sizes, the entire way up to the top of the tower. I’d also never known the Eyrie to be locked, even in the middle of the night. If it wasn’t too picked clean, or too crowded, I could wait for a new cycle with the talisman, activate the invisibility charm once I had the wings on my back, and take off from the upper platform.

Then I’d go look for my friends.

If I couldn’t find them in five minutes, I’d wait out another minute, then make a speed run for the East Gate.

It wasn’t a great plan, but it was something.

I didn’t know the eastern part of Bonescastle at all. From what I’d read and heard from others, it was a completely different kind of place than the Bonescastle I knew to the west, and only really the same city by name, proximity to the academy, and the fact of its invisibility.

That said, they must still have mirrors.

If not, I’d read about a train that ran in and out of that side of the city.

For now, though, I had to wait.

I hunkered down at the base of the trees. I still heard the occasional screams and panicked shouts echoing from the north corridor, which unnerved me, in spite of myself. I couldn’t see, which made it worse, although I tried to look around me through the Aether.

I fought to think.

I couldn’t decide if I should risk trying to cross the field under the invisibility spell, using my view through the Aether to guide me. Most of the action seemed to be happening in the mansion and the few colleges visible from the valley below the main buildings. I hadn’t seen anyone casting anti-magic spells in my direction, but it still felt risky.