Page 164 of Serpent and Shadow

As he saw everything falling together behind my eyes, Quicksilver smiled.

It was the last thing I saw before he bent down and lifted me up.

He picked me up like I weighed no more than a doll, throwing me over his shoulder in one smooth movement. I couldn’t fight him.

I could only hang there, gasping, unable to move.

35

Dark Magic

Quicksilver came to an abrupt stop. Without speaking a word, he flipped me off his shoulder, and dumped me on the marble floor.

I couldn’t catch myself.

With the spell he’d used on me only barely having worn off, and my body half-numb from being hung upside down while he carried me up the stairs and through the bottom floor of Malcroix Mansion, I fell like dead weight.

I still hadn’t figured out why he’d brought me here at all.

I’d expected him to go out the main doors, and take me off-campus, likely back to the Bones Estate. Quicksilver had surprised me by hanging a right when he reached the mansion’s lobby instead, walking me down the southwest corridor to Morwormer Hall.

That confused me.

Why would Quicksilver be taking me there?

I hadn’t been inside Worm Hall since the Eleusínia Mystḗria dance in November. There’d been another dance in spring for Lá Bealtaine, one that decked the whole place in flowers, live trees, and chimaeric illusions, but I’d skipped it this year, just like I had my during first year, and for oddly similar reasons.

My first year, I hadn’t been up to seeing Bones. I knew he’d be there in his full, rich-prick regalia, likely getting his cock ground on by his latest conquest, if not full-blown fingering her to orgasm on the dance floor while his friends watched. He’d been such an utter bastard those two terms, I’d learned to avoid any setting where I might encounter him, particularly where he’d have the opportunity to shove his disgust for me in my face.

Knowing he’d been performing at least part of that for his father hadn’t really taken the sting away from how it felt at the time.

As for this year, I hadn’t exactly been in the mood for a dance, with Bones being held prisoner, and half the school wanting me dead or worse.

That didn’t even get into the situation with my friends. Not being on real speaking terms with Miranda or Draken, who would absolutely have been there, and likely with Jolie, Nyx, Luc, and Darragh, meant I would have spoiled the night for more than just me. Truthfully, I’d never even seriously considered it.

Why would Quicksilver have taken me to Worm Hall now?

Had they set up mirrors in here?

Was it some kind of holding center?

Unfortunately, I hadn’t much time to wonder about that before he tossed me off his shoulder and onto the floor. Pain bloomed through my back and tailbone after I landed heavily on the black marble. Pain shot up my spine, burned my neck.

I fought to remain silent but my throat forced out a gasp.

My eyes swam back into focus on the morphing ceiling overhead.

Instead of the images I’d always seen depicted there prior to now, which usually involved magical creatures like monoceri, centaurs, mermaids, goblins, and winged faeries, the massive painting reflected darker, more disturbing images.

A burning landscape filled the distant perspective where large, demon-like creatures filled the skies. An enormous skeleton dressed in the clothes of a pharaoh sat on a throne made of bones in the center. Bone dragons flapped their wings on each of his shoulders, and his scepter consisted of carved, human-looking bones with a gold dragon wound all the way around the staff. On top, a blood-red crystal ball balanced in an ornate gold setting.

I lied on the marble, staring up at it, as everything came crashing down over me.

I couldn’t believe how badly this had all gone.

I had no idea how everything had gone so badly, so incredibly fast.

“Kneel, cur,” Quicksilver spat.