Page 166 of Serpent and Shadow

Blackstone and I in his office, watching as Bones got the skull and pyramid tattoo burned into his skin with fire and gold.

Me kissing Caelum at that rooftop restaurant on New Year’s Eve, and the first time we had sex, after the royals party at the foot of the Eyrie. I saw Bones’s eyes when his mother told him he was part human, and Bones staring at me from the boxing ring in Bonescastle bloodied and dirtied from the fight, a faint smirk on his lips.

I saw myself attack Malefic Bones again, as he stood at the doorway of that closet, felt the dense satisfaction I’d felt when I severed his arm, that warmth, sated feeling deep in my gut. I saw myself watch Caelum kiss a blond witch on one of the benches in Malcroix Gardens, the pain of it twisting my gut as I quickly walked in the opposite direction.

The invasion of my mind hurt in every way imaginable.

I saw myself back in that tube station entrance, watching my parents get obliterated in front of me, Archie’s screams echoing across the tile. I saw Bones standing there just a few seconds before that, only twelve or thirteen, his gold eyes curious as he stared at the sun floating over my head.

It dragged on and on… agonizingly endless, and ruthless beyond anything I’d ever experienced. My terror grew so unbearable that eventually my conscious mind stopped working entirely, although it didn’t seem to hinder Malefic ripping every memory that mattered to me out of my mind and tossing it aside as though none of it interested him.

The pain never stopped, never lessened.

I screamed until I could no longer get enough breath.

I screamed until I teetered on the edge of unconsciousness… yet somehow, I never did black out, even though by then I badly wanted to. When it finally ended, I only knelt there, my head bowed, every part of me soaked in sweat. My hands were planted on the tile as my body wracked painfully with the effort of keeping itself alive.

I scarcely had enough energy left to suck in breaths.

The pain didn’t end when his probe did.

My mind felt torn, ripped, stabbed with shards of broken glass. I tasted copper and realized blood had dripped down from my nose to cover my face and fill my mouth. I couldn’t do anything but fight to work my lungs, deafened by my heart as it slammed against my ribs. My head hurt so badly I thought my skull must be cracked.

Then my body wracked in even worse pain as I retched, silent, my back rigid as it fought to expel the black smoke that seemed to fill every part of me.

Nothing came out but thick saliva.

My body arched painfully again, fighting to get more out anyway.

At the end of it, I could only kneel there, my chin covered in blood, spit, bile, and whatever else my stomach managed to bring up.

It was a few seconds before I could make out the words spoken above me.

“…No,” the deep voice above me rumbled contemptuously. “Leave him where he is for now. I’ll send for the whelp only when we need him, after the first half is complete.”

The other voice stammered. “But the Great Ritual… are we postponing it, then?”

“No.” Malefic’s voice grew even colder. “We will finish it, tonight… all of it. Everything that comes before will feed into the power needed to conduct the final ceremony. The sacrifices to our gods. The summoning required. Remaking me into the king the new world deserves… all of it must happen on the same night if we want to succeed.”

His voice grew harder, more resonant.

“We are about to make history,” he said coldly. “The power we raise tonight will be unlike anything Magique has ever seen. Once I’ve been made ready for my ascension, we will make the world back into what it was always meant to be.”

Something about the words rang coldly in my mind.

I struggled to see, to focus my eyes.

It hit me only then that I’d fallen to my side, no longer able to hold myself up.

I sucked in breaths, still struggling to control my body.

My head hurt so badly, tears ran down my face. My whole body felt like it was swimming in liquid fire.

Eye of Ra, where were my friends? Had that drakai, Elwood, found Alaric? Where were the rest of my friends? Luc? Nyx? Miranda? Draken? Had they gotten out? Were they imprisoned somewhere, like my brother and Bones?

What about Blackstone? Forsooth? Valor?

Was there anyone left who could even help us?