Page 170 of Serpent and Shadow

I saw a few other Dark Cathedrals I recognized from the vision walks I’d done with Blackstone, and from that morning in Malcroix Gardens, when they’d taken Bones. I also saw our old headmistress, Darica Voltaire, wearing a robe and the giant Malcroix Cross around her neck I remembered from the first time I’d been in Morwormer Hall.

They were all holding glasses.

They were all drinking.

Corvid Blackstone was another face in the crowd that caused me to suck in a breath. I stared at him as he walked around the room, holding a wine goblet of his own. He didn’t look at me. I might not have existed at all where I sat crumpled against the wall, but stopped to bow politely to a number of other Dark Cathedrals, engaging them in conversation as his raven primal perched on his shoulder, its head tilted as if listening.

Then a shadow fell over me, and I blinked, my eyes shifting up.

Elysia Warrington stared off to one side, her expression bored. She held one arm folded over her chest so her other elbow could rest on it, propping up the hand that held her own golden goblet. She wore a pale pink dress under her black robe, and her pink faerie primal buzzed around her head only to alight on her shoulder.

“Well, you look disgusting,” she commented, her voice as bored as her face.

A perverse part of me wanted to laugh, but I didn’t quite have it in me.

I only sat there instead, watching her glance around the room, her eyes uninterested. She stood a few feet away from me, even now, like she was afraid I might bleed on her. That impression only strengthened when she glanced down at me, seemingly almost against her will, and her lip curled in disgust.

“They’ve managed it,” she said. “In the kitchens.”

I blinked at her. My mouth pursed. “What?”

“The distraction.” She took a sip of her wine, again looking bored, and staring around the room as if she’d rather be anywhere else. “What you’d meant to do at the Tower, apparently. That sexy one of your bunch. Not the actor. The other one.”

I stared at her, utterly bewildered. Luc? Did she mean Lucifer Mocking?

Elysia Warrington thought Luc was fit?

She might’ve told me elephants flew out of her arsehole that morning.

“Any messages back?” Elysia asked, still speaking low, her voice bored.

I swallowed. Was this a trick?

I couldn’t afford to ignore it, even if it was.

“Where’s Alaric?” I blurted.

She exhaled out a long sigh, sounding even more bored, still rocking on her heels, her elbow balanced on her arm.

“Was that supposed to be a message?” she asked drily.

I fought to think, to make my mind work.

“He’s going to take my magic,” I said, low, frantic, but talking fast. “Malefic. He wants what Caelum is. He needs part of my magic to stabilize it first. You need to get Caelum out, while he’s busy with me here.” I swallowed, glancing up at her. Her lips had firmed, but she wouldn’t look at me. “You don’t have much time.”

She waited another beat after I spoke.

“Is that it?” she asked coldly, taking another sip of wine.

When I didn’t speak, she walked away without another word. Her feet balanced on even higher heels than the ones Sirena had worn, her long legs striding gracefully across the marble floor, her robes and dress swishing behind her. I felt like I was going to be sick, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Had I just hallucinated that? Or had that been real?

I looked around at the Dark Cathedrals all around me, and saw them all holding goblets.

Had that thing about the kitchens meant what I thought it did?

I couldn’t think about it, on the off chance it could mean what Luc, Nyx, Alaric and I had thrown around in our plans to break into the Tower. If it was real, I couldn’t risk having that in the forefront of my mind, not surrounded by Magicals trained in seer arts.