Page 179 of Serpent and Shadow

Bones and Alaric froze.

Arcturus turned his head, puzzled, and stared in the direction from which the voice had come, like he thought he might recognize them.

Bones didn’t.

He also didn’t wait around for them to yell Alec’s name a second time.

Without looking back, he began to walk, moving fast for the exit now that his eyes had found the green-painted door. He wove and slid past a crowd by the bar, then pushed through the wooden door and into the night air, Alaric right on his heels. Arcturus followed soon after them, and Bones began walking in the direction Alaric had described.

He’d only made it about four steps when the pub door opened again, and a small crowd of wizards and witches stumbled through the opening after them.

The same voice from inside the pub shattered the night’s quiet a second time.

“Hey!” he snapped. “Hold up!”

Bones turned around. He stared at the tall, black-haired mage standing there, his jaw clenched hard enough to hurt.

“Fuck off, Joran.”

Draken Joran, the irritatingly handsome son of a movie star and one of the more all-around wanker wizards Bones had ever met, stared at him in surprise. Shock bled over his features as he seemed to realize what and who he was staring at, then anger replaced the shock in his dark brown eyes as soon as he knew for sure.

A scowl replaced his usual moronic expression.

“You,” Joran said coldly.

“Not now!” Jolie Harringbone inserted herself between the two of them, holding up a hand at roughly chest-height for each of them, and sounding actually angry. “We don’t have time for this now, either of you!”

She turned to glare at Bones. “Are you going to find Leda?”

“Yes,” Bones growled. “Get out of my way.”

“There’s guards all over the school gates,” another voice piped up. We barely got out ourselves. You can’t go in that way.”

Bones remembered the mage from New Year’s.

His name was Darragh-something.

“He’s right,” Miranda Rook piped up, appearing on the sidewalk beside Joran. “You’ll never get in that way. Believe me. We tried. They’ve changed the chimaeras somehow, and an alarm goes off when you even get near the outer wall.”

“Who said anything about us going in that way?” Bones snapped. “Leave us the fuck alone.” He paused when something occurred to him then, and motioned towards Jolie. “Alec. Give her the cat. And maybe you should go with them too,” he added, looking at Arcturus.

“No!” the kid snapped angrily. “You’re not dumping me!”

Caelum lost his cool.

“We don’t have time for this shit!” he snarled. He glared around at all of them, then stopped to stare extra hard at the kid. “Now go with them! I’m not going to be able to get your sister out if I have to worry about you!”

“Sister?” one of the witches murmured in surprise.

“You’re still wearing the collar.” Nyx Minh stepped closer to Bones on the cobblestone walk, and squinted at the gold ring around Bones’s neck. She glanced at Alaric, quirking an inquisitive eyebrow. “Why haven’t you removed it?”

“We’re going to deal with that now, Nyxy,” Alaric explained.

“Where?” Miranda asked, coming up to stand by Harringbone.

“For fuck’s sake!” Bones burst out. “Follow us, if you want! But I need this thing off me, now. Either help or shut the fuck up!” He pointed at Arcturus, giving him a death stare. “And you’re staying here where it’s safe, with your sister’s friends! It’s not a discussion!”

Everyone fell silent, staring between Bones and the younger Shadow.