Page 190 of Serpent and Shadow

“We should go,” I urged, tugging on his arm.

That fear blossomed into something closer to panic when I thought about all the newspaper articles, the towns on fire, the murders all attributed to him.

They’d want a scapegoat.

With Malefic dead, of course that would fall on his son. No one would ever believe he’d been coerced to do those things, and even if they did, it was too likely it would get out, what Bones actually was. The interrogations would raise too many questions. There would be Oracles looking at him, Obeah. If they held him in custody, it would only be a matter of time before they figured it out, and then the sentence would be death.

After everything, he’d be murdered by the King, and the Court of Magique.

He looked at me, as if feeling it all through me.

I tugged on his arm. “Let’s go,” I whispered. “We have to go, Bones. Now.”

I felt the weight of understanding reach him, right before his mouth pursed.

“I’m not sure anyplace will be far enough, wife,” he told me quietly.

Before I could answer, a different voice interrupted our quiet back and forth, causing both of us to turn our heads. I’d been so absorbed in Bones, so oblivious to everything else happening in the Hall, I hadn’t even noticed him walking towards us from the direction of the double doors.

Now I turned to stare at a Magical walking towards us, his bear primal lumbering along next to him in its strangely rollicking gait. He looked vaguely singed, his bushy hair more disheveled and smoky than I’d ever seen it, but he wore a disarmingly wide smile.

“Oh, I think you’ll be quite all right where you are,” Gideon Forsooth said, winking at me before he widened his smile at Bones. “After all, you’re the heroes who brought down the violent terrorist, Malefic Bones. Are you not? I am told there were many witnesses.”

We both blinked at him.

I’m sure our faces were completely blank.

Forsooth walked up to both of us and clapped us each on the arm, one with each of his wizened hands. He surprised me even more when he reached for Bones when he got near enough, and enveloped him in a hug.

I only caught a bare glimpse of Bone’s face as he entered the embrace, but I strongly got the impression he only accepted it because he was too bewildered to do anything else.

“The fighting is still going on, but it’s mostly a clean up exercise now,” Forsooth said, matter of fact. He raised a clay mug to his lips, sipping what looked like a very rich milk tea.

“I’m told there is still a small hold-out of Dark Cathedrals on campus,” he continued somberly. “They fled to the north but haven’t been able to escape the school grounds. A few dozen agents from G.O.R.E. and the another group of the King’s Guard have them trapped inside the bestiary, but I’m told the situation is under control, and should be resolved shortly.”

“Where’s my brother?” I asked, gripping my own mug between my hands.

I could speak again, mostly due to the ministrations of Blackstone, who’d handed me two different vials when he saw me, pulling them out of his satchel and placing them in my hand without so much as a hello. I drank down the violet, pearlescent potion without a word in return, and it had tasted almost sweet, despite seeming to burn my throat from the inside out. The second vial, a dark red, tasted like burnt cat hair but soothed the worst of my pain.

“You dosed them,” I said to Corvid, as soon as I could speak again. “You and Luc. After telling me that was a stupid, reckless idea only a half-human would come up with.”

Blackstone shrugged, unapologetic.

“It was,” he intoned flatly. “…Stupid. You could have easily been killed.”

Morag perched on the back of his chair, and chortled like she was laughing.

“Your brother is fine,” Forsooth was saying now, and my focus returned to the present. “He, along with most of your friends, are being attended to at hospital, along with a significant chunk of our student body, our faculty, and a number of members of law enforcement.”

At what must have been an alarmed look from me, Forsooth held up a calming hand.

“They are all fine, Ms. Shadow,” he insisted calmly. “Minor magical injuries at best. The group of them participated in a minor skirmish in the foyer, along with a number of your classmates, but there were no casualties, I am told. As at that point in the morning’s events, the Dark Cathedral adherents they encountered were not exactly of sound mind…”

Forsooth raised a pointed eyebrow in Blackstone’s direction.

“…and were really only looking to escape,” he added. “We thought it was best they be checked out along with everyone else––”

“Except us,” Bones muttered under his breath.