Page 191 of Serpent and Shadow

“––and I wished to speak to you both alone,” he said, a touch sharper. He looked at me, his eyebrow arching. “So we could get our stories straight, as I believe the human expression goes.”

I frowned. I looked between him and Blackstone, wary.

“Our stories?” I pursed my lips. “What stories would those be?”

Forsooth gave me a faint, knowing smile, like he didn’t believe for a second I wasn’t understanding him. He was right, really. I did understand.

Well, part of it, at least.

“We need to explain how Malefic died,” I said, feeling a ripple of nerves. “That’s part of it, isn’t it?” I glanced at Bones, suddenly worried. “Do they think Caelum did it?”

Bones flinched a little when I used his first name, and squeezed my fingers in his.

“It’s fine if they think that,” he began brusquely, but Forsooth cut him off.

“They don’t,” he interrupted, glancing at Bones. “Think that. Witnesses to the event all insist you never released your magic against him, and were only standing there, and appeared to be defending and protecting your wife.”

Forsooth looked at me, and I bit my lip.

“So they know I did it?” I asked, blunt.

Forsooth’s brow furrowed. “But you didn’t do it, Ms. Shadow.”

I pursed my lips, and shook my head. “I did, though.”

“No.” Forsooth lifted a finger. “You may have…” He hesitated. “Given permission? In a sense? But that is not the same as having done the deed yourself.”

“Was that my primal?” I blurted. “My divinity one, I mean?”

Gideon Forsooth smiled. I saw genuine amusement and a whisper of cleverness in his eyes when he slowly shook his head. He glanced at Bones then, and his lips slid a little higher.

“I do not believe so, no,” he said, still smiling shrewdly. He nodded at Bones. “It was his.”

I frowned again. “His?” I looked at Bones, who blinked back at me. I looked back at Forsooth. “But it went through me.”

“Of course,” Forsooth said, holding out his hands, still gripping his mug. “It didn’t have a choice, did it? Malefic had constrained it in every way imaginable. Chaining it to Dark Cathedral. Denying it the ability to defend itself, or to defend the wizard it had chosen to protect with its magic. Divinities don’t generally take kindly to being ordered around and enslaved and having their magic constrained by mere mortals.”

I frowned at that, looking thoughtfully at Bones.

“Was it Anubis?” I asked, speaking without thinking.

Forsooth chuckled, leaning back in his chair as Bones stared at me in shock.

“Yes,” Forsooth said, nodding in enjoyment. “I believe so, yes. And well done, Ms. Shadow. Most masters in theosophy wouldn’t have done so well with their first deity identification, and I strongly suspect it wasn’t coming to you in a form that most Magicals would have recognized.”

“It was a snake,” I admitted. “An enormous black cobra.”

Forsooth nodded, still smiling, but now his eyes were gentle.

“I suspect your own primal helped,” he said, his voice more understanding. “If only by staying out of the way––”

“Ra,” Bones blurted, his voice holding his own discovery. “Hers is Ra, isn’t it? I felt this kind of…” He hesitated, glancing at me. “Well, almost a paternalistic type thing from it a few times. And then there’s the sun, of course.”

Forsooth nodded, but I didn’t get the sense that was entirely a “yes.”

“That might be something for the two of you to explore in your own theosophic enquiries,” he said diplomatically, the smile still toying at his mouth. His expression grew more serious an instant later. “But while all of this is very interesting, that isn’t the exact version of events I would like you to share with the authorities. I’m afraid any talk of divinities or assassination, warranted or not, by angry gods, will not work out particularly well in your favor, were that to become the dominant narrative…”

He gave me a shrewd smile, but I saw the darker meaning in his eyes.