Page 39 of Serpent and Shadow

“Why do you think?” he asked, softer.

A shoulder slammed into me, throwing me into Alaric, shoving him into Luc.

I saw Luc look over first, eyes angry, and when he saw that the cascade of hits had started with me, his eyes went from startled and annoyed to worried, then even more furious.

His blue eyes searched the crowd, looking for who had done it, but I waved him off subtly with one hand, telling him to leave it alone.

Every time I undressed for the shower now, I found more bruises.

That was even with how I’d revised my schedule to avoid being seen.

Hexes, curses, and outright physical hits shadowed me as I walked the halls, and even inside some of my classrooms. I’d learned to hit back fast when I saw who’d done it, and to ignore it when I couldn’t identify the source. I didn’t have time to hunt them all down. Dealing with the various asses at Malcroix was hardly my priority these days.

Anyway, that one had been my fault.

I’d let myself get distracted.

Worse, I’d left my back turned towards the main corridor, something I’d mostly trained myself out of doing. The same was true of leaving my back facing open and unlocked doors, open rooms, open windows, really anywhere that would allow someone to sneak up on me, or get in a curse before I could block or retaliate.

No matter how much I had on my mind, I couldn’t afford to lower my guard.

Some days it happened anyway, though.

Lately, I’d struggled to focus on where I was, what I was doing.

Weeks had gone by.

It was nearly February, and I felt like I’d gotten nowhere. My mind wandered in class, unless something in the lecture or discussion touched upon something I thought might help me in my quest to help Bones. Every second I sat in one of those rooms felt like a second I should be working on breaking into the Black Tower in a way that wouldn’t get him killed.

I’d thought about little else since the morning after Bones got taken, when I’d woken up after enough sleep that I had at least some of my mind back.

I’d grilled Alaric over breakfast, on every aspect of the Bones Estate, everything he knew about their family chimaeras, everything he knew about the various entrances and what might prevent me from using them. He’d answered all of my questions faithfully, but I’d seen the hesitation in him, and the way he looked at me when he thought I didn’t notice.

“Obviously, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to get in at all,” I’d admitted at one point. “Even if I’m now technically ‘family.’”

Alaric looked over sharply at that, and I flushed.

I hadn’t yet talked to him about my marriage at that point, and while I’d strongly suspected he knew, he hadn’t directly asked. Seeing his expression as he looked back at his breakfast of kippers, toast, butter, and strawberry jam, his fork and knife gripped in his hands, I’d bit my lip, feeling my stomach sink.

“You don’t think I can get in,” I said finally.

Alaric made a face without looking up from his plate.

He finished raising the forkful of kippers to his mouth, and chewed. Leaning back a moment later, coffee cup in hand, he slowly shook his head as he stared at the fire. His eyes grew thoughtful as his mouth pursed, but he didn’t look over.

“I suspect you can get in,” he said slowly.

“You do?” I asked, surprised. “Then what? What’s wrong?”

His mouth hardened.

“I suspect you’ll get in because that’s exactly what Malefic would want you to do,” Alaric said, looking over at me only then. “I think he’ll leave the door wide open for you, Leda. There’s nothing that twisted, sadistic prick would like better than to have you there to play with. Especially if you really are sharing magic with Cal.” His brow furrowed. “You know that would kill him, don’t you? Cal? It would destroy him, Leda.”

I’d bit my tongue, harder that time.

Briefly, I struggled with whether I should tell him about the caelum ignis thing.

Bones had been so adamant that no one else know. He’d even called out Alaric specifically at least once, along with Luc, Nyx, Blackstone, and Forsooth. But now the two professors knew, and I had to wonder if the Praecuri knew, too.