Page 51 of Serpent and Shadow

Yes, Blackstone thought coldly. They appear to be making him a full member of Dark Cathedral. He paused. You are right. This is bad for him. It is bad for many others, too, given what he is. It will force him to obey. Not just Malefic himself… but the very cause Malefic fights for and defines. Blackstone exuded a harder anger. I don’t remember them binding the vows to Anubis quite so tightly before. It is possible it will even kill him now to disobey.

I felt sick.

More than that, I felt lost.

That helpless rage that built in me as Malefic finished his guttural speech felt impotent, utterly useless to Bones and to anyone else. I could tangibly feel the futility of where we were, my inability to stop what was happening.

My attention followed Malefic as he finished.

He stood over Bones, brandishing the blade, until suddenly, he didn’t. I watched, bewildered at first as he turned abruptly on his heel to walk towards the fire. Relief caused some of the tension in me to ease when he re-sheathed the dagger into a holster on his chest.

That relief was short-lived.

When Malefic walked to the stone bowl and its green-tongued flames, he pulled out a long piece of gold metal, which I hadn’t seen heating in the coals.

The end of the thick rod glowed white-hot.

It looked unmistakably like a brand.

I felt my jaw clench distantly, until my teeth hurt, my head throbbed.

I found myself staring at Bones’s face.

It remained blank, emotionless.

His gold eyes reflected no sign of him at all.

I struggled not to try and reach him, to shake him, to wake him up. I wanted him to do something. I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t save him.

I wanted him to save himself.

Fight back, I willed at him silently. Bones, where are you? Where the fuck are you? Why won’t you fight back?

I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to that question.

11

Vows

“How did it go last night?” Alaric asked cautiously.

When I glanced over my shoulder at him, I saw him watching me from where he stood, a few yards to my right and slightly behind me, on the same square of padded flooring Bones and I used to practice magical combat together.

I knew I wasn’t acting normal.

I knew Alaric sensed something wrong.

I dropped my gaze to the gold, serpent-shaped bracelet wrapped around my wrist and forearm. I wanted to focus on that, on what I was doing here, but now my mind was uncomfortably jerked back to my memories of the night before.

Blackstone had called an emergency meeting with Forsooth as soon as we came out of the vision space. He’d made it clear to me, and to Forsooth when we all talked in the Headmaster’s tower, what an unmitigated disaster this was, Bones taking the vow to be Malefic and Dark Cathedral’s instrument.

I fought to shake off the memory of Forsooth’s face, how worried and pale he’d looked as Blackstone told him everything we’d seen, including the new mark that had been burnt with molten gold into the center of Bones’s chest. It had been the symbol of Anubis and the snakes that Alaric himself once had removed, but it had looked different, even to me. It glowed as it merged into his skin, looking permanent in a way Alaric’s hadn’t.

The difference was, Alaric hadn’t taken the vow.

Bones had.

I could see how the news impacted Forsooth.