Page 52 of Serpent and Shadow

I could also feel that rescuing Bones no longer felt like an option for either of them. Even if we took him out of the Black Tower, Bones would still be bound to the vow. He would be dangerous, even outside of his father’s direct control. He certainly could never be trusted, given his father could simply order him to kill all of us, and his magic would force him to obey.

I fought their interpretation, of course.

I pointed out that they’d successfully removed the tattoo from Alaric, that they’d managed to reverse everything that had been done to him. Forsooth and Blackstone didn’t really argue with me about the differences in the two situations, but they didn’t need to. Their silence told me exactly what they believed.

They thought it wasn’t possible to reverse the vow, not for Bones.

“Are you still up for this today?”

Alaric again, now no longer hiding his concern.

I realized I was staring at the wall, watching one of the magical blue flames flicker in its iron holder without focusing on it or speaking.

Isis only knew what expression I had on my face.

I cleared my throat, forcing myself to meet his gaze.

“Did Darragh go ahead with it, then?” I asked. “Did he make it in time to his friend, with the research project on Earth?”

Alaric hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. We got him the gold. He didn’t foresee any problems in getting us as much as we wanted. Apparently, it takes a very small amount to have effect. Darragh seemed to think even a teaspoon per Magical would be far too much.”

“It would,” I agreed. “Far too much.”

It turned out, Alaric’s grand plan, the one Luc wanted me to weigh in on earlier that day, revolved around creating a distraction utilizing human-made hallucinogens.

It had taken me a few minutes to unravel what Alaric was babbling about, partly because I was still recovering from the meeting with Forsooth and Blackstone, but I eventually worked out that Alaric wanted me to approve a plan whereby he and Luc dosed every occupant of the Black Tower with L.S.D.

It would’ve been funny, if I’d heard the idea even a few hours earlier.

Alaric found out about the drug in a conversation with Darragh, who’d heard about it from a cousin of his who was dating a witch trainee in the Praecuri. Alaric wanted to know from me if the stories were true, and if it might truly throw the entire household into “pure, eye-bleeding, goblin chaos,” as he put it.

He thought if we could dose everyone in Dark Cathedral before I tried to break Bones free, I not only would have time to find Bones, work out a way through the security chimaeras keeping him locked in, and break him out of the main dungeon, I would also have plenty of time left over to look for Varya.

Alaric didn’t come out and say the other part of this, not aloud at least, but I’d also have a better chance of killing Malefic. That part of the plan wasn’t something we talked about openly, but it often hung there, unspoken in the background.

Even Luc hinted a few times he thought it might be necessary.

Partly because I couldn’t bring myself to tell them what I’d just experienced, and partly because it worked to distract me better than anything else we needed to discuss, I’d approved Alaric’s plan. I’d also confirmed that most of what Alaric heard about the drug was true.

We spent another hour discussing different methods of administering the drug, along with possible Magical versus human reactions to it.

“I wanted to talk to you about the collar,” Alaric ventured next.

He seemed to have realized we probably weren’t going to be practicing with the snake jewelry anymore that day.

Alaric offered to come with me when I told him I needed to experiment with the gold bracelet Bones had given me at Yule. I should have done it weeks ago, but I’d been so focused on learning how to phase, memorizing every detail of Alaric’s map of the Black Tower and its grounds, and learning everything I could about ancient chimaeras and other magical protection spells, I’d struggled to prioritize it.

Everything was taking too long.

It was more than likely I was already too late.

Biting my lip, I stared back down at the snake bracelet.

I completely forgot what Alaric had just asked me.

“So I’m supposed to stroke it, right?” I asked. “Wasn’t that what Bones said?” I swallowed, giving Alaric a bare glance. “The head. He said to stroke the head, and say maam rakshatu whenever I was in trouble.”

Alaric’s eyes flinched, but he nodded. “He said it would call him, too,” he reminded me, his eyes showing discomfort. “That he would feel it when you did it.”