Page 142 of Serpent and Shadow

I winced, but only nodded.

When I opened my eyes, I found Jolie looking down at me.

She was sat next to me on the mattress, mixing some kind of elixir in a tube. She’d already put a different substance all over my wrist, and the skin and flesh and bone there was burning in a not-unpleasant way.

Draken sat on my other side, and Nyx was down by my feet. All three of them were working, but Jolie’s eyes remained focused directly on mine.

She leaned down toward me then, and spoke in my ear.

“Is that him?” she asked, soft. “Just now? With you?”

She raised her head, looking down at me, one eyebrow quirked.

I hesitated, then gave a quick nod.

Her lips twitched perceptibly, not quite a smile.

Her voice switched back to businesslike when she raised it, speaking in her regular voice.

“You’re going to be all right,” she said, and I distinctly got the impression she was speaking to Bones as much as me. “I did three different diagnostics and I didn’t see anything that would cause permanent damage. We’ll walk you down to the hospital as soon as I’ve got you stabilized, just to make sure.”

Her eyes shone a little brighter. “You’ll be sore. And probably have a headache for a few days. And you need to take it easy with your shoulder and wrist until the bones and joints are completely healed. But you don’t need to worry, okay?”

I nodded, feeling my throat close.

Jolie smiled at me, and gripped my good wrist in a tight squeeze.

Tell her thanks, Bones thought at me. Later, I mean. If you want.

She’s worried about you, I told him quietly.

He scoffed. She’s worried about you, he corrected me. She’s taking you to the hospital to have them double-check her spell and potion work. Not to reassure me. His thoughts lowered to a grumble. She thinks I’m a gods-damned control freak. She keeps trying to shoo me out of your magic, and told me at least twice I’m being rude and controlling.

I snorted a little, and coughed.

Draken look over, along with Nyx and Luc, who’d just rejoined them on the bed.

Miranda was still in the kitchen, probably making all of us tea.

“You okay?” Luc asked, looking up from where he’d finished casting a quick diagnostic spell of his own. “Do you want me to check your lungs again?”

“I’m fine,” I assured him.

From wherever he was, on the other side of England, Bones scoffed.

I couldn’t help feeling his relief, though.

30

Without A Trace

Ididn’t have to go to the hospital.

A hard, pounding, nearly vicious knock shook Jolie and Miranda’s door about a half-hour after I got there, loud enough I heard it from my old bedroom. I heard the faraway rumble of voices, including Miranda’s, then a few minutes later, I heard the door squeak as it got pulled wider open.

A rustle of heavy cloth got me to turn, and start to sit up on the bed.

Corvid Blackstone stood there, evaluating me with a faint hint of distaste in the set of his narrow lips. He didn’t look worried, or concerned about my condition, or even vaguely sympathetic. His stared at me with his ghostly white and blue-tinted eyes, his gaze impenetrable. His inhumanly high cheekbones accented an already-angular face.