Page 145 of Serpent and Shadow

When I glanced at Blackstone, he again looked annoyed.

“All five of them had,” he said, correcting Bones.

I felt a little sick. What were they even doing in school, then?

Neither Bones nor Blackstone answered me, but I didn’t really need them to. I’d always had my doubts Pants and Orrin were smart enough to have gotten into Malcroix on merit in the first place. They’d been legacies, there purely for their family names.

I felt my throat close as I thought about the question I really wanted to ask both of them, but hadn’t yet dared.

“We don’t know where they went,” Blackstone said calmly. He turned his gaze back on mine, his dead-looking irises empty. “The amount of blood we found at the site makes it highly questionable whether they got there alive, but without bodies, and no way to track them, there is no means of officially declaring them deceased.” He cleared his throat, adjusting his outer robe over the expensive-looking blue and green suit.

“Forsooth thought it made sense for us to collect samples of the evidence, and then clear the scene before any students might happen upon it.”

I frowned, watching him stare at me without expression.

“He’s calling Bonescastle law enforcement, surely?” I said.

“For what purpose?” Blackstone asked, his deep voice flat.

“What purpose?” I scoffed, mostly in disbelief. “Aren’t their parents going to come looking for them? Won’t they want to know what happened, when they do?”

Blackstone shrugged. “We do not know what happened to them, Ms. Shadow. They are adult wizards. All we know for certain is that they are no longer on school grounds. As we did not restrict them to school grounds, that is hardly an emergency requiring law enforcement intervention.” His narrow lips twitched as his voice grew bored. “They were free to come and go as they pleased. Moreover, it is Saturday. It is quite normal for our university students to leave the grounds on Saturdays.”

Bones laughed somewhere in my magic.

Blackstone cleared his throat, adjusting the sleeves of his long-sleeved green shirt under the blue silk jacket. “If they are declared missing at some later point,” he added, his voice still bored. “How, exactly, is that the school’s responsibility? In your view?”

I let out my own humorless laugh.

I genuinely wasn’t sure how I felt about that, given everything.

Relieved? I mean, yes, mostly relieved.

But it also made me nervous.

“Right,” I said finally. “So if they ask me about it?”

Blackstone turned to stare at me. “Do you know where they are, Ms. Shadow?” he asked, his voice a touch sharper.

I thought about that, and exhaled, shaking my head.

“I don’t,” I confessed.

“Then I shouldn’t worry about their whereabouts, as it’s none of your concern.” Blackstone continued to stare at me with those piercing eyes. “If you fear being falsely accused of wrongdoing, rest assured, you cannot forced by magic to tell the truth on something for which you have no concrete knowledge.”

Blackstone looked towards the tall window, his pale eyes glowing faintly in the sunlight. “Whatever happened, I suspect it occurred too far out of their sight for any probes they might attempt to be effective.”

I only looked at him for a few seconds, turning over his words.

“Right,” I said again, quieter.

Blackstone didn’t think anyone in the Central Authority would be able to see the presence that saved my life. I could only hope that he was right.

Either way, it still didn’t answer the most important question.

I still had no idea who or what had helped me.

I also had no idea what I owed it in return.