Page 185 of Serpent and Shadow

It felt like something else held me in place now––something other than the ritual and Malefic, and the cords he’d created out of my blood and magic. It didn’t feel entirely like me, but it didn’t feel not like me, either. I didn’t have it in me to try very hard to understand. I definitely didn’t try to make it into something rational in my head.

I leaned into my relief gratefully instead, and let out rough gasps of air.

My lungs could fill with air now, working my heart and chest. My throat could swallow, and although I was still bound, my body could move. I could turn my head. I could move my fingers. My throat hurt, but I swallowed anyway. My vision swam slowly from black to gray… then lightened until I could remember where I was.

Worm Hall came into focus around me.

My muscles tensed as soon as I remembered where I was. My head rose achingly, my shoulders, spine, and abdomen clenched enough to bring me mostly upright.

It was exhausting, doing even that much. I gasped for breath while I rested, still staring at Malefic where he stood over me, but now I could barely see him.

That was even more of a relief.

Instead of being trapped and caught in that inhuman, cold, hypnotic gaze, I could look at him or look away. I could look past him rather than into that dead, silver-eyed stare. Just having that much agency was such a relief I almost cried.

When I finally made myself really look at him, his skin had gone even paler.

He stared back at me, his silver eyes abnormally wide. He licked his lips with an obscene tongue, face hollow and gaunt. How had I ever thought this man looked like my husband? His whole body looked like bleached skin stretched over bone.

He looked… odd, I realized.

His pupils had blown out, making him look more confused than I’d ever seen him. His eyes definitely hadn’t looked that way while he’d been chanting the words of his ritual. Even the black of his pupils looked different than it had in the midst of the spell. During the spell they’d been deathly still, opaque, light-swallowing, impenetrable.

Now his eyes looked flat, muddier, and significantly less terrifying.

My mind began to come back on as I looked at him.

As it did, something else clicked.

Eye of Ra, the L.S.D.

He’d poured wine into my blood, likely from the same supply of casks Luc must have poisoned with the human drug he’d gotten from Darragh. It had been at least a half-hour since he’d drunk it. The effects must have kicked in.

That had to be it. That’s what Elysia had been sent to warn me about.

They’d dosed the entire party of Dark Cathedrals, even their “One True King” had gotten a stomach full of human narcotic when he decided to drink my blood.

All of the screaming around Worm Hall right now had to be from the alcohol, too.

Malefic turned sharply towards me, almost like he heard my thoughts.

His chalk-white, still nominally handsome face contorted with rage as he stared at me. He looked even more gaunt now, almost skull-like as he raised his hand, pulling magic through his bone dragon primal, his pupils now blown out so far he looked crazed. He hissed at me, teeth clenched and lips drawn back, like an animal baring its teeth. Before I could react, his lips spat out words I recognized as he aimed his magic directly at my face.

“Rakta… rakta agni… rakta laks…yisshyam… agni-lalala…”

He burst out in a laugh, and I think my jaw dropped. My whole body went rigid.

His words only blurred more.

“Rakta… rakky… rakta… agnininini… laksyisshyami… yisshism… yaspika…”…”

He couldn’t seem to force anything coherent through his lips.

“Rasksi…” he slurred, now visibly angry. “Avaksim… angnis… yaskil…”

Green fire sparked at the end of his fingers, but didn’t leave him.

I ducked when sparks came off that same hand at his second try, but it didn’t get close enough to touch me, and I doubted it would be much of a spell, even if it did.