Page 28 of Serpent and Shadow

I twisted the porcelain handle to turn the shower off, stepped out, and grabbed one of Bones’s teal towels. After spending a few minutes drying off, I hung up the damp towel and began pulling on the clean clothes I’d gathered from Bones’s closet.

I sent out a few flickers of magic as I did, and still came back with the same answer.

Alaric Greythorne.

It felt like him in every particular.

I yanked the thick jumper over my head. My jaw clenched. My magic felt hyper-charged, like there was too much of it, like it was slightly out of control, despite my exhaustion.

Some part of me wanted to blame Bones for that, too.

7

Favor

Idon’t know what I looked like when I opened the lavatory door, but Alaric’s eyes widened in alarm from where I found him sitting on Bones’s couch. Rather than relax when he saw who it was, he visibly paled.

Wraith, who Alaric cradled in his arms––stretched out and limp like her bones had turned to jelly––got squeezed tightly to his chest, so tightly she let out a protesting squeak.

That squeak was followed by a mournful sounding meow.

When he didn’t loosen his hold, an even more mournful meow followed.

That second wail finally got Alaric to look down. He immediately relaxed his arms enough that Wraith could stretch her body again and breathe. Glaring up at him, she swiped a paw at his hand and fingers, but didn’t unfurl her claws.

She meowed her indignation at him, instead.

I felt my own shoulders abruptly relax.

The magic rippling over my arms, fingers, chest, and throat began to lose its charge. Now that I was faced with him, I was genuinely relieved to see Alaric.

I walked over and threw myself down on the couch next to him.

I turned my head to find him looking relieved that time, too, but his eyes remained too wide, his expression taut. His eyes looked slightly pained.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I had no idea how to answer that.

In the end, I only shook my head.

Alaric nodded, his mouth curling in a near-grimace.

“No, no,” he muttered. “No, of course you’re not.”

It hit me that I’d not really checked in with him or anyone since everything happened at brunch. In my defense, I hadn’t really been alone for very much of that time, although I supposed I could have written all of my friends notes while I’d been waiting in Forsooth’s tower for Bones’s apartment to be cleared.

It never occurred to me.

I felt horribly guilty about that now.

I hadn’t known if Alaric was alive, or wounded, or if he’d been taken by Dark Cathedral, too. I suppose some part of me assumed I would have been told if anything like that happened, but it hit me now that I might not have been. I didn’t know the condition of anyone after the battle apart from Valor, his wife, and some of the other Praecuri.

I didn’t know which students had been injured or even killed.

During the fight, spells exploded past me so fast, I hadn’t seen where most of them hit. They’d filled the air during the worst of it, slicing viciously past as I fought to get to Bones. I hadn’t known where most of them landed. I hadn’t turned to look.

I’d been single-minded in my attempt to stop them from taking Bones.