Page 42 of Serpent and Shadow

He wasn’t the only Magical in my life who clearly harbored opinions about my marriage to Caelum Bones. I don’t even mean the royals who hadn’t mysteriously left school in the days before classes started, or the ones who remained and either hated me for what Dark Cathedral had done to their families, or hated me for polluting the blood of one of their oldest royal lines, or hated me because they hated Caelum Bones.

I didn’t really mean the ordinary Magicals either, who viewed me as a traitor who’d sold out them and everyone else.

No, I meant the people who were supposed to be my friends.

I’d still barely exchanged words with Miranda or Draken, although Jolie came and sat with us for breakfast on the first day of classes, and Draken and Miranda reluctantly joined us, even if neither of them really looked at me.

Since then, things had thawed marginally, but still hadn’t come close to being normal. I noticed the difference with Miranda and Draken the most, but even Luc noticeably cooled towards me, and Nyx, while the least judgmental of the lot, seemed to not want to get in the middle.

Jolie made an effort. She did start to visit me in Bones’s tower.

She also joined our after-hours “project.”

Draken and Miranda hadn’t been to Bones’s tower even once.

I missed them, Miranda especially, but Luc advised me to leave it, to let Miranda come to things in her own way. Luc also reminded me, his voice a touch cooler, that in Miranda’s view, I’d been lying to her for over a year. She felt betrayed. She felt lied to. She felt hurt. She felt stupid for trusting me, and for believing everything I’d told her.

I tried not to take offense, because he was right, those things were true.

Also, I could tell how much Luc hated all of this, and I didn’t want to put him in the middle any more than he already was. All the time he was spending with me was likely straining his relationship with Miranda and Draken more than I saw. Given I was pretty sure Luc was in love with Miranda, that wasn’t a small sacrifice.

In the end, Luc had added gruffly that she’d eventually come around.

I tried to hold onto that.

I also tried to stop watching Miranda for signs that she was softening.

Leaning my back against the stone wall and reflexively scanning the crowd, I glanced at the pocket watch I’d taken to carrying. I no longer let myself dwell on who it actually belonged to, or whose desk drawer I’d found it inside.

Clicking the case shut over the clock face, I exhaled.

“I have to go,” I told Luc. “I’ve got a thing.”

He frowned back. “Now? It’s nearly six o’clock.” His brow furrowed. “Quicksilver?”

I adjusted my skirt, hoisting my satchel strap higher on my shoulder without taking my eyes off the passing students.

“No,” I answered, my voice distracted. “Blackstone.”

At Luc’s silence, I gave him a bare glance.

He was watching me, his blue eyes worried. “Do I want to know?”

I exhaled, combing my fingers through my hair. “Probably not. He’s trying to help me find out more. From, you know…” I motioned vaguely over my head without finishing the thought. We’d developed a kind of shorthand for a lot of things over the past few weeks.

Luc looked briefly blank.

His expression cleared then, all at once.

His voice turned faintly shocked. “He’s spying now? Through you?”

I thought about that, and let out an unamused grunt.

“I guess you could put it that way, yes.” Again, I sighed, tugging another few strands of hair behind my ears. It didn’t seem to want to stay in one place. “I made the mistake of telling Forsooth about some of my dreams.”

“Does he know what we’re doing?” Luc asked, sounding slightly more alarmed. “What we’re trying to do, anyway? Does he know you intend to––”

“No,” I cut in, giving him a warning look.