Page 50 of Serpent and Shadow

You must know by now your husband’s magic is far from normal, Blackstone whispered. He could not take a host. I suspect his magic would kill anyone who tried it. Even Malefic. Even with the bond he forced between them.

I felt my jaw tighten, but relief made it easier to breathe again, and to think.

I made my mind quieter, barely a whisper.

What is this, then? I asked. You know, don’t you? Suspect, at least?

Blackstone didn’t answer.

I struggled not to ask him again, frustrated by his silence. In the end, I couldn’t help myself. I pressed my own magic and presence deeper into his.

If it’s not resurrection, what is this? I asked.

I practically heard the Oracle sigh.

I do not know what this is, Blackstone thought back coldly. If I knew, I wouldn’t have to tolerate squatting in your mind in order to try and keep you from getting yourself killed.

Struggling not to continue the argument, I looked back at Bones.

As soon as I did, the pain in my magic and body got bad enough that I struggled to remain behind Blackstone’s shield. It felt different somehow, seeing him like this. It wasn’t like my dreams, where there was always some element of doubt. When I woke up, I could tell myself I imagined it, that my mind had been conversing with itself.

But I wasn’t asleep now.

This felt too real, too immediate. It was unbearable being this close to him while being so unbelievably far away. I felt my mind fighting the idea this was really happening, trying to make it another dream, something I could pretend was all in my mind.

This couldn’t really be happening right now, could it?

Malefic was stepping towards Bones.

Far away, my body tensed, clenching painfully as I watched him approach where Bones knelt. Some part of me reached for Bones, too, but I felt another force––Blackstone, I realized––stopping me, throwing up a wall before his magic felt mine.

Malefic held a dagger. He aimed it at Bones’s face.

He began speaking in a language I guessed to be Ancient Egyptian, even though I’d never heard it spoken aloud for more than a handful of words.

I shouldn’t have understood any of it, but I somehow did, maybe through Blackstone, or maybe through Bones himself.

“I call on the gods of the underworld to bind him to this vow. To become one of us in spirit and flesh. To follow us through unto death, or to raise the dead to come after him…”

An initiation.

The word rose in my mind, and I couldn’t shake it.

They were inducting him in some way.

I struggled against the understanding, told myself I had to be wrong.

I knew I wasn’t.

“He vows this to all of us, and to our benefactor, the great Anubis, to whom we owe our allegiance above all others. This vow will be kept. It will be kept unto death. It will be kept lest the gods themselves come to our worlds to dispense justice against the disloyal and traitorous. It will be kept or the loyal shall tear him limb from limb. It will be kept for the love of our people, and the Great Cause for which we strive on their behalf…”

A sick feeling coiled in my gut.

It worsened the longer Malefic spoke.

Malefic was forcing a loyalty vow on him.

They were making Bones vow to give his life to them.