Page 86 of Serpent and Shadow

Is Varya still here? I asked, softer. I don’t want to leave her here either, Bones, not if there’s even a chance we could––

He flinched violently that time, like my words hurt him.

I fell silent, staring at the space where he should be.

A sick dread pooled in my gut.

Bones, I thought softly. Varya, is she––

I told you, I haven’t seen her, he cut in. His thoughts grew deadened. I wouldn’t even know where to look for her, Leda, and anyway, you’re not hearing me. I can’t leave. With or without my mother, I can’t leave this place. I can’t leave him. I can’t.

I felt my magic coil in rage around my body.

Then help me kill him, I said coldly. Feeling him flinch, I cut him off. You can’t kill him, but I can. You can help me get close enough, Bones. That fucking loyalty oath won’t mean shit with him dead. He is Dark Cathedral.

I could feel his own anger growing in my magic.

You know the oath wants me to kill you for even saying that? he hissed in my mind. What the fuck is wrong with you? If you went after him, I’d have to stop you. I’d have to, Leda. My magic is sworn to his. It is bound to protect his.

His fingers gripped my thigh. Do you want me to kill you? Is that what this is, Leda? Did you come here to destroy me by committing suicide?

Instead of answering him, I bit my tongue.

I could feel myself crying, but I didn’t dare make a sound.

I felt him take a long, shuddering breath.

His thoughts grew distant when he next spoke in my mind, and oddly polite.

Shadow, he thought at me. If you could find my mother, and convince her to go with you, I would be greatly in your debt. If it would be at all possible to get her out of here, and back with her family––

Come with me to find her, I thought back at him angrily. We’ll bring her out together. There has to be a way to reverse the vow… Blackstone and Forsooth can figure out something, along with Luc, Jolie, Alaric, and the rest of us. Maybe we can even do it from Russia, with your mother’s family.

When he started to pull away, shaking his head, I gripped his hair.

I’m not fucking leaving you here, Bones. I don’t give a damn what you say. There’s no possible way I’ll just––

But another voice cut me off before I could finish.

“Well, well,” it said.

The voice was loud.

Lilting.

Disturbingly relaxed.

Those two words made both of us freeze. They echoed coldly over the stone, carrying a hint of dark humor, even satisfaction.

“…Isn’t this touching,” it remarked.

My heart stopped.

Adrenaline spiked through my blood.

I already knew who it was. I knew, maybe because some part of me expected it, even before he stepped into the opening of the narrow crevice.

It was Malefic.