Page 94 of Serpent and Shadow

For a long while, no one seemed inclined to break it.

20

The Raid

Atapestry burned, twisting in the whipping wind of a broken window. Iron bars that had once framed the glass all bent inward, scorch marks darkening the remaining shards, and the wall on either side of the magical hole left in the spell’s wake.

A few of the Magicals with him looked at him sideways, and maybe with a touch more respect. He saw more than one take a few steps back to give him room as he walked past. He couldn’t pretend to be gratified by the reevaluation he saw in some of those faces.

Given why their opinions of him had changed, it disgusted him.

Pain burned at his throat, even though the damned thing had supposedly been switched off for the night. The burnished ring almost hurt more where it lay on the raw flesh, instead of hovering from the spell that normally kept it buzzing against his skin.

He didn’t look at the faces of the fallen left in the wake of his last few spells.

He’d needed to go hard to end the fight, but also to blow a hole into the side of the main structure. His father asked for that specifically. He’d wanted a direct route into the underground chamber to bypass the security on the doors.

Malefic also wanted drama, so he was following orders in that respect, too.

Under different circumstances, he might’ve been fascinated by the view.

The underground gardens, illuminated by a magical sun.

The strange plants that glowed eerily when he extended his aura into that space.

Even now, they weren’t in the most secret parts of the forbidden hold. They’d barely touched the surface, since this wasn’t considered one of the sacred chambers. It was where most of them lived, instead… particularly the young ones.

Pain throbbed in his chest as he tried not to think about what came next.

He could feel her there, but he didn’t want that, either.

He didn’t want to remember how she’d looked at him.

Her green eyes had stared up, filled with anger, fire, frustration with him (always frustration with him), grief, incomprehension. He definitely didn’t want to think about how it had felt, having her in his arms again, or what his father said to him smugly after he’d sent her away.

But his father’s silver eyes burned in the back of his anyway.

He wanted to forget the words, but he couldn’t.

“Why would I deny you, my son?” Malefic had asked, lifting one dark eyebrow as his eyes danced with malice. “I was young once, too.”

He tried to force it from his mind.

Not the triumph of his father’s words, but the meaning behind them.

He could not stop toying with it though, like a cut in his mouth he couldn’t stop touching with his tongue.

It was moot now, anyway.

She would not want to see him.

She would hate him, just like he told her she would.

She would hate him for this, for everything he would do.

I dragged myself painfully back to consciousness. Surfacing felt agonizing. I fought my way back to the light shining on my closed lids, then I had to fight again to open them.

It was morning. Even before I could see it, I could feel it.