41. Aligned Minds
Aligned Minds
Idon’t think I fully realized how late it was, or how much it really was over, until we walked out the front doors of Malcroix Mansion in the direction of the Promenade.
It seemed like half the school was milling about on the grass.
Most of them looked as beat up and dazed as we felt, and like they had no idea where they were, or where they should go.
I struggled to recognize anyone, with ash covering most faces and many of them wearing what looked like pajamas and bathrobes.
A few even wore singed, fuzzy slippers, as if they’d been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night by the attack, and hadn’t yet returned to their dorms.
Which is probably exactly what happened, I mused.
My new fire fox primal trotted ahead of us, turning its head here and there to take in the new surroundings. I saw it pause when we got closer to the fountain, lifting its nose to sniff the air, right as my stomach loudly gurgled.
Someone in the faculty or the kitchens had arranged for a breakfast for anyone still around, and tables had been set up around the Fountain of the Furies, much like they had been on New Year’s Day, when Malefic appeared to collect his son.
One might think that would’ve put me off sitting out there on a chilly, late spring morning, but I was far too hungry to think about that now.
Anyway, everything was different now.
Malefic was dead.
A mist still covered part of the gardens and the mansion, but it was already starting to burn off as the sun rose higher, glinting off the windows of the east side of the mansion.
Bones and I wandered among tables filled with students who were slowly beginning to wake up, and to talk at gradually increasing volumes about the events of the night before.
I clung to his hand tightly as I looked around, trying to gauge reactions to us, but no one seemed to notice us at all, for now at least, which was a relief.
Then a familiar voice called out, and both of us turned.
“Oi!” Luc shouted. “Over here!”
I turned to find pretty much everyone at the school we both knew seated at one table.
On the bench closest to us, Draken turned his head where he sat with Jolie, and smiled, surprising me with the warmth in his expression. Miranda and Luc sat across from them, both bent over heaping plates of eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, mushrooms, and tomatoes.
Darragh, Alaric, and Elysia Warrington sat next to Luc. Nyx and a tall, slender witch with dark skin were holding hands across from Elysia and Alaric.
Then another face appeared, as he turned sharply around, gripping a black, furry bundle up against his chest.
“Archie,” I whispered.
I let go of Bones, walked right up to my brother, and enveloped him and Wraith both in my arms. Wraith squeaked and meowed indignantly, and then purred as she clung to first my brother and then me, as if she wasn’t sure how she felt about any of it.
When I finally let go of him, Bones was standing next to me, looking at my brother with pursed lips.
“Did they look you over?” he asked, brusque.
Arcturus surprised me, scoffing at him and rolling his eyes before he enveloped Bones in a hug. Bones maybe surprised me more by hugging him back warmly. When Archie disentangled himself, he shoved roughly at Bones’s chest.
“Piss off,” he said affectionately.
“Ow,” Bones said indignantly, rubbing his chest. “I’m a war veteran, aren’t I? You can just go shoving and hitting and pushing at people, you know. I could be badly injured. And you didn’t answer my question.”
“They made me go to hospital,” Arcturus said, giving him another of his exaggerated teenaged eye-rolls and scoffing again.
“A little malnourishment, which we both already knew. They made me drink a vial that supposedly had vitamins in it but tasted like warmed-over piss, and gave me a bandage for my knee. Satisfied?”
“Not really.” Bones nodded towards the heaping plate of food by Arcturus’s now-empty seat. “Why are you getting cat hair all over your food instead of eating it?”
I snorted at that, unable to help it.
“We saved you seats,” Miranda said, patting the bench next to her and Luc. “They told us you were all right, so we’ve been waiting for you.”
“Then we got hungry,” Draken broke in, grinning at me before he stuffed a forkful of egg and sausage into his mouth.
I laughed for real that time.
I forgot my ribs though, and winced, clutching my side.
Arcturus immediately noticed. He next to me in an instant, looking alarmed.
“Are you really injured?” he asked, looking me over with worry in his eyes.
“I know we all look like hell, but I forgot you were in the middle of everything, not outside like us, getting shot at by drunk, fleeing wizards with crap aim.” He looked accusingly at Bones.
“The second I told this one you were inside that hall, he took off and left us there. Shouted over his shoulder some gibberish for us to wait for him out here… then poof! He was gone.”
“Yeah,” Jolie seconded, giving Bones a half-serious glare. “He really did that, you know. Ran into the flaming building filled with dark wizards without a single other person with him. Right after he nearly died from us trying to get that collar off his neck…”
“Drama queens,” Bones muttered, when I glanced up at him. “They’re exaggerating.”
Nyx burst out in a disbelieving laugh. “They bloody well aren’t!” she declared.
The witch sitting next to her smiled, and fingered some of the hair out of Nyx’s eyes, before kissing her on the cheek. Nyx blushed, and glanced up at me.
“This is Reena,” she said. “Her brother owns that pub Alaric, your brother, and your husband mirrored to last night. That’s why we were all there.”
I nodded, frowning slightly.
I didn’t bother to tell her I hadn’t heard that part of the story yet.
“Well?” Miranda said. She stomped her foot under the table, looking actually peeved. “Are you going to sit and eat with us or not?”
Bones and I glanced at one another, and he quirked an eyebrow.
I think I was more bewildered to see Elysia Warrington chatting with Reena and Nyx over the stone table while Alaric listened.
“Sure,” I said then, reaching out and taking Bones’s hand. “I’m starving.”
Between stuffing forkfuls of food into our mouths, and telling my side of what had happened the night before, parts of it, at least, I heard scattered bits and pieces of everyone else’s experiences since I’d last seen them.
Luc and Blackstone had found a way into the kitchen to dose the wine vats, as a last ditch effort to slow or disrupt the rituals, and Blackstone suggested they pull in Elysia Warrington to communicate what they’d done to me, once they realized I’d been captured and could potentially be reached inside Worm Hall, prior to the ritual’s start.
I learned Quicksilver was dead.
He’d been one of the mages fighting G.O.R.E. agents and the King’s Guard in the northern part of the campus, and got taken out by Valor and Valor and a G.O.R.E. agent not long after the remaining non-Dark Cathedral members of the Praecuri arrived and joined the fight.
Sergius Calvarius was also dead, reputedly from a duel with Blackstone.
No one knew what happened to Sirena, but she was believed to be on the run. With multiple warrants out for her arrest, most believed she wouldn’t be she was on the run, with a warrant out for her arrest, so most believed it would only be a matter of time.
As for the Resurrected, I think their plight disturbed me the most.
“The spell was tied to Malefic’s blood,” Luc said, matter of fact.
“I’m not sure even they knew this, or most of Dark Cathedral, or they might’ve protected him better.
As it was, the Resurrecteds all collapsed when he died.
It was what ended the fight around the Black Tower, when most of them fled back there, using mirrors they’d placed in several areas around the school. ” His mouth curled in disgust.
“I’m told there were corpses everywhere,” he finished sourly. “And apparently they began to rot immediately, and at vastly accelerated speeds…”
“You’re going to need to hire an army of a cleaning team, mate,” Darragh said, aiming his fork at Bones. “Your house has got to smell absolutely godawful right now…”
Bones only swallowed though, and looked at Bones.
“Has there been any news about…” He paused, and cleared his throat. “My mother,” he clarified. “Have you heard anything about her? I should’ve asked Forsooth, but we were discussing other matters.”
Luc looked surprised.
“You weren’t told?” he asked, astonished.
At Bones’s harder glare, Luc waved a hand, subduing his voice.
“She’s fine, mate,” he said reassuringly.
“She’s totally fine. You and Leda were right.
Malefic was keeping her in the house. I overheard some of the G.O.R.E.
agents talking about it at the hospital.
They were getting reports from law enforcement operations going on all over England and even in Europe.
Most of what they told us had to do with the raid at your family estate, as that’s where the largest number were sent.
A huge team is still there, apparently, combing through the entire house to make sure they’ve not missed anything. ”
Bones continued to glare at Luc.
“And?” he growled. “My mother. Where is she?”
Luc swallowed a mouthful of potatoes.
“They found her locked in her bedroom in one of the upper floors,” he said apologetically. “She hadn’t been outside of that room for months, and it didn’t appear Malefic was visiting her there, either. Which is maybe the good news.”
Gauging Bones’s face, he added, “He said they took her to a hospital somewhere in Exmoor. I’m sure she’s fine, Bones.
They seemed to think Malefic was keeping her there for the same reason he’d been keeping you…
to make sure no one could claim he’d stolen your inheritance, or illegally claimed authority over the estate. ”
I felt my lips twitch.
When Luc gave me a passing, warning look, my suspicion was confirmed.