Page 26 of Malcroix Bones Academy (Bones and Shadow #1)

Did He?

There were an indeterminate number of seconds, or maybe fractions of a second, while I sat there, choking.

No one at the table noticed at first.

Given I couldn’t inhale even part of a breath, I’m not surprised.

I stared across to Darragh, but he was laughing, talking to Luc. My eyes shifted to the table past ours. By then, I couldn’t move, couldn’t make a sound. A pair of gold eyes stared back, and that time, I really couldn’t look away.

I had no memory of when I lost consciousness.

I didn’t know precisely when my vision went away, or when I collapsed backwards from the bench onto the stone floor. I couldn’t see myself turn deathly white, then blue as my air passage got choked off for too long, or the chaos that erupted around me.

I heard about all of that after.

At the time, I didn’t know anything.

Not until it all came rushing violently back.

I choked outwards, then sucked in a desperate breath that hurt my lungs, my throat, my heart, and somehow even my fingers. That was followed by thick, wracking, exploding, painful coughs.

My body arched from the effort, or tried to.

Something like black smoke rippled out of my mouth, bringing a thick wave of nausea.

It nearly made me pass out again. I coughed instead, straining, eyes streaming, and more of the black smoke left through my mouth and nose.

Get it out of me. The thought echoed, attached to nothing. Gods, get it out of me.

I’m trying, a voice muttered.

Try harder, I demanded. You can do it harder than that. Please.

I felt him flinch.

Then a vibrating wave of heat and light and color slammed into me, so intense my breath got stuck, my heart stuttered under my ribs.

That light flooded into my lungs. The black smoke ripped out of me painfully, violently, but a hell of a lot more of it left.

It felt like watching someone yank a long, foul, sick-smelling worm out of my throat.

Disgusting… so, so disgusting.

But gods, such an enormous relief.

I felt an overwhelming rush of gratitude, even though I didn’t understand.

I coughed, and a smaller, paler cloud of smoke came out.

I still couldn’t really move, but my lungs were pulling in air again.

My heart was beating. I realized only then that something heavy pinned me down, that I was lying flat on my back on cold stone.

My eyes struggled open, my throat burning like I’d drunk gasoline, my chest burning, my head pounding, and stared up at a face that already seemed to haunt me.

Gold, metallic eyes stared back.

An angular face, hard jaw, and pursed, yet strangely perfect lips hung over me.

He had a hand around my throat, and my first thought was, gods, he’s killing me.

He was going to murder me in front of all of them…

until I realized he wasn’t throttling me, and something hot and impossibly strong flooded thickly from his fingers into my skin and bones and the muscles of my throat.

It was unmistakable. It was the same magic, the same presence I’d felt before, the one that banished that black smoke.

Gods, it had been him. He’d been the one who saved me.

That had been his magic.

I focused on his eyes.

Gods. He was staring at me like I was the one with my hand around his throat.

“I didn’t…” His throat moved in a low whisper.

“I didn’t fucking save you… don’t tell anyone that.

Don’t fucking tell anyone that.” His jaw hardened, right as his fingers tightened, his rings digging into my skin.

He lowered his mouth to my ear. “Don’t tell anyone that. Please, Shadow. Gods-damn it, please.”

He said it so quietly, I questioned whether I’d heard him at all.

I had, though. I had heard him.

He sounded completely frantic.

“It’s too late,” I whispered back, while his ear remained by my lips. “They saw. The whole school saw?”

His head rose sharply. Panic leeched from his shocking, glowing eyes as he stared down, as his mind seemed to switch back on. The look on his face went from open, unquestionably human, to… well, dead-looking, absent of anything I recognized.

All around us, the volume seemed to come back on.

Multiple arms wrapped around the mage sitting on my waist and dragged him roughly off me. His weight left my abdomen so fast, I gasped in shock, and started coughing and choking all over again. That time, nothing seemed to come out but my breath.

That sick, decaying, cloying feeling inside of me had mostly gone.

Everything in my body hurt, though. My lungs hurt, my skin, my stomach, my throat, my heart, my head. My vision had faint sparkles at the corners, and as I stared up at the marble ceiling, watching the golden snake writhe across it, I felt like I might pass out again.

I heard Luc’s voice, Jolie’s, Miranda’s… but Draken’s was by far the loudest.

“What the bloody hell did you do to her, you prick?” the other mage snarled, his voice so filled with rage it barely sounded like him. “What do you do? Were you just going to murder her in front of the entire school? Is that it?”

I heard thuds, flesh and bone on flesh and bone. I tried to speak, to tell them to stop, but it was a minute more before I could force out words.

“Wait,” I gasped. “Wait. It’s fine. I’m fine…”

Then Jolie and Luc were on either side of me, and Darragh by my head. They carefully brought me to a seated position, while Miranda handed me a small glass of the brandy.

I pushed it away.

“No,” I said, hoarse. “Poison.”

Miranda blinked at me, then looked at the glass.

“That’s what did it?” she asked, shocked. “It wasn’t Bones?”

I nodded, then shook my head. “Poison. Don’t drink,” I managed in a rasp. “Don’t.”

Miranda left. She returned a few seconds later with a different glass.

“No.” I shook my head again.

“Drink it,” Miranda urged. “It was checked. With magic. It’s fine. It’s just water.”

After a slight hesitation, I drank it down. It was difficult to swallow, but the water was cool enough to provide some relief.

I turned my head, looking for Draken, and for Caelum Bones. I still didn’t understand what had happened, or how he’d ended up sitting on me, his hand wrapped around my throat.

“What happened?” I asked.

My voice sounded shockingly more normal.

I looked around for Draken and Bones.

“Why?” I asked. “Why did he save me?”

Miranda blinked at me, violet eyes wide, and now perplexed. “Did he?”

I nodded, sure of it. I remembered what he said, how frantic he’d been that I not tell anyone he saved the lowly hybrid, but I pushed his words away. I wasn’t saying he attacked me when I knew he hadn’t, not even if he wanted me to.

Anyway, it was too late for that.

“Yes,” I said firmly. “He saved me.”

Miranda frowned. “Then I’m not sure why, to be honest. You just…

fell. Before we could do anything, Bones leapt over two tables and was on top of you.

It looked like he was attacking you. We thought he was the reason you fell.

” She frowned, gingerly touching my neck.

“He bruised you pretty badly. He definitely used some kind of magic, but… I don’t know what he did. You’re sure he saved you?”

I nodded again. “Yes.”

I continued to look around, but people stood all around me now, blocking my view, and I could no longer hear Draken or Bones. When I glanced back at Miranda, my friend looked worried. She, Luc, Darragh, and Jolie all seemed to be exchanging concerned looks.

“Can you stand?” Miranda asked gently.

Before I could answer, a teacher-like figure pushed through the crowd.

The middle-aged Magical reached us in two clacking steps and crouched down on his haunches next to me. He had a tan, leather case with him. He set it on the ground and snapped it open, rummaging around inside as he addressed my friends.

“If she can hold herself up without your assistance, I’m going to need you to give us some space.

” His voice was sharp, and all business.

“I’m Medi-physician for Malcroix Bones. I need to examine her with as little interference as possible.

Mr. Bones claims she was poisoned with a dark enchantment.

If he’s right, contamination is a risk, so you need to move back.

He claims he saw the telltale, which is why he attempted to assist her… ”

My mind spun around the words.

Dark enchantment? Telltale?

The mage in front of me, who looked to be in his forties or thereabouts, with dark, reddish-brown skin, held up a gold-handled device like a magnifying glass.

“Blow on this, please,” he instructed.

I fought to suck in enough air to do as he said. I exhaled as much as I could past the tightness in my throat.

I managed to fog part of the glass.

On the other side of the round lens, a green and black cloud curled out. It briefly shaped itself into the form of a purple and black scorpion, then dissipated.

The man’s expression turned grim.

“Zarthus,” he muttered under his breath. “How in Magique did he see that?”

I struggled to speak. I wanted to know that, too.

“What?” I managed. “…Did he see?”

The physician gave me a look, as if assessing how well I might take whatever information he delivered. He made up his mind, and snapped the magnifying-type instrument back into his case.

“Mr. Bones was right,” he said crisply. “He was even correct on the specific enchantment. Which is strange, frankly, given it’s not one taught in any class curriculums.”

“Is it…” I managed. “Am I safe? My friends?”

“The amount remaining is too small for contamination,” he assured me. “Your friends haven’t been exposed. Not at any level that would be harmful.”

“But what…” I fought past my painful throat. “How?”

The man’s voice grew darkly serious.

“Someone just tried to kill you, Miss Shadow. Or tried very hard to kill someone, at any rate,” he amended.

“It’s possible it wasn’t intended for you, and you simply got in the way.

” From the skepticism in his eyes and voice, he didn’t believe that.

“Regardless, you drank from a glass intended to prove fatal to its recipient. I would exercise a great deal of caution until we determine who did this and why.”

His stare grew a touch harder.

“And perhaps stick close to Mr. Bones until at least one of those things comes to pass,” he advised. “He most assuredly saved your life.”

I might have laughed, if my throat hadn’t been on fire.

As it was, I only sat there, silent, as the school physician regained his feet and walked briskly away.