Page 159 of Malcroix Bones Academy

I could feel all of that through Ankha, through his magic, through his eyes.

“Do we have a deal?”she asked.

Again, the mage looked at his friend, who stared at Ankha with open distrust in her ruby-red eyes. When she looked at the Praecuri leader, however, she lifted her shoulder in a shrug.

Ankha knew she had them.

They would do it, because she would give them no choice.

I was still staring at my mother’s cousin when the image broke apart.

I was somewhere else.

Ankha stood in a dark, lush, fragrance-filled garden, near a high hedge and a massive fountain with a dragon made of bones as the watery centerpiece. Wings outstretched, the dragon breathed out water and blue fire, some magical effect made more dramatic by the colossal size of the stone ornament. It towered over them. Ankha thought the sound must be deadened by magic, or else she wouldn’t be able to hear the patriarch’s words at all.

Pain reached me, unspecific but intense, until it dawned on me why.

It was Caelum’s house. I was seeing Caelum’s backyard, if such an immense garden could be called such a thing.

I stared at the tall, black-haired mage who stood in front of my aunt.

Unlike the man with the silvery wings, this man was shockingly handsome, but everything in his eyes looked cold, dead inside. He looked ageless; he could have been thirty or seventy, and neither guess diminished his otherworldly beauty. His silvery-white eyes reflected pale blue in the light expelled by the stone dragon’s breath.

He looked at Ankha with calculation, with an utter lack of warmth. She might not be a person at all, but a piece still standing on a chess board while he contemplated his next move.

Caelum’s father.

Gods. He was terrifying.

He was so much worse than I’d realized in my bare glimpses at the Skyhunt match.

The tall mage with the silver eyes sniffed, then looked away.

“All right,”he said.“We will be there.”

Alarm reached Ankha’s mind. Unlike her cousin, the leader of the Praecuri, Malefic Bones was a man Ankha worshipped. She would grovel at his feet if he asked, and he knew it.

“You, yourself?”she asked, that alarm reaching her voice.“Surely you shouldn’t risk?”

A faint smile formed at the mage’s lips.

He shook his head, slowly clucking his tongue.

“Worry not, Ankha, dearest.”No affection lived in the endearment; it was pure ornament.“I wouldn’t be arrogant or foolish enough to go in person. No one can see my fingerprints on any part of this. The stakes are too great now.”

I felt Ankha’s expelled breath of relief.

The elder Bones gazed thoughtfully towards the dark hedge maze.

“I will send agents in my place,”he went on thoughtfully. His lip curled.“Even if your blood-infidel sister manages to use the Stone against them, we have contingencies for that, now that we know what we’re up against.”He looked at Ankha.“If you bring her where you say, when you say, we will do as you ask. Her ape of a husband will be taken care of. I will instruct them to leave Clotide’s body intact, and alive, so you can complete the ritual.”He aimed another flat, reptilian smile in her direction.“And you will have earned a most valuable favor from me, Ankha dearest?”

Something in that smile sent a shiver of horror down my spine.

I was still staring at it, when his face and mouth dissipated into black smoke.

After a moment of swirling darkness, where I could see nothing…

I was shocked to see myself.