Page 81 of The Serpent’s Shadow

“But they were built on lies. Vikingrune Academy is keeping it from us. This dark secret they’re holding, lying to us, telling us things happened in ways they didn’t.”

“Oh, I’m not doubting the academy is hiding things from us, silvermoon. I’m just trying to gauge the importance of those lies. Do you think they know about this mistaken history?”

I was a little surprised he wasn’t more animated about this. I supposed I shouldn’t have been. This was why I’d brought it up to him, after all—because he’d give a measured, logical approach.

“I don’t know,” I said with another sigh. “I plan on finding out.”

“Then I plan on helping you.”

I craned my neck to look past his chin, up into his gray eyes for the first time since our raunchy affair. There was a steely tint,clearer now when they’d been cloudy and lost before, during his malaise. “You do?”

“Of course. I go where you go, love. I know I’m not the only one who thinks that way.” His jaw clamped, taking a moment to unclench. “Anyone who harms you must be punished and dealt with, lass, and I have a feeling this trajectory you’re planning will lead you down some dangerous paths.”

“I have a feeling you’re right.”

“I’ll burn the world down without a second thought, and smile at its ashes, if it means keeping you safe, Ravinica.”

My throat hitched, catching, lips slightly parting. He thumbed my chin, caressing me softly.

Bending his neck forward, Magnus kissed me lightly. Into my ear, he whispered, “I need you to understand that. You have allies here. I hope you consider me among your fiercest.”

“You have no idea, Magnus,” I drawled, and returned his kiss twofold, pressing my lips hard against his.

Our eyes closed and we became lost in each other.

When we pulled apart, the flare of his gray orbs darkening, I swallowed hard. “I suppose that’s where my questions come into play. Because I have a feeling, after what you’ve just told me, that I know the answer.”

“Ask anyway, silvermoon. I won’t lie to you, and I won’t keep anything from you.”

I gulped, preparing for the worst. The inevitable. “What happened to Astrid Dahlmyrr and her friend, Magnus?”

“I killed them both.”

My heart jumped to my throat, yet all I did was nod slowly. He said it so simply.

“I don’t feel feelings like most people do, Ravinica. You know that. Which was why it alarmed me so badly to feel the utter rage at seeing you hurt in that hospital bed.” His shoulders lifted in ashrug. “They were punished and dealt with, as I vowed to do. I hope you do not think me a monster.”

I tried to speak past a dry throat, then shook my head, waited, and tried again. “. . . I don’t, Magnus. I probably should. But I don’t.”

It was the dark pieces of this man that allured me.

He nestled closer to me, propping his arm across my side. “Good. I wish I was sorry for it. Yet if I had to do it again, I would. In a heartbeat.”

I couldn’t forget thatIhad been the one to order my men to bring Astrid to me, like some sort of Red Queen putting out a bounty.

Mostly this was my fault. The false letter from Astrid that brought me into her web—forging Arne’s name, fooling me—I should have been savvy enough to spot it from a mile away.

I couldn’t blame myself too badly, of course, because Astrid was the one who beat me up and sent me to the infirmary. She carried that out, and retaliation was out of my control at that point. She did that because she thought of me as a lesser being, inferior to her pureblooded vision of what it meant to be a student at Vikingrune Academy.

So strange, then, that she herself was also a bastard.

In a different life, one without so much competition and hate, perhaps we could have been allies.

Alas, what was done was done. I had the truth from Magnus, and it strangely didn’t sadden me as much as I thought it would. It didn’t scare me away from him, because I understood how he operated.

The fact he thought so dearly of me actually made me feelmoreloved. Not frightened about what he might do on my behalf.

I was starting to understand this intense pull I had over these men, this otherworldly draw that led to our bonding,was a powerful tool at my disposal. I had to use it with great responsibility, because they fucking meant business.

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