Page 146 of The Serpent’s Shadow

I paced in front of the map, getting closer so I could make out all the granular details. My eyes narrowed when I noticed a small X near the remains of the elf encampment in Delaveer Forest. This mark was different, drawn in blue rather than red, which made it stand out. A small circle shaded the X.

Tapping my chin, lost in thought, I wondered what the mark denoted . . . and with widening eyes, I stepped back.The portal the elves used to leave Midgard and return to Alfheim. Vikingrune Academy has its location marked down, which meanssomeoneescaped our slaughter and told the Hersirs where it is.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, trying to put together the meaning of this discovery.

I was so lost in thought, I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me. Perhaps because there were no footsteps at all—rather a softglidelike a specter in the night. My skin prickled as if I was being watched by an invisible force.

“Find something interesting, did you?”

I spun around with a gasp ripping from my throat, my whole body jolting with a start.

Kelvar the Whisperer stepped out from a shadowy corner of the room.

The doors were still closed. He hadn’t used them. No, he’d used the shadows to venture to me, and now his face came intothe dim light—gaunt, nearly skeletal, with brooding gray eyes and long, straight gray hair that reached the middle of his back.

The whisperer, mindshaper, and shadowwalker was dressed down in black—gloves, tunic, pants—without a hint of metal on him. He didn’t make sounds when he moved, which was utterly eerie and jarring.

I stood face-to-face with the man I’d assumed was behind the blood leeching operation from the beginning. I was weakened from my blood-draw and creating my shadow image in the hospital, yet my veins pumped with power.

Sadly, even with all the power at my disposal, I feared I couldn’t take this man. This legend of the academy.

“Hersir,” I croaked, backpedaling toward the board as he advanced.

He opened his mouth to say something—

Then froze, head tilting toward the doors.

With a growl, his hand moved in a flurry—too fast for me to react. A black shawl sprang from his fingertips like webbing, landing over me. It was a sticky substance that held me in place, covering my view with a sheen of blackness that had me yelling.

The thing enveloped my whole body and I struggled—

And then heard the doors to the room burst open.

I stopped struggling as heavy footfalls entered the room.

I couldn’t see, but I could hear.

Tomekeeper Dahlia’s voice rang out, angry and thick. “Where is he?”

“What are you talking about, dear Dahlia?”

“Don’t play coy with me, Whisperer. I can feel his blood nearby.”

Kelvar was silent for a moment. Then his voice came from another direction—he had moved in front of me. “Hisblood, woman, or yours? As you can see, you are mistaken. There is no one in this room besides us. Perhaps your tracking spellswent awry when your poisonous concoction dissipated from his bloodstream.”

I was confused by Kelvar’s words. Even more confused Tomekeeper Dahlia couldn’t see me standing not twenty feet from her.

I realized the Whisperer had cast some sort of hiding spell. The sticky cloak I wore made me invisible, or simply a shadowy patch. It astounded me, and allowed me to listen.

Tomekeeper Dahlia let out a growl. “You seem to let on more than you should know, Kelvar.”

“I’ve read the reports and studies as much as anyone, Dahlia. You’ve found what you were looking for.”

A scoff from the Tomekeeper. “No, I have not found what I was looking for. These blood changes were not present at the start of the tests. They have only opened more questions.”

Blood changes? Poisonous concoction? Tracking spells? Feeling my blood nearby?I was slowly gaining an understanding of what was happening, but like Dahlia had said, it raised more questions than answers.

Shewas responsible for the leechings, I deduced. Not Kelvar. The blood she pumped me full of to keep me alive was embroiled with something that gave her power over me.

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