Page 34 of The Serpent’s Shadow

I waltzed over and opened it before Sven could. We were in his house, so it was disrespectful to allow guests into his abode, but my respect wasn’t very high for the wolf shifter.

Magnus stood in the doorway, breathing heavily. He looked winded, pale, like shit.

“Speak of the devil,” Sven grunted behind me. “Literally.”

“Gods,” I said, “you look worse than when you left us, Feldraug. What happened?”

He flapped a hand at me and pushed off the frame of the door to stand straight. “Forget about it. I’m here, aren’t I?”

I frowned at him, examining his face, the swirl of tattoos along his neck poking up from his longcoat.

“I went to Arne’s quarters,” Magnus said, pushing past me into the longhouse. “He was gone.” Throwing up his arms, he said, “Did neither of you think totailhim after interrogating him?”

“We left him in a heap, broken and battered,” Sven said. “What more do you want from us? To kill him? We decided that’s Ravinica’s job.”

Magnus raised a brow, hearing this for the first time. “He iced his bindings and got out. He’s in the wind now.”

Sven snorted. “Who cares? He’s useless.”

“Shit,” I muttered, realizing what Magnus was saying. “He could raise alarms. Magnus is right. We fucked up.”

“Exactly.” Magnus nodded firmly.

Sven snarled and headed for a table to pick up a sword and shield. “Then we’d better get moving. No time to wait for sundown.” He wagged his fingers at Magnus. “You look like ass, dead man. Can you still make yourself useful and cast your little shadows?”

Magnus tensed at the condescending way he spoke about the draug, waggling his fingers before strapping on his sword and shield. “Don’t worry about me, Torfen. I’ll be expecting an apology when thoselittle shadowssave your sorry ass.”

Security at Vikingrune Academy had gotten tighter over the past weeks. There were more Huscarls marching around campus since the deaths of Astrid Dahlmyrr and Corta Gamdeen.

The south and western gates had been closed off for exiting and entering.

Sven was offended by it, saying, “How in Hel are they going to keep shifters from coming and going? Do they expect us to fuck everything that moves on campus during full moons?”

I chuckled. Sven was offended by everything, though he made a good point. It was not a great idea to approach a shifter in heat during the full moon . . . and with so many warm bodies around? It could spell disaster.

Still, we had to work with what we had. Campus closing up, essentially enacting martial law, meant Arne was telling the truth about the elves being on Midgard. At least in my mind it did.

Gothi Sigmund would not show weakness and fear over two student deaths by locking the place down, though that was the excuse he used as a mask. No, he was scared of something else,outsidethe walls. I was sure of it.

Thanks to Magnus, we didn’t need to scale the walls or divert the guards’ attention at the gates with shadow apparitions. Instead, we just followed him to Mimir Tomes, of all places.

There, we watched for an hour to measure the guards’ routes. When we were in the clear, we staked out and climbed the pillars to the second level.

Sven and I struggled to follow the quicker draug who, despite being in sorry condition, outpaced us while climbing.

Almost like he’d done this before, many times.

I found that curious.Perhaps I need to learn more about this man. The tattoos, the scars, the secrets. What do they mean?

Ravinica would know. If she had gotten closer with anyone than me during her time at Vikingrune, it was arguably with Magnus Feldraug.Surprising, that, considering everyone else in the academy thinks he’s a damn sociopath.

I was starting to have second opinions on that.

Once we smashed in a window and stole into the library, Magnus brought us from the second level down the stairs to the first.

When we reached the base of the stairs, a circle of yellow lantern light shone around the corner of a hallway.

We skittered to the side, hiding in shadows. When the guard holding the lantern passed, we crept in the opposite direction.

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