Serpent's Spell

Too Little, Too Late.

"Everyone Okay?" Logan's question was met with a series of coughing, as he glanced back to see that the entrance to the observatory had been caved in completely.

"Logan!"

His attention was pulled away from the entrance as his gaze landed on Patton who was checking Roman for a pulse.

"He's alive ..." He breathed heavily in relief. "Help me with him?"

Both steadied themselves on either side of Roman, before steadily lifting him up off the ground with little to no struggle.

"Let's get out of here..."

Patton and Logan worked to get all three of them back to safety. After what seemed like an eternity, they made it back. They settled Roman onto his bed as gently as they could between the two of them, as Patton began to check him over for any other wounds that he may have initially missed.

After some silence, Patton spoke up first. "Logan..." He cleaned the dirt off of Romans face, slowly moving to stand so he could clear away the dirty cloth. "Logan!" Patton recognised the others expression as he was deep in thought, before he snapped out of it, recognising he was being addressed.

"Apologies, what did you say?" He looked directly at the other, showing he was listening.

"What's our next move?"

Logan hesitated before finally answering. "I-I don't know." He stammered, averting his gaze anywhere other than Patton.

The hesitation was enough for Patton to realise and pick up on his thought process. Virgil was gone. Deceit had gotten what he wanted. The three of them had gone in optimistic, with the hope to retrieve him. It didn't work - their plan failed. Virgil was too far gone. Now they knew that, they were only left with one option. As the silence settled, so did the reality. Right now they had to focus on who was right in front of them— Roman.

"Let's just focus on getting Roman as comfortable as we can for now to help him recover." Patton instructed as he left, allowing Logan to take over and supervise Roman while he went to get cleaned up and bring back fresh clothes for them all.

******

Silence settled in the observatory. Deceit was the first one to recover as he stood, rising to his feet with little struggle, before he dusted himself off from the rubble that had fallen. He had tried his best to shield all three of them from the impact of the roof caving in around them. Looking around he made out both the bodies of Remus and Virgil; alive but unconscious it seemed.

"This won't do ..."

With steady hands, a golden hue began to emit from the snakes gloved hands, as the scattered rubble around him slowly levitated a few feet from the ground. Gradually more rubble began to return to where it rightfully belonged, the observatory being fixed piece by piece. Ever so slowly, he restored the observatory to its former glory. Not a single book out of place. He lowered his hands, before releasing a shaky breath allowing the glow to fade from his iris' from his exertion of power. It wasn't lost on him that there was a price that came along with using his powers. The scales were a constant reminder, tallying how many times he had used them for better or for worse. A moment of silence passed before he saw The Duke who stood alongside him.

"What do you want to do with him?"

Deceit's eyes wandered to the unconscious boy on the floor.

"I'll worry about him."

His eyes shifted from Remus to Virgil who began to stir.

They watched as Virgil began to pick himself up off the floor, sluggishly.