AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Pol leaned down near her face, sniffing. “It smells like poison.”
My head shot up as soon as I heard the word. “What do you mean, poison?” I said, my mouth going dry.
Green lines formed beneath her pale skin, crawling over her body.
“What the hell poison turns someone green?” Caius asked, addressing Pol.
“Why are you asking him?” My thoughts were racing, and I didn’t give him time to answer. Turning to the man in question, I changed course. “Do you know what to do to heal her?”
Pol shook his head, muttering, “Expert in poisons.” He pressed his lips together, his brows furrowing as sweat dotted his brow. He placed a hand on her forehead, feeling for a fever. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen one like this before.”
The green poison darkened her veins. A small drop of blood formed at the base of Clara’s nostrils. She shook harder, and her teeth clattered. The lines crept further up her body, wrapping its deadly tendrils around her throat.
At that moment, I felt like the world stopped. The cacophony of questions and shouting for the healers was completely drowned out by the sound of my cousin gasping for air.
The tendrils tightened like ivy, wrapping their way around her airway, and squeezing. Her skin turned a shade of purple as the poison deprived her of precious oxygen.
“Someone help her,” I cried, but they were all just as lost as me. I looked up and met Caius’s eyes, begging. “You saved me. You can save her right? Take out the poison?”
He met my pleading gaze, and the sorrow I saw in his features nearly broke me. I knew what it meant. “I can only heal my mate,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
A sob escaped me, and I threw myself over Clara, weeping and demanding that she stay with me.
When healers burst into the room, Caius pulled me off, giving them the space they needed. Abyssian and Pol stood back, arms crossed, never taking their eyes off her.
Whispered words and crafted spells filled the room. Glowing light covered my cousin as Caius’s arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly against him. My tears flowed freely as I willed myself to breathe so I didn’t faint.
What felt like a lifetime passed when a deep gasp echoed in the room. Clara’s body arched, her chest filling with air. She coughed weakly and I broke out of Caius’s hold to drop down beside her.
I grabbed her hand, stroking it, whispering to her through my strangled sobs. “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” Maybe I was saying it to comfort her, or maybe I was saying it to comfort myself. Either way, I couldn’t stop repeating it.
“We need to observe her, and she needs rest,” a healer said softly, touching my back with a gentle hand.
Meeting her kind eyes, I hesitated, but nodded.
Standing back while a guard scooped his arm under her legs, and held her behind her back, I watched as the healer led the way.
“I’ll go with her,” Abyssian said, looking at Caius for permission.
Caius inclined his chin, then gestured to Pol as well. “You too. Find out everything and report back to me.” He tried to remain neutral, but his jaw was tight and when I looked to his side, I saw his fists clenched.
The procession left the kitchen, and I crossed my arms around my body, cradling myself.
Styx stood in the doorway, having arrived shortly after the guards had left. She’d watched everything unfold from a distance. Her calculating gaze swept the room before she walked in with confidence and headed to the long kitchen table.
Picking up each jar of moonshine and individual glass, she sniffed.
“It wasn’t my moonshine,” I said, heading toward her defensively.
“I assure you; it was.” She sat one down, picking up another.
“Impossible,” I countered, my anger rising. “I make each of these myself. They’re sealed. Furthermore, I have no reason to poison my cousin. I wouldnever?—”
“It was meant for you,” she said, not looking up from the jars she was inspecting. My lips parted. “Were these left in here unattended?” she asked, looking at Caius, then at me. I nodded slightly.
“I .. . I brought them in this morning when I was doing some prep work. I left them here all day.”
“Were any of them unsealed?”
