I frowned. “What?”
Khalida winced. “Eating the apple was only the first part of it. Now your body needs to digest theichor.Assuming it can.”
Unease pricked at me. “How will I know if it has?”
She scratched her neck. “Well, um, you won’t—”
There was a loud bang as someone nearby toppled off their chair and knocked over their bucket. I saw his pale face, his eyes wide open and unseeing.
“—die,” Khalida finished. “You won’t die.”
I exhaled heavily and mumbled, “Great.”
The urge to vomit didn’t pass as the hours went by, but it swiftly becamethe leastof my problems. I turned feverish first, my skin all hot and sticky. The chills soon took over, making my teeth chatter and my body shiver almost violently.
Throbbing aches invaded my joints. Vicious cramps twisted my stomach. My skin became so hypersensitive that just the faint feel of sweat on my flesh felt like claws were raking over it.
A pounding headache crept up on me soon after. It felt like someone was burying an ax in my skull over and over. The pain was so bad that it took my breath away and made me feel sicker than I already did.
Aside from the water I was allowed to sip, no one gave me anything to help with the pain or nausea or anything else—onlythose who quit got help. I had to simply sit on the godsdamn chair right there in the courtyard as I silently prayed to Hellyne for it to quickly pass.
Except it didn’t.
It dragged on and on.
I was distantly aware of Khalida, Quillen, Jelani, and some others murmuring more words of encouragement to me. None held my attention—I was in my own private hell.
A hell that soon became so much worse.
It was like I mentallyfell.Dropped into a memory. I stood in my old home, staring down at my parents with gut-rolling sadness. Both were dead, their skin gray and papery-thin, their bodies covered in warts and boils and patches of decay caused by the plague that stole their lives.
Then they were in the pit with the other corpses. Fire erupted around them, consuming their bodies, forcing the stench of burned flesh up my nose and down into my lungs. The fire faded … and then the whole scene wentpoof.Disappeared in a cloud of smoke and reformed into another scene.
Suddenly, I was running through Reaper’s Pines, something huge and bestial chasing me. The setting altered fast, becoming a maze, but I was still being pursued, the metallic taste of fear on my tongue. I could hear snarls and growls and bull-like snorts coming from behind me.
I crashed into something solid. No, into someone.Minos.It was Minos.
He slammed me against a wall and then sank his teeth into my throat. He drank and drank and … and then it wasn’t Minos anymore. I was no longer crowded against a wall either.
I was outside, my arms tied to posts, and somethingdevilishwas all but inhaling my blood while a whip lashed my back over and over. Knives stabbed me. Swords sliced at me.My nails were plucked off. Teeth ripped into my legs. Something hooked into my back, sliced deep, andliftedme.
The pain was likenothingI’d ever felt. It was agony. It was unbearable. It was—
It was gone.
I was back in the courtyard.
Crouching in front of me, Khalida gave me a soft smile. “You’re doing good. Here, drink more water.”
I took a huge gulp … and then it wasn’t water. It was something else, and it felt like things werecrawlingin my mouth. I spat them out. Spiders. Worms. Beetles.
Oh God, oh God.
I glared at Khalida, who was now no longer Khalida. Atticus was standing over me, and he was smirking. Grinding my teeth, I whipped up my leg—
“Fuck,” a voice burst out, and it was like I surfaced from underwater.
Blinking, I shook my head, breathing hard. Jelani was staggering away from me, cupping his crotch and groaning. I looked at Khalida, who was snickering at the sight of him.
