“Okay, Dad. I’m going.”
The moment she left, my stomach dropped.
I’d seen cases like that before.
“Father—”
“I have great news for you, Persephone.” Gideon stepped inside, closing the door behind him. he was grinning broadly. “Dr Marr has been working on a new medication that may help your condition. Lie down, so we can test it.”
I stepped back instinctively, pulse hammering. “I thought the old one worked fine. Can’t we just use that one?”
“Persephone, you know we need variable data. We’ve talked about this.”
“But has it been tested before?”
“Not properly, but he assures us it’s safe.”
“Father.” My voice wavered. “Do we have to—”
“Do I need to restrain you?” he asked calmly.
I froze. Lowered my head.
“No, Father.”
“Good. Then lie down and raise your sleeve.”
I climbed onto the bed, every muscle locked with dread. Gideon opened the case. Inside, nestled in white foam, was a large syringe filled with silver liquid.
It glinted under the bedroom light like something holy.
Or poisonous.
I swallowed hard.
He didn’t hesitate.
He never did.
When the needle went in, all I felt was pain.
Not sting, not pressure — pain.
Instant, consuming, wrong.
My body seized. My heart screamed. Every vein convulsed at once. I jerked so violently the mattress slid beneath me.
For a moment — a single, flickering heartbeat — Gideon actually looked worried.
“Persephone?” he said.
But the world was already going fuzzy at the edges, warping into static. A metallic taste flooded my tongue. Foam bubbled up past my lips — hot, sour, uncontrollable.
The liquid shot through my bloodstream like mercury, boiling me from the inside out.
I didn’t remember much after that.
Only flashes.
