Page 90 of How Does It Feel?

“In front of you rest seven unmarked glasses. Four of the glasses are poisons I myself have harvested with the intent of killing you. The remaining three glasses are filled with their antidote.” She was barely visible now. “Take them in the correct order, and you shall live on and earn the chance to return home. But take even one out of order, and you will die a very slow and painful death. I would not dawdle in your decisions as this room will slowly be filled with venomous snakes as you have so aptly surmised,” she sang.

“Wait!” I shouted after her, but it was too late, she had completely vanished, and I was now alone.

Alone in the cave with the snakes and an impossible amount of poison.

My mind began to spin as my hands grew clammy and damp. Even if I poisoned the snakes, more would drop down. If I just refused to drink the poisons, the snakes would kill me.

Another two snakes dropped from the sky. These were solid black with rattles that shook wildly as they echoed a horrible melody of doom throughout the cave.

“Oh my god, I can’t do this. I can’t! Fuck!” I shook as I clamored on the table again, careful not to tip over the silver stemmed cups.

I pulled my legs in to sit crisscross as I looked down at the line of cups.

“Okay, okay . . . let’s see,” I mumbled to myself, trying desperately to calm down.

One wrong move and I would be writhing in pain and then dead.

All right, the first cup looked clear. I lifted it, cautious not to spill anything with my shaking hands as I held it to my nose and sniffed, hoping for some type of clue. I don’t know why since I didn’t know what to look for. I set it back down and picked up the second chalice, this one had a beautiful purple liquid, but I could smell nothing.

The third chalice looked to be a beautiful rosy pink hue and smelled warm and sweet, almost like . . .

My mind flashed to a patch of gorgeous pink flowers I had smelled at a hotel conference years ago—oleander! This was oleander!

My heart began to race. I knew botanical properties and their poisons. I had just assumed they would use magical toxins. Did they even use herb and botanical poisons? Had Lania, the monarch of poisons, done this to help me?

I scooted up closer to the cups before I hastily moved back in a nervous shift. This was crazy.

If I remembered correctly, oleander flowers produced oleandrin and neriine. Two incredibly potent cardiac glycosides. A single leaf could kill you, let alone an entire brewed cup.

I set the glass down and hurriedly moved on to the next cup just before another three snakes dropped to the table.

I screamed and felt a sharp bolt of worry. Wait, that worry wasn’t mine. It was from Mendax.

Why would he be worried?

Probably worried I would figure out the task and get out alive.

Defiance and anger bubbled beneath my skin like lava. How could I have been so stupid to think he had started to care about me?

I couldn’t believe I had let him touch me. Taste me.

My mind flashed with how insane his tongue had felt on—

Lust.

Pure blinding lust pounded through my mind from the monster himself. He could feel my arousal through the bond.

I shook my head and tried to clear my mind.

I would get out of here. I would get out of here and go home if it was the last thing I ever did.

I picked up the extra fabric from the train of my dress and wiped the sweat that beaded across my face before I heaved out a deep breath and picked up the fourth cup.

As soon as I inhaled, strong herbs assaulted my senses from the pale green liquid. What was that? Fennel, crab apple, maybe? Chamomile? It smelled strong, like an overpotent tea. I set it back down. Okay, out of four cups, I could only place one.

The fifth glass was also green, a bit darker than the last one. I held it up to my nose and braced myself for disappointment.

Carrots.