Page 93 of How Does It Feel?

I fought to swallow; my throat felt dry and sandy.

I must be wrong about something.

Was this not oleander? The rosy pink flower? Was it an antidote instead?

A breeze wafted into the cave, obviously induced by magic since there was no opening.

The flames of the torches flickered wildly before all going out save for one.

The room instantly became more eerie and daunting, with only the slight hint of light that bounced off the many, many slithering bodies. The sounds of their hissing felt louder as my senses waged war against my mind.

I moved the questionable pink liquid to the end and prayed it was an antidote. There was no other way I would survive, even if, against all odds, I had guessed the others correctly.

I grabbed the first two cups in the line, what I believed to be the Aconite and its borax antidote. I brought the purple liquid to my lips as a tear escaped before I pulled the chalice quickly away.

What if I was wrong?

Poisons were horrible. At the rehab center, we had to deal with animal poisoning constantly. Animals get into weed killer or antifreeze. It was always horrendous watching the sweet creatures suffer.

And suffer they did. They nearly always died an excruciating death from it.

I so badly wanted to go home and see everyone. I vowed that after I made it out of here, I would somehow find Eli. I missed him so badly that sometimes it hurt.

I returned the cold metal to my lips and threw back the purple liquid, dropping the cup to the side of the table and downing the contents of what I prayed was to be the antidote. I threw the cup to the serpents with a loud clang and waited.

Instantly I broke into a damp sweat.

My stomach bubbled and gurgled its protest, but no pain came.

This was no place for a human, and I would do what I could to make certain the Unseelie never got to the human realm. The Seelie, at least, were good-natured and had wanted to help.

I grabbed the next pair of goblets.

The white snakeroot and the lemon juice.

At least that’s what I hoped I grabbed, the lack of light had made it impossible to differentiate the color of the liquids as it now just looked shiny black against the metal chalice’s rim.

Down my gullet they went, one after the other. I would have given it more thought, but what sounded like at least a hundred snakes dropped to the floor, and it was all I could do to hurry. Were they dropping consistently now? I couldn’t see very far around me because it was so dark.

I felt the nausea rise as a deep belch sounded. I was going to be sick.

Sick, but I wasn’t convulsing, and that was a very good sign.

I was down to the last three.

The three that I was the most uncertain about.

One of which I wasn’t entirely sure if it was even a poison or an antidote.

Something slithered across the table, and I had to shove its heavy body off with a thud. They were rising quickly, and they sounded absolutely furious if their rampant hisses were any indication of their anger.

I grabbed the water hemlock and the nine herbs. That left the questionable pink, which I first suspected was oleander, staring back at me.

It had to be an antidote. I couldn’t end on a poison or it would kill me.

Either she had misspoken, or I had misheard the numbers, but that had to be an antidote. There was no other way this could work out. I was fairly certain of the others, more so after having tasted them and confirming a few, such as the lemon juice. Several of the botanical poisons reminded me of their flowers’ smell, which also added to my confidence.

All but the last pink one.