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“But I’ve been saving up—” Jo contradicted again, and again was interrupted.
“I hoped… I thought that you might have the recipe. From the time you needed it.”
Jo blinked, and then she finally understood what Selena came for. “No.” She shook her head rapidly. “No, Selena, this is not the way.”
Panic grabbed her from the inside. Her stomach churned from the memories.
She covered her ears with her hands as though to keep out the sounds that were indeed inside her head. She shut her eyes, too, and shook her head.
“That’s not the way,” she repeated over and over again. The smell of blood penetrated her senses, and she stifled the urge to gag.
“Jo?” Selena’s voice sounded as if from far away. Jo shook the fog out of her head, grabbing Selena by her arm.
“Please. There is no other way,” Selena pleaded.
Millions of thoughts rushed through Jo’s mind as she forced the memories away. This was not the time to give in to panic and the horrors of the past. Selena needed her now more than ever, and she would not fall apart. Not yet.
“Fine,” she breathed out. “I… I will go and buy the ingredients tomorrow.”
“You will?”
Jo nodded, keeping herself as calm as she could. “I will,” she lied.
She would help Selena. But not this way.
Tears rolled down Selena’s eyes as she looked up gratefully. “Can I stay with you tonight? I don’t want to spend this night alone.”
“I insist on it.” Jo nodded. “You can stay here as long as you want.”
A few moments later, Jo and Selena settled into bed. They talked some more about anything and everything. Jo tried to keep Selena’s mind from what would come tomorrow. She wanted to calm her enough so she could get some sleep.
And the moment she heard her friend’s even breaths, Jo scrambled out of the bed, strapped the dagger to her boot, put on her cloak, and slunk away.
She locked the door so Selena would not escape before Jo’s arrival, praying that she would successfully come back before Selena even awakened.
There was no way she was going to let Selena use the poisonous brew some quack apothecary gave Jo long ago. She needed a good doctor. A competent doctor. The kind of doctor she wouldn’t find in the part of town where Jo and Selena lived.
She needed the help of someone more powerful than she was. And even though she wouldn’t have asked for help for herself, she had no pride when it came to begging for her friends.
