Three faces, framed by sunlight, were peering down at me.I was lying on the forest ground, but there was something cushioning the back of my head.
“How do you feel, Jasmine?”Karim asked.
“Like chewing gum that’s been spat out,” I admitted, trying to smile to ease everyone’s tense expressions.
Inside, I wanted to cry.I was in so much pain that I couldn’t lift my head to take a look at my forearm.But not seeing it was probably for the better.
“Chewing what now?”came from Tisvali.His sunglasses were gone now, probably lost in the battle like Karim’s.
Deidre frowned.“How come I don’t know that word?”
“Jasmine’s joking.Comparing herself tosaccaba.” The others chuckled, but Karim’s expression remained strained.“Joking is good but I will need you to walk, Jasmine.Can you do that?”
“My arm,” I began, my voice shaky despite my effort to remain strong.“Will I lose it?”
“Nai.”His tone brooked no argument.“I will heal it withbasilem,honey, andhvoineonce we return home.The dressing I’ve made will do until then.”
“Oh.”So that was what had caused the jab of pain that had brought me back to consciousness.He had bandaged me.“Thank you.”But as my brain started working properly, another terrifying possibility came to mind.“Will I turn?Become one ofthem?”
That got more chuckles out of Tisvali and Deidre.
“Humans are so unknowing,” said the green-haired elfhovering over my left side.“You don’t get any hairier than this from just a bite.”
Deidre shot him a reprimanding look.“To become one of the moon-cursed, you have to swallow a piece of flesh from the one who bit you, once they return to human form.”
“And Karim chopped up that moon-cursed like a lettuce salad before she could even think about shifting,” Tisvali added proudly.
“And if Karim had been too late,” Deidre specified, “we wouldn’t have let the curse take hold of your immortal soul.”She waved her bloody dagger over me.“One stab through your heart and done!”
“O-kay… I feel… much better now.”I think I’m going to be sick.
Karim’s feathery touch, cool under my chin, drew my gaze to him.“Ignore them.Focus on the fact that you’re alive and will soon be healing safely underground.Come on, let’s get you home.”
I managed a bitter smile through the pain.Home?Make that my prison.So much for my hopes for freedom, as futile as I now knew they had been.I’d never stood a chance.
I had never been on my own while running for my life.The elves had been moving through the trees above me all along, shooting the werewolves down one by one.Or chopping them up like a lettuce salad when they got too close to me.Had I followed Karim’s instructions and not slowed down to leave the edelweiss, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt–
“The edelweiss!”I had forgotten about the poor flower.
I looked down to find it safe and sound in its container, which my left hand was still holding pressed to my chest.That arm had, in fact, gone numb from how tightly I held the crystal.
Tisvali scoffed.“The flower is fine.We couldn’t detach it from your grip even while you were unconscious.I’m surprised you didn’t ask about it, rather than your arm, first thing upon waking.”
My arm… I was looking at it right now.The piece of cloth wrapped around it was from the hem of Karim’s dress, yet the materialwas nearly black.From my blood.
Nausea hit me, and I laid my head back.I wasn’t built for this!Apocalypses, monsters, gore… I was a botanist, for heaven’s sake.The only reason why I had survived thus far was my workplace, surrounded by solid walls and located out of town when the shit had hit the fan, and then the elves taking me.
“Jasmine, stay strong for me.”Karim’s voice, soft and soothing, reached me through my panicked thoughts.“Let go of the container and let me get you to your feet.You did not protect the flower with your very life only to let it wither and die out here, did you?”
That reminder got to me more than anything else.If the edelweiss died, this horror and pain would have been for nothing.Also, if I kept lying around, the elves might lose their patience and leave me here to die, taking the flower with them to save it.Why assist me when I’d be of no help in the gardens, injured as I was?
“Here.”I handed the container over.“But I can still replant it, I’ll show you.I am left-handed, I can still garden.I will just need some assistance, but I’ll–”
“Worry not,” Karim interrupted me, passing the flower to Tisvali.“Come on now.Slowly!You’ve lost a lot of blood… That’s it.”
I stayed seated for a moment, overcome by dizziness from the change in position.I still wasn’t sure how I hadn’t bled to death from that monstrous bite.
As the world around me stopped spinning, I felt nauseous all over again at the sight of human bodies littering the forest ground, arrows sticking out of most of them.
