My jaw ached with the need to cry. What if I never saw her again? No, I couldn’t think like that. I wouldn’t think like that. Grandmother had told me to choose life. That was what I’d do.
I called for the potion. It was thick and syrupy with a floral component that tasted soapy. I swallowed all of it.
Nothing happened. My back still burned with the heat of a thousand suns.
I sent the paper back.
Not working.
I gave her a few moments to respond.
Was the whip poisoned?
I read her words and knocked the back of my head against the wall. Poison. Of course it was poison. Why hadn’t I deduced that immediately? But who?
Grayson wanted to break me, not kill me.
Teal didn’t seem like the type to plan a slow, torturous death. If he wanted me dead, he’d simply slit my throat. A brutal death, but a quick one.
Pierce? I pictured his icy features. Not him. He didn’t care enough to expend the effort.
And Flynn? I’d noticed the avid expression in his hazel eyes. He saw me as a prize he hadn’t yet won. He might murder me, but not before he fucked me.
That left Drake or Carron.
Drake didn’t have the imagination. So … Carron.
I’d taken one look at his weak chin and puffed chest and understood him completely. The man defined himself by his position. Without it, he’d be nobody. And he lived in fear of losing it. I was a shield who’d brought down a guard. He saw me as a threat. He was fearful enough to kill me and sneaky enough to hide his involvement. He was the one.
With shaking fingers, I picked up the pencil.Probably.
I gave her five minutes before I recalled the paper.
I need to brew an antidote.
We both knew she couldn’t brew an effective antidote without knowing the poison. I didn’t have much time.
How long will it take?
Two hours.
I jerked awake from a dream about Pierce. In my dream, he was furious. With Grayson. With Carron. With himself. Despite the anger radiating from his very pores, he knelt in front of me. “I’m sorry, Haven. Sorrier than you’ll ever know.” The dream felt too real, too specific. Why was my fevered mind imagining Pierce’s remorse?
Not likely.
I wiped the sleep from my eyes with a weary hand. My muscles felt weak, lethargic, barely able to push the pencil’s tip across the paper.Is the potion ready?
It’s by the unicorn. It’s the best I can do.
This new bottle was twice as large. Grandmother had tied a note to its neck:Half now, half in an hour. Keep me updated. I’m worried.
I pulled the stopper and wrinkled my nose. The contents smelled like stewed socks. I choked down half the vile liquid. Each minute that passed felt like an hour. How long did I have before the poison reached my heart? Before mykidneys failed? Before it was too late for any antidote to save me?
I watched the minutes tick by on Grandmother’s clock, wondering if each was my last.
The hour I waited lasted two weeks, but when it arrived, I drank the remaining potion and, using the last of my energy, sent my comforts from home back to Grandmother’s house. Only then did I let my eyes fall closed.
Chapter
