“Rune, wait?—”
My tongue snaked out and licked the rot, coating it in a blazing heat.
“Rune!”Slater gripped my shoulders, checking me over like I was about to die in his arms. “Fates, are you okay? What do I need to do?”
As I swallowed, the rot burned my mouth, and it seared down my throat. Not a moment later, the effects faded.
“You don’t have to do anything, Havoc baby.”
The rot slipped from my finger the next instant, splashing onto the dirt beside us. The rot stopped eating away at my essence, and instead, my reserves filled from the consumption. “Just like I thought,” I murmured in victory before raising my hand out and letting my power flicker as I excreted the same rot from a fingertip.
“Holy shit,” Slater gasped, his grip on me loosening. “You just…reproduced it?”
I grinned wickedly. “My special power lets me have the ability to excrete any venom or poison I consume as my own venom.”
A flash of blinding light erupted from the rot before it evaporated into the air.
“I guess our squad managed to perform the purification ritual.” I gestured to the lack of magical essence rot webbing through the ground.
“Good for them. Listen, I love that you’re okay because you almost gave me a heart attack.” He huffed as if I’d insulted him before his lips worked into an enormous grin. “Hey, since I technically bit you, that makes you mine, right?”
“You’ll get used to that if you hang around me long enough. Technically, Snakey bit me, not you.” I glanced back at the magic circle.
The phantom had fallen still again, gasping within it.
“But Snakey is an extension of me, you see,” he explained, his hands finding my hips as he tightened his grip on me. “What do we do about that guy?”
“Let him go?” I answered with more of a question.
The rest of our squad arrived in a flurry of boots and crunching sticks.
“What the Fates happened here?” Zuko asked, crouching beside us with a smirk. “Are you flirting without stabbing now?”
“Why, jealous?” Slater shot him a cheeky grin.
“Nah.” Zuko winked at me. “I like it when she gets stabby.”
“I found the phantom,” I murmured, still a little dazed from Snakey’s venom. “He’s been here…this whole time.”
“Are you okay?” Koa crouched down next to Zuko and peered into my eyes. “Did you get bit by something?”
“Yeah, my snake,” Slater gloated.
“Stop hitting on her for once,” Dimitri snapped, running a hand over his jaw. “Is she okay?”
“Ask me yourself,” I suggested, hopping out of Slater’s lap and up to my feet, swaying a little. “Slater wasn’t flirting that time. His chaos manifestationdidbite me.”
“Why?” Koa turned to Slater with a scowl. “It has venom, doesn’t it?”
“It was so I could fill my reserves.” I waved off their concern before gesturing to the binding circle with the phantom inside. “It was fantastic, anyway, the phantom.”
“Fantastic?” Koa repeated, confused.
“Fill your reserves?” Zuko asked. “That’s not how basilisks…”
“Special power.” I bowed before stumbling slightly.
He nodded as if that explained everything. “Gotcha.”
