He ran to do as I asked while I lifted my bond from the water. She seemed almost peaceful now, but I knew the worst was yet to come. Carrying her across the hall, I placed her on my bed, not caring if she soaked the sheets. The wet cotton would help keep her cool, and that would further stave off the other symptoms. For now.
Nightshade poisoning was no joke. That had to be what this was. Nothing else affected a nightmare as strongly. How the fuck was she poisoned? I had my eyes on her the entire night. Ezra returned with a vial in hand—magically cooled for immediate use. I thanked him with a nod and uncorked it. Pushing a knee into the mattress, I leaned over my bond to gently lift her head enough for the antidote to trickle into her mouth. The second the vial touched her lips, it all went to hell.
“Shit. Ez!” I shouted over my shoulder. “Get over here and help me.”
Half the antidote soaked the pillow beside Eryn’s head, and I worked hard to protect the rest as she thrashed beneath me. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and the rest of her face was contortedin fear. Fuck. The poison was progressing faster than I anticipated. How much of it did she ingest?
“Quick, get her legs!” I instructed, then narrowly dodged a heel to the ribs.
“What the fuck is happening to her?” Ezra panted. He pinned both her legs to the mattress with genuine concern.
I wasn’t the only one disturbed by this new development. I hated seeing her like this. Hopefully, once the antidote kicked in, she would calm down and her body could rest.
“My guess is hallucinations,” I responded and barely missed a clawed hand coming for my face. I wasn’t fast enough, though, and her nails raked the skin of my neck, drawing blood. “I’m sorry for this, princess.”
I released my shadows, and they leaped to do my bidding. Like gentle restraints, I bound them across her chest and shoulders, pinning her arms to her sides in the process. Without wasting another precious moment, I forcefully gripped her chin with one hand and poured the antidote down her throat with the other.
She sputtered and coughed, but the cool liquid went down, and I breathed a sigh of relief as it took root. The thrashing stopped, and Eryn’s brow smoothed out in the first look of peace I’d seen on her face since we carried her from the party.
“Was it enough?” Ez asked.
He gently released her legs, and I called my shadows back. I sat above her for a few more minutes, just in case, but the worst of it seemed to have passed.
I sighed. “I think so, but let’s brew another batch just in case. She shouldn’t have reached the hallucination stage so swiftly.”
“You’re worried she’s ingested too much.”
I nodded. “Or she’s having an adverse reaction to the poison on top of everything else.”
Fuck. My bond waspoisoned. My guilt ate at me through thenight while I kept watch. Ezra easily brewed another batch of the antidote while I scryed Mother to fill her in on all that had happened. To say she was disappointed in me would be an understatement. My failure to protect my bond was glaringly obvious, and no one felt its repercussions more than me. Or Eryn.
After turning down my mother's offer to send the family physician and her multiple attempts at getting me to come home, I did concede on one thing: my bond was to live here, with me and Ezra, for as long we remained at this school. I sank into my plush two-seater on the opposite side of the room, head throbbing.
She would hate me even more after this, but at least she’d be alive. Her soft rustling on the bed grew more frantic, and I worked to ease my anxieties. I wasn’t sure how much of it could leak down the bond with her defenses down like this. She needed peace, not the burden of my stress. More rustling and quiet murmurs broke through the darkness of the room.
A night terror? I easily made my way toward the bed, familiar with my room even with the low visibility. Something scrunchy and dark flew at my face, and I caught it before it made contact. It was soft, like cotton, and a little damp. Her shorts? I tossed them to the side and looked up just in time to watch her wrestle with her top. The few beams of moonlight that reached her from the open window showed my half-dressed bond twisting to try and escape her damp tank top.
She was breathtaking. Pale, unblemished skin nearly shone under the moon’s glow, like it was embedded with crystal. From the curve of her breasts to the soft roundness of her belly, she radiated beauty. Much more potent than a siren’s call, nightmares really did bloom at night: like a midnight flower. Her growls turned frustrated as her top got stuck over her head. It was enough to break me from my trance.
“Easy. Let me help.”
It was a struggle because she still appeared to be out of it and was fighting rather than working with me. In the end, one tank top was no match for the two of us, and it joined its companion somewhere on the floor. Now I had a new problem; Eryn was half-naked. Wearing only a bra and panties, she sat and stared at the foot of the bed, her eyes glowing softly.
“Eryn?” I slowly reached out to cup her cheek and hissed when I felt how warm she was.
If the antidote were working properly, she wouldn’t have a fever. Godsdammit! At least it wasn’t hallucinations again, and maybe this time, she would take the antidote without fighting. I let out every colorful curse I knew and reached for the new vial on the nightstand.
“Kaiden?” I froze, my hand around the small glass and looked back. Eryn faced me now, her clear gaze finding mine in the dark. “What’s h-happening?”
Her stutter was more from the fever than the surprise of waking up in a strange bed, I hoped, but I still moved cautiously.
“What do you remember?” I asked, then gently settled a little closer, until I could make out more of her features.
“We were at a party,” she started but paused with a frown. “I-I was sick.”
“Bit of an understatement, but keep going, princess.”
“That’s it,” she whined. “I remember being sick, and t-then nothing.”
