“We’re going to find them,” Milo snarls.
Leo leans close to my ear. “You have a few hours before this spreads too far. If this doesn’t hold, we’ll have to call in someone higher up, someone who deals in things darker than poison.”
“Call whoever the fuck you want,” I rasp. “Just don’t let them touch her.” If they’re trying to get Aoife back, they need me to be weak.
Aoife’s face crumples. I squeeze her fingers weakly.
“I’m not dying, little lamb,” I whisper. “Not yet.”
But inside me, something cold has settled.
And if I survive this, if I make it through the night.
Whoever did this will wish they hadn’t missed.
Somewhere between agony and clarity, the rage sharpens, and it wakes me from my sleep.
They’ve crossed a line.
The blade was never meant to kill me outright; it was meant to break me slowly. Poison in the bloodstream, a quiet collapse. The kind of death that looks like weakness. The kind that gets whispered about in halls."Messina, brought down by a dance."
Cowards.
Leo's voice cuts through the haze. “The antitoxin’s holding. Barely. But we don’t know how long you have before another dose is needed.”
I nod, jaw clenched, and no words escape, because what is there to say. Nothing.
Marco’s pacing now. Milo’s already on his phone, to whom I don't know. Aoife’s still by my side, silent, hand wrapped in mine like she’s anchoring me to the bed. I glance down at her thumb moving over my wrist, slow, steady. You can see the worry on her face.
“She hasn’t left your side,” Milo says, not looking up from his call.
Aoife meets my gaze and there is nothing more beautiful than her face. She leans closer, brushing her forehead against mine.
“I’ll kill them,” I whisper. “Whoever it was. I’ll kill them for touching me, and I’ll bury them for scaring you.”
Leo clears his throat. “I’m going to stay until sunrise, just to make sure you don’t go into shock. But you need to stay awake. Talk. Think. Anything.”
“I’m fine, and my eyes won’t even stay open,” I lie about being fine, reaching for a cigarette with a trembling hand. It takes me two tries to get it lit.
Marco leans against the wall, arms crossed. “So, what is the plan?”
I blow out smoke. “I need to call Grandfather and tell him about this.” There is no point coming up with a plan until Father and Grandfather know about the attack. Because if they knew they would be here now, plus Leo won’t say anything because they will be pissed he wasn’t watching us, and my brothers, well they don’t want the headache.
“Aoife’s been getting messages. They told us they have a plan and will attack. We just didn’t think they would do it in school, because of the… of the rules.” Whatever they put on the knife, I don’t think it’s finished with me yet. I close my eyes for a moment and listen to the conversations happening.
“No one ever attacks on school grounds; they know what will happen.” Milo is the first to comment, and then I hear Leo.
“But we don’t have proof it’s them, so they will deny it.”
My pulse spikes, not from the poison this time, but because Leo’s right.
I sit up, and the nauseating feeling hits me again. I fall back against the pillow, closing my eyes for just a second.
“You good?” Milo asks.
“I’ve never been more ready to finish this war.”
The poison may be slowing my body, but it’s cleared every doubt from my mind.
