The next gale pelts me with fine sand that digs into my skin as if I’m in the middle of a desert storm. When the dust finally settles and I uncover my eyes, I see dozens if not more snakes where the sand once was.
This was no accident.
White-hot fire touches each nest of snakes, leaving behind only small piles of black ash dotted throughout the ring.
Ziv’s foot touches the ground, and the agony in my head making it hard to think disappears, along with the image of him…doing something. I can’t recall, but it’s not important.
“Someone tried to kill her,” I announce, admitting it wasn’t Ziv’s fault like my original assumption.
“I’m aware, demon,” he replies without so much as a glance toward me. He’s too busy examining Briar.
“Is she…”
“She’ll be fine in a few hours. The venom wouldn’t have killed her. I’ve been giving her my blood for weeks.”
“They didn’t know that.”
“I know.”
“Do you think it was Syrinx?” The headmistress is the first person who comes to mind, since she’s the only person who openly tried to get me to kill Briar.
“No, she wouldn’t risk it before the games.”
“I’m not so sure about that. She wanted me to touch her,” I argue.
“She knows I would kill her.” Ziv pushes back the loose hair around Briar’s face, and it makes my chest ache with envy. I should be next to her, making sure she’s okay, but I’m stuck halfway across the room because I’m too afraid to get close to her.
“How are we going to figure out who did this?” I hate feeling helpless.
“It shouldn’t be that hard. All those snakes had to come from somewhere.” He’s right about the snakes, but I don’t think it will be that simple.
ZIV
Monitoring Briar as her body fights off the toxins in her blood is an exercise in patience I never wanted. It takes hours for her to begin to rouse, and it only serves to remind me how fragile she still is and how much I’ve been taking for granted. I assumed her attachment to me would be enough to keep her safe from anyone here, when clearly, I was wrong.
I can’t take what happened today as anything less than an attempt on her life, which means someone here wants her dead more than they fear the consequences of what I would do to them for killing her. Kage thinks Syrinx is involved, but that seems counterproductive to me, at least before the Undertaking.
“Did I get you?” Briar’s voice cracks. Her eyes aren’t even open yet, leading me to believe she’s still out of it. I stroke her cheek, and she leans into my touch. “I did, right?” She blinks her beautiful gold eyes lazily.
“Did what, little flower?”
“Cut you.” She furrows her brow, which causes her to wince. “Gods, my head hurts. I think I need a helmet for the next time you decide my brain needs scrambling.”
“I didn’t scramble your brain.” I sound like I’m pouting.
“Tell that to my frontal lobe, it’s probably leaking out of my ear, and I need all the intelligence I can get.”
“It’s the venom,” I tell her, because I hate her thinking I would be so careless with her.
“Venom?” She blinks several more times.
I push her hair back from her face and explain what happened.
“I finally get a lick in on you, and I get bit by a fucking snake!” She starts to shake her head but stops before letting out a little groan of pain. I can’t believe she’s more worried about the fact that she cut me and I had no clue, than the fact that someone tried to kill her.
In the next heartbeat, her eyes snap open, and she picks her head up off the pillows. “Where’s my dagger? I would bet my stone it has your blood on it.”
“Your stone?” I ease her head back to the pillow with the tips of my fingers.
