“I don’t know. But we should try to find out.”
“I’ll be right back.”
He disappears for several minutes, returning with a small black case and a tablet. He opens the case and removes a disposable testing kit.
“Give me your hand,” he says gruffly.
I hold it out, and he wipes a sterile pad over it, then pricks the pad of my index finger with the test needle and lets several drops of blood fill the slide. A moment later, he pushes the plastic slide into the test slot, and I hear the soft humming of the machine as it runs the specimen. At the same time, Gray unlocks the tablet and begins inputting some numbers.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“All specimens are logged in the system, but I’m using an override. That way nobody will know we tested anything.”
“Can anyone see that you used an override?”
“Only the Authority, if they cared to look. But they won’t know what I used it for.”
The device makes another noise. The blue light on the screen turns green, flickering faster, indicating results are being transmitted. It doesn’t take long for them to pop up on Gray’s screen. He scrolls through the data, skipping down to toxicology.
The look on his face confirms what I already knew.
“Heartroot. Smaller traces than I would have thought, though.”
I shake my head. “You don’t need a lot for it to do damage. The tiniest amount can affect your heart, even if it’s just palpitations. Doesn’t require much to stop it entirely.”
“Yeah, I know. We’ve got vials of liquid heartroot here in the medical bay.”
My gaze sharpens. “You do? Why?”
“Method of execution,” he admits. “High crimes are punishable by death, but we allow the prisoner to choose the method. Some prefer a cup of heartroot to a bullet in the skull.”
“So it could’ve come from here?” I glance around the bay, as if expecting someone to jump out at any second.
“Yes, but that’s unlikely. All meds are logged in and locked up. It’d be hard to get anything out of here undetected.” He pauses, and I see the anger creeping into his eyes. “Who would do this to you?”
I inhale slowly. “I don’t know. But I do have enemies here.”
“Enemies is a stretch.”
“Karra—”
“You think KC did this?” he says in disbelief.
“No, I’m just saying. You asked who might do this. Karra is a possibility. Evlynne, maybe.”
“Ev would never. And neither would Karra.”
“Well, someone did.”
He swipes at the screen, a furrow digging into his brow.
“What are you doing?”
“Deleting the results and wiping the testing queue.”
Once he’s done, he sits beside me, then leans forward and presses his lips to mine in a firm kiss. I rest my forehead against his for a moment, running over the implications. Someone tried to poison me tonight. To stop my heart.
“I knew that grange tasted weird,” I murmur. “It was too sweet. But I wasn’t thinking.”
