Surprisingly, the boy listened.His expression oddly trusting as he rested in the human’s hold.
Silly child.Hadn’t his parents taught him the perils of trusting a stranger?
Gus sighed to herself, a little worried about his instincts for self-preservation.She forgot sometimes that there were those who didn’t grow up in hell.Until recently, this boy had probably never encountered an adult who didn’t have his best interests at heart.He didn’t know the horrors that existed in this universe or how sometimes the evilest beings hid behind the prettiest of faces.
“What are you doing?I said don’t come any closer!”the human yelled as Gus started toward him.“I’m not playing!I really will kill him!”
“To carry out that threat, you’d have to be breathing,” Gus pointed out.
“Wha—?”
The human’s eyes rolled so far back in his head that only the white showed.Bubbles appeared at the corners of his mouth.He started to shake, his breathing becoming labored as his lungs filled with blood.
The boy pulled away as the man’s hold slackened.
“I’m afraid, my unfortunate friend, you’ve already crossed the river Styx.”Gus glided toward them, taking out a bottle of pills from her cloak.“You just didn’t know it yet.”
The boy backed further away from the man.Surprise on his features.But no fear.Just a grim kind of satisfaction.
Normally upon witnessing someone randomly dropping dead, a person’s first thought was of themselves.Usually something along the lines of “Am I next?”.
“How did you—?”the boy started in human standard.
Ah, there it was.The second most popular question.
Rather than answer and risk exposing secrets not even her siblings were privy to, Gus popped a pill into his mouth before he could finish that sentence.
He swallowed by reflex.
“What did you give me?”he demanded, fear finally making an appearance.
“Antidote.”
Gus assumed he didn’t want to go the way of the human.
She’d taken a chance spreading one of her poisons through the air with her limited amount ofki.It had paid off though.The human’s fear and panic had hastened the spread of the poison through his system.
If the boy hadn’t listened when she told him to stay calm, this situation could have had a much different outcome.
The boy touched his throat.“An antidote to what?”
“Poison.”
The boy flushed at Gus’s tone.
“Here,” Gus said, stuffing the Nawana orchid into his arms before he could say anything else.
The boy stiffened, holding the orchid as far from his body as he physically could.
“It won’t hurt you,” Gus said, heading back toward Caius.
“Are you sure about that?”the boy asked, a hint of sass in his tone.
“Don’t touch the leaves, flower, or roots and you’ll be fine.”
“So basically, the entire plant,” the boy grumbled.
“Would you prefer dealing with him?”Gus asked, tilting her head at Caius.
