Page 10 of Henrikk’s Secret

But the poison was slow.

Henrikk stared at Asher helplessly, who gave a rueful smile before looking away in disappointment.

“Stubborn as fuck,” Asher muttered.

Look at me, Henrikk pleaded silently. Do not let me die alone.

He fought nausea as it pressed up along his stomach lining and gripped his throat.

Asher gave a long sigh, still toying with his goblet. “Well, it doesn’t matter now.”

It does matter.

Rejecting Asher was painful beyond belief. But being rejected by Asher was unbearable. The finality of it would haunt him into the next life, and throughout all his lifetimes, if there was such a thing as reincarnation.

He reached for Asher’s hand, desperately trying to soak in all his familiar features, his heart thundering in his chest. His pulse was too fast, his breathing too shallow.

But Asher….

Asher did not look well, his skin tinged with grey, his face lifeless.

Panic seized Henrikk as he snatched Asher’s wrist.

“What did you do, Asher?” he cried in alarm.

The general only shook his head, his eyes still downcast. A strange, lopsided smile that looked almost vindictive played across his face.

“No…tell me you didn’t…” Henrikk shook his arm roughly, urgently. “You poisoned us both, didn’t you?”

Asher finally lifted his gaze to meet his. There was a hint of quiet triumph in his voice as he said, “No, Henrikk. I only poisoned your goblet.”

Henrikk exhaled a breath of relief, but he kept a tight hold of Asher’s wrist, unable to release him now as death crept nearer.

Asher leant close as if to kiss him, but his head fell heavily against his shoulder at the last second.

“Asher, what—?”

“But I switched goblets,” Asher whispered against his shoulder.

Henrikk froze, panic and disbelief tearing through him until there was nothing left but Asher’s terrible revelation.

“You…you what?” he spluttered.

“You think you can’t be outsmarted, Henrikk. You may fancy yourself the cat, but you can never outfox the fox.”

He was talking gibberish, he was…

He was…

Poisoned.

Henrikk drew back in disbelief, the edges of his vision distorting black as he stared at his friend, his lover, his love. There was no froth, no gurgles, no screams—just Asher’s faraway eyes, as if his soul was already slipping away.

The potion master had verified the poison, promising a silent death, but this was more terrible than Henrikk could have ever imagined. No one—no one—should ever go so silently into the darkness. Especially not someone who’d shone as brightly as Asher.

Asher’s head lolled dangerously.

Henrikk heard his own voice shouting for the guards as if it was someone else's. “Asher! Asher, look at me. You cannot go. You cannot—”