“Why not? You said he showed you kindness. You can’t let him die.”
“Death has a different meaning here. It’s much more final.” She waved her hand over the cauldron and whispered an incantation.
“I know. Discord told me, which is why you need to understand…if he dies, I’ll die too.” My throat thickened, and if my face wasn’t ninety percent frozen, tears might’ve gathered on my lower lids.
“If you live, he’ll live too.” She used a ladle to scoop liquid into a mug.
“But for me to live, he has to not die.” For being some all-knowing prophet, she sure was dense. I attempted to elaborate on our predicament, but my mouth froze completely. My eyelids followed mid-blink, leaving me looking at the half-witch, half-demon through slits as she worked whatever kind of magic on me she wanted.
That sounded like a fun time, didn’t it?
She lifted my torn sleeve and poured her potion into my wound. It sizzled, and searing pain sliced through my shoulder as if she’d dug both hands into the cut and ripped it apart. She hadn’t, of course, but she might as well have. My sluggish heart beat excruciatingly hard, and the entire room cartwheeled around me. My vision tunneled, and white sparkles danced around the periphery.
Even if she could get all the poison out of me, I might not survive her healing session.
My head throbbed, and as she chanted in that weird, ancient tongue, my blood turned to lava in my veins, hotter than any witch fire could ever dream to be. My muscles seized, and my bones ached. My consciousness teetered on a razor’s edge, and a split second before I fell into oblivion, the poison poured from my wound, splattering onto the floor.
“For Hecate’s sake. Did you forget I’m not a demon?” Hey, look at that. I’d found my voice.
“Poison is poison.” She set the mug on the nightstand. “The removal process is the same no matter who you are.”
I pushed onto my elbows, squeezing my eyes shut against the spinning room. “Can you go remove it from Discord now? I don’t know where the arrow got him.”
She chuckled and padded to the cabinet. “He was never hit.”
“Yes, he was. I had to drag him here.” I sat up fully and swung my legs over the side of the bed, opening and closing my mouth to work out the soreness in my jaw.
“No, child.” She waved her hand over the cauldron again, whispering something before spooning the potion into another mug. “Your blood bond poisoned him. Drink this.”
I accepted the mug and sniffed the liquid inside. It smelled bitter like dandelion root, tinged with an unnatural sweetness that couldn’t have come from any earthly plant. I curled my lip. “What do you mean the bond poisoned him? How is that possible?”
She folded her hands over her stomach. “You asked for healing. Drink it if you want him to survive.”
Instinct told me never to drink a potion when I didn’t know what was in it, but seeing as how I needed him to live if I wanted to survive, I didn’t have much of a choice. I chugged the contents, grimacing at the bitter-sweet bite of who-knew-what kinds of roots and smacking my lips, scraping my tongue against the roof of my mouth to get rid of the metallic after taste.
Discord groaned from the other room, and I shot to my feet. The sigil on my arm burned, the glowing red deepening to a blackish-crimson hue. A sudden strength surged through my muscles, and my vision sharpened, the colors of my surroundings growing more saturated and intense.
The bone curtain rattled, and my demon stepped into the room. Without thinking, I ran to him, throwing my arms around him and burying my face in his neck. “Oh, thank Hecate you’re okay.”
“Hmpf.” The seer blew a hard breath through her nose. “Hecate had nothing to do with it.”
Discord slid his arms around my waist, pulling me closer before cradling the back of my head in his hand. “That was a close call.”
Something between a sob and a laugh rolled up from my chest. “Ya think?”
“Thank you, seer.” His chest vibrated against mine. “I am in your debt.”
“I paid her.” I sniffled and pulled away, stepping out of his embrace. “The ashmarks you gave me.”
He nodded. “How many?”
“The whole stack.”
His brows shot up, and he blinked three times before sliding his gaze to the seer. “Then it seems you are in my debt.”
She shrugged one shoulder dismissively. “Hers, really. She paid me.”
“Indeed, she did.” He focused on me, and every nerve in my body hummed. He must’ve felt it too because he inhaled deeply, closing his eyes, a slight smile curving his lips as if he reveled in the sensation.
