Page 22 of Grave Devil
I take my bike because I can get to the apothecary faster on it. The headlights create shadows on the road that look like ferocious creatures. This town is more sinister at night, vile in its barrenness. In its haunted skies. You can’t see it as well during the day, ironically. We’re too blinded by the trees and the scattered sunlight. By the poison meadows and bougainvillea that sprawl across these hallowed grounds.
I try to get Draven on speakerphone on the way there, but he doesn’t pick up. He never does on harvest nights, but I figured it was worth a try. Right about now, there’s a good chance he’s down in the cellar of Blackwell Manor, tapping casks of gin and preserving juniper berries for his next batch.
But he’s going to freak the fuck out when he comes back up and checks his messages.Hopefully I’ll have this all fixed by then.
Thorn Apothecary is nestled in the northern part of town, near Devil’s Rock. I punch in the code as fast as I can and storm through the double steel doors. Taking the circular staircase two steps at a time, I barrel down to the depths of the fragrant warehouse.
I nearly choke when the fumes hit me. While I’m immune to poison like the others, the sheer amount of it that’s housed inside this place is enough to make even a Thorn hitch their breath. It takes me a minute to adjust.
I pull the neck of my T-shirt up and cover my nose and mouth as I race through the rows and rows of plants. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of strains. Luckily, my Ries tells me everything, and I pay attention.
A normal person would place them alphabetically or maybe group them by plant family. But Aries is anything but, and sohe has them all laid out according to strength and potency. And he’s the only one who really knows which is which. He’s been studying poisonous plants since he was old enough to walk. It’s his family’s legacy. His lifeblood.
The only chance I have of finding this bloodroot flower in a respectable amount of time is judging it based on Nox’s reaction. I can only guess that it’s powerful, toxic as fuck, and rare. Which means Aries would’ve placed it on one of the back rows, near the far wall.
The farther back I go, the headier the scents and the dizzier I get. The fumes are overwhelming. But I keep going.I need to help her.
I scan through the labels—opium, baneberry, nightshade, and belladonna. Sweat drips down my face, and it feels like fire. Like hot fucking lava.
I finally find the bloodroot, and it’s not as scary looking as it sounds. In fact, it looks like a daisy, with its bright yellow center and delicate white petals. I reach in, pluck a few out, and transfer them to a glass jar, careful not to crush them.
By the time I make it back outside, the air feels like a sharp knife, slicing my lungs with each breath I take. I hunch over and cough. “Fuck,” I rasp.
I have a newfound respect for Aries. He goes in unmasked all the time. He doesn’t even break a sweat, let alone wheeze his lungs out the way I’m doing right now. There’s immune, and then there are just fucking superpowers. People have no idea what the Thorns are capable of. Holy crap.
I tuck the jar into my leather jacket and jam back over to the garage. Hopefully, I haven’t fucked this up, and it’s not too late.
MIA
Your destruction is exquisite.
Black charred fingers reach for my throat. I wince, bracing for the squeeze. He paints delicate strokes instead, tickling my prickled flesh as if his fingertips were feathers. I cough, my tongue heavy. Swollen. It blocks air from my lungs.Please, I beg in my mind.I know you can hear me.
Shhh. Save your strength. His fingers dance across my chest. Everywhere he touches leaves inky prints. Not ink. Shadows. His marks burn.
What do you want from me?
Redemption. Satiation. A soul for a soul.His voice shreds the inside of my head, like a thousand tiny cuts from a really big knife. Fear and panic fight for a place within me. A tug of war between two chaotic emotions that will no doubt be the death of me before the night is over.
He skates the tips of his fingers, his claws retracted, down my rib cage. “I could tear out your heart,” he whispers aloud.
Oh, fuck. My head swells as his voice pulsates between us. It’s low and gruff, yet it pierces my eardrums as if my head were inside of a giant church bell being rung.
I roll back, my body twisting on its own. A knee-jerk reaction that sends shockwaves through every cell. “Please…” I can barely muster a word.
He explores farther down, his bony digits skimming my flesh, hovering over the goose pimples that dot my entire body. When he rests his hand on my abdomen, my breath whooshes out of my lungs as if he’s knocked the wind from me.But how?I can’t make sense of it.
I heave and choke, my chest burning, desperate for oxygen.
He smiles so wide, the bones protruding from his cheeks splinter his skin. A flicker of fire dances in his amber eyes. “Power. That’s what you’re feeling. What you’re experiencing for the first time in your pathetic life. Absolute power.Mine.”
The sound of his voice echoes out of my head now. In the space surrounding me. Every inch of me revolts. I can’t fight back or even run. Sensations of falling roll through me. Nausea. Stabbing pain that pierces my ears and shoots daggers between my temples.
What… the fuck… are you?I can only think it into existence. My voice is gone. Destroyed. Perhaps forever.
He spreads my thighs apart. “I am dark matter. Shadow. The eighth deadly sin.Skelker. Made in his image, perpetuated by yours.”
Sharp claws like switchblades slip through his fingertips. He drags them down my thighs, tearing my flesh.
