Page 10 of The Poison Within

Perplexed, I watched Eryssa sniff around Elly’s neck the way a dog would. A moment later, she released him from her grasp. “I thank you for your assistance,” she said as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Elly recovered fast, as befitting a polished aristocrat, and straightened the silk of his cravat. “I’m glad I could be of help. Do you need any silver?” He gestured towards his pocket.

She shook her head. “Coin is one thing I’ve got enough of.”

“Very well. The driver will take you wherever you wish to go. Send the carriage back when it’s no longer needed.”

She nodded. Then she shifted her gaze to me. “A word, Inspector.”

“I’ll take care of the horses, Käyru,” Elly said, and jumped off the carriage.

For a bit, the Furia remained quiet. I itched to join Elly and get the hell out of there.

“You did me a great kindness, human,” she said at last. “I want to offer you something in return.”

“No need for that.”

“Oh, but you do need something from me. And you don’t even know it.” Her predacious, toothy grin sent gooseflesh all over me. “Let me ask you a question first. What’s your biggest wish?”

I couldn’t help the way my eyes darted right to Elly, whom I could see through the open door. He’d already unharnessed two horses for our ride back and waited with them nearby.

“That’s what I thought.” She huffed a quiet laugh. “Does he know you love him?”

I said nothing, too embarrassed to admit I allowed my heart such folly.

She came closer and tilted her head. “He won’t see another spring. I smelt the ripe stench of the illness that dwells in him.”

Her words sounded fuzzy and distorted in my ears. The message took ages to sink in. My legs would’ve gone out from under me if I hadn’t been sitting.

The Furia considered me through her cold, purple eyes as I struggled to speak, my worst fear realised. She reached into the cleavage of her corset and took out a small phial, held it in between her thumb and index finger and gave the thick liquid within a quick shake. A bubble formed at the surface beneath the stopper “Do you know what this is?”

The blood of a Furia. Given freely.

My throat tightened as I accepted the precious gift from her hands.

“Make him drink it in his wine, it works best with alcohol. Don’t delay; he’s got little time. And be warned—it’s poison. It won’t be pretty.”

The phial burnt a hole in my pocket. Desperate to use it, I outright seduced Elly, coaxing him into spending the night at an inn.

But he didn’t quite get what he bargained for.

I had devoted the time spent in the saddle to holding a heated debate with my conscience, my heart in my mouth. Ignoring the twitches in my jaw, I tried to clear the cobwebs that clouded my ability to think. As much as I wanted to blurt out everything, alarm bells rang in my head. Elly maintained such privacy about his health that even broaching the topic bordered on taboo. The slightest mention of his wellbeing made him bristle and shut me down. The possibility he might refuse the measure in my possession or insist on a delay had me frantic; I couldn’t bear to chance it. By the time we noticed the outline of the inn’s thatched roof on the horizon, I’d made my decision.

Despite my misgivings, I secretly poured the scarlet liquid into his wine and watched him drink the concoction down unawares.

The whole sorry affair turned out to be ten times worse than I expected.

My punishment for deceiving him was observing the way he suffered convulsions, delirium and fever through the night. Helpless and out of my mind with worry, I questioned my actions hundreds of times. What had I done? What if it killed him? And if he lived, would he hate me for intervening without his consent?

For hours, I cradled him in my arms, soothed him and wiped the sweat from his brow. Fearing the ultimate disaster, I cursed myself and the damn Furia who’d tricked me.

By mid-morning, he became lucid again as the side effects of the Furia blood subsided. I watched as he eventually drifted into an uneasy but unbroken sleep, and cried tears of relief.

At dusk, I escorted him back to his mansion. His face had turned ashen, but he rode sitting straight in his saddle. We exchanged few words. With his exhaustion plain to see, my guilt and worry consumed me. I sensed a sudden shift in his bearing, and it churned my stomach—he looked defeated and resigned. As if something he’d dreaded had come to pass.

He offered me a faint smile when we parted, but it never reached his eyes.

Despondent, I couldn’t help but succumb to a sense of loss and finality.