Page 106 of A Touch of Poison
“Can’t both be true? This has all been a path towards a cure. What happened to you was unique. My methods must be similarly… unorthodox.”
I might not trust her, but I could trust in her inability to lie. I told myself that a dozen times as she cracked open the wax seal and bent over the bed.
“Now, drink up.”
For all I knew, this might not be any worse than the other things she’d done to me. It would be fine.
And if it was bad, Kaliban would be able to scrape away the memories so it would be like it had never happened.
I opened my mouth.
She tilted the vial of green liquid. At first, it didn’t pour, throwing itself against the glass sides, but when she lowered it to my waiting lips, it twitched and dropped from the vial.
Cold.
So cold. A refreshing, iced drink.
The flavour was coppery and sour, like someone had mixed lime juice with blood… but it had none of the pleasant zesty flavour of lime. This tasted of… dank forest floors… or perhaps the rotting smell of swamps.
It writhed on the tip of my tongue, and I flinched at the strangeness of that sensation. This stuff had a mind of its own.
Eyes wide, I stared at Elthea.
“Close your mouth and swallow.”
Every single hair on my body stood on end as the stuff slithered over my tongue, growing warmer by the second.
Just this one thing. Then it would all be over.
I clenched my hands into fists and forced my lips together.
The thing snaked its way over my tongue, and now I could feel it on the roof of my mouth too. Every instinct said I should spit it out. I’d accidentally put somethingalivein my mouth. Spit it out.
Spit. It. Out.
I swallowed.
I gagged. Because the writhing didn’t stop once it was in my throat. It twisted, either fighting not to go down or eager to get inside me.
All I knew was that this—thiswas the most wrong anything had ever felt in my life.
But if it would cure me…
I choked the stuff down.
That was when the burning began. On my tongue at first—threading along the route the venom had taken. Then down my throat. Every place it had touched was now on fire.
Gasping, I strained against the leather straps. “Water. I need water.”
Goosebumps pricked my arms and sweat broke out on my brow, but Elthea shook her head. “You can’t.” She sat back and pulled out her notebook and a pen.
The burning hit my stomach, scorching now, and I arched from the bed, biting back a whimper.
“Still fighting it.” She made a thoughtful sound and shook her head as she wrote in the notebook. “I wonder what will be the thing to make you scream at last.”
“How long?” I managed to rasp between panted breaths.
She shrugged, eyes widening. “We shall see. The next phase should hit you right about…” She glanced at the orrery mounted on the wall. “Now.”
