I try to move but the venom hits my spine and my veins begin to freeze. Then sting.
Suddenly my bones are seizing, writhing, as the poison rips out every last bit of Elemental so that all I can hear is a voice screaming to make it stop. Please make it stop.
The spider keeps devouring my arm.
I wake up screaming and clawing at my arm, but it’s too dark to see what in kracken is going on. I slap and hit at the beast before finally fumbling for the light along the bedside, twisting the gear to illuminate the scratching legs attacking my skin.
Nothing is on my skin.
Other than a crisscross of scuff marks made by my own nails along the puffy bluebird’s face.
I lean back and shut my eyes, aware that my sweat-drenched body is shaking like one of the earthquakes Colin used to make, and I can’t hold still because everything’s so wet and cold, and my bones are seizing. What in—? With a jerk, my chest curls down around my knees, and suddenly every frozen muscle I own makes a cracking sound. Like ice under too much pressure.
Oh litches.
My body is going to break wide open.
I force myself up into a sitting position and clench my arms around my legs to make it stop, to make them still. A movement in front of me catches in the corner of my eye, and it’s not until I glance up that I finally notice someone’s seated near my desk, rubbing her eyes, staring at me.
I frown. Rasha?
The red glow of her gaze is there. Growing. It’s lighting the dark between us with an intensity that says she’s scared, or concerned. Or furious.
“Nym, what in hulls have you done?” Her voice sounds like a ghost. An angry one.
I blink stupidly and continue shaking.
“I told you—I warned you not to trust him.”
I glance around the dim room before swerving my eyes back to meet her face. “What are you doing in here? What time is it?”
“Half past four.” She stands and draws near. “But do you even have any idea what you’ve done?”
I grip my knees harder so she won’t see how badly my legs are quaking. “Yes, I know exactly. How long have you been here?”
“For the past three hours and, no, you have no idea.”
“Where’s Myles?”
“Why didn’t you ask me? Why didn’t you come to me instead of lying about it?”
“Me? I asked you when you brought up his offer and you refused to tell me anything. Did you know this might allow me to save Eogan? That it’s the only way to save him?” I glance around again, my bones clacking around. “And where is Myles?”
“If he has any bleeding sense at all, he’s shaking in his nightmares for fear of me. And I’ll thank you not to lay it at my feet as if it’s my fault. Once he offered, you could’ve asked anytime.”
“Maybe if you’d stayed at the banquet I would have. If you’d seen what they did—”
“You’d already made your decision at the banquet. But if you’d stayed and heeded my warning instead of tromping off to absorb a power you know nothing about—”
“Your warning made no sense!” I choke out. “Look, it’s half past four in the morning and you standing here lecturing me in my room before my head can even think is not helping anything. I’m not going to apologize for trying to give us a chance. This can help all of us—Eogan, you, me, the delegates.”
“You don’t know it’ll give them a chance! If anything, it’s just as likely you’ll end up like Draewulf!”
I peer sharply at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She clamps her mouth shut.
My throat is jittering so hard I’m having a hard time getting the words out. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that that’s exactly my point. You have no idea what you’re dealing with or what it will do to you.”
“But apparently you do and you decided to withhold it from me. Lovely. I think I’d like to go back to bed now if you don’t mind.” I jerk my head toward the door.
Her eyes flash and by the time she’s crossed the five paces and opened it, her gaze has lit up her hair so she looks like an angel of death. She walks out and the whole room shakes as she slams the door shut behind her.
Bleeding hulls.
I sit there a moment, cursing her out in my head, then cursing myself out even more. After a moment I get up, and, quaking like a blasted avalanche, peel off my sweat-soaked leathers and slip on the only normal-looking dress I can find in the dim light. I wrap my warm cloak around me before yanking open the door.
Six guards snap to attention from a game of stones they’d been leaning over. Rasha is already gone.
“Can we help you?” one mutters.
I clench my teeth. “Take me to see Lord Myles.”
Every guard turns toward me and I swear their eyes all harden at once. It takes me an annoying minute before the awareness dawns of how such a request must appear. The girl from Faelen, rumored to be Eogan’s love interest, embarking on a tryst with Faelen’s lord protectorate.
“Miss, are you—?”
“Now.”
With an uncomfortable tsk, the Faelen man turns and leads me down two doors to Myles’s chambers.
He taps.