Page 66 of Ruined Wolfsbane

“Aeneas gives Dido a potion to bring good fortune as thanks for sparing his life. In a gesture of good faith, Dido consumes the potion. Everything seems fine, and Aeneas sails away.

“However, the next morning, Dido wakes up sick with love for Aeneas. She can’t bear the thought of having sent her one true love away. So, she kills herself on a funeral pyre instead of living another moment without him.

“As she’s dying, the potion maker rushes to Dido’s side. It turns out Aeneas tricked both of them. He asked the potion maker for a love spell to help his love with amnesia remember him. Cliché, I know. But the potion maker bought it. She warned Aeneas that it would drive the recipient mad if she doesn’t already love him. He promised that he’d use it carefully.

“But Aeneas didn’t have a love because he’s a shithead who left his wife to die in the siege of Troy. Aeneas had this potion made out of spite in case he lost. When he did, in fact, lose, he gave the potion to Dido. The potion maker’s unable to save Dido but does comfort her in her last agonizing moments while burning alive.”

I stare at him speechless for a moment. “Wow, that’s somehow even sadder than the original.” The potion making would seem like a reach if the Aeneid weren’t already steeped in gods, magic, and pettiness.

“Yep. Aeneas sucks ass. Dido is awesome. The whole story is all kinds of fucked-up. Wanna watch the sunrise with me?”

I laugh at his summation of the Aeneid and his abrupt subject change. “I’d love to watch the sunrise with you, Bastian.”

He grabs my hand and leads me to the glass wall. There’s a door hidden amongst the windows, which Bastian pulls open for me.

We step out onto a patio lit with string lights. It overlooks a pine forest behind the Wyldhart keep. The gray cobblestones have moss creeping between them. Patio furniture is dotted through the space, providing multiple seating areas.

Bastian tugs me to the far end of the patio. There’s a wall and a set of stairs separating the lower grassy area from the patio. He hops up to sit on the wall with his legs dangling off the other side. “Need help up?”

Shaking my head, I plant my hands on the top of the wall and jump. I haul myself over the wall easily enough and sit next to Bastian. The wall scrapes my bare thighs, but it doesn’t bother me.

Bastian tucks me under his arm, and we watch the sky bleed purple, orange, and pink in companionable silence.

I wish I could end every sleepless night like this.

CHAPTER 27

BRIAR

“Thanks for running to the car with me, bae!” Rory says as she slams the passenger side door. She holds up a pink, sparkly folder in triumph. “I can’t believe I forgot my assignment. Mondays are the worst.”

“Literally the worst,” I deadpan. Rory cackles and lightly punches my shoulder.

She doesn’t need to be so careful because I’m fully healed. After three nights with the Wyldharts, everything is back to normal. The bruising, broken bones, and cut all vanished by this past Friday, days ahead of usual.

I don’t know why I healed so fast this time, but I’m grateful for it.

We’re almost to the front of the school when I trip on nothing. Air one, Briar zero.

I fall on my knees, wincing at the impact. The folder I was carrying goes flying, papers scattered everywhere. Groaning, I start picking up the million and one papers. Rory bends down to help me, but I stop her. “I’ve got this, Ror. You should head to class. I’ll probably be late from picking up everything. You can tell Xander where I am so he doesn’t get pissy.”

She giggles at my description of Xander. “If you’re sure. I can stay to help, though.” I wave her off. After lingering for a moment, Rory jogs toward Wyldhart Hall.

Sighing at my clumsiness, I continue picking up papers until I finally have everything back in its proper place. I stand up and smooth my skirt down.

Before I can start walking, I feel something cold and hard pressed against the base of my skull. I close my eyes in resignation, knowing exactly who’s behind me before he speaks. His disgusting scent of rot and decay is hard to miss.

“Turn around. Slowly,” Patrick orders while shoving what’s likely a gun harder into my neck. The whole gun thing is new. If Patrick was looking for something different to try, I’d have preferred him to experiment with being a half-decent person, not a gun-toting psycho.

I do as he asks. He stays behind me, jabbing me with the gun the whole time. “Now walk to my car.”

I briefly debate making a scene or running, but I don’t know if Patrick would shoot me in public or not. There’s a high chance he would, honestly. A beating I can survive. A gunshot to the head, probably not.

If I get in the car with him, hopefully I’ll be able to make a break for it wherever he takes me. I snort internally. Yeah, because getting taken to a secondary location works out so well for people on TV.

I start walking toward his blacked-out Escalade. A few steps in, I pretend to stumble and drop my folder. I bend down to pick it up when Patrick barks, “Leave it!”

It’s a long shot, but maybe Rory will know something’s wrong if she sees my folder out here. What can Rory do about it? I don’t know, but it’s the best plan I have right now.

---