Page 86 of In Prey We Trust

Alive

Delores

My head feels like it’s going to explode.

I fight to open my eyes, and the throbbing intensifies, making my stomach roll. Fuck me. Not that I’m in any shape for that kind of activity, but damn. Swallowing the trepidation, I squint at the decor surrounding me. It’s fuzzy, but recognizable. I’m in my room in the annex, though I don’t have a clue how I got here. The last thing I remember is a rock hard skull crashing into mine and a lot of yelling.

That bitch must have knocked my block off good.

“She’s awake!”

The panicked voice isn’t Fitz’s, though I would have expected it to be. I can’t imagine he’s taking this well; people looking at me wrong sends him into a fit of rage. I turn my head slightly and blink when I see Felix looking like absolute death warmed over in the chair next to the bed. He’s still watching the door, so I try to assess myself before everyone gets here.

Head? Fuzzy. Back? Achy, but okay. Legs? Probably bruised. Arms? Sore as hell, especially my left shoulder. That might be an issue for later. Fingers and toes? Mobile.

Well, I’m not crippled or dead, so that’s a relief.

I run my tongue through my mouth, relieved when I don’t find any missing teeth. Sighing, I prepare myself to move. It should be safe given my little system check, so I grunt and use my palms to push upward. A gasp leaves my lips as a shooting pain runs up that arm and I have grit my teeth until I’m sitting upright against the pillows.

“Princess, stop that! What are you doing?” Felix hisses as he whips around to look at me. “You need to rest.”

“I’m okay,” I lie as I catch my breath. My shoulder is definitely fucked up, so it can’t have been that long since the match. If it was more than a week later, I’d be fully healed. That’s good information to have because our exams are the week after next and none of my professors will give a fucking inch on my work. Correction: the guys would, but their stuff wouldn’t be my problem, anyway.

“You will be okay, but right now, you’re recovering. Don’t think I missed you almost keeling over when you put weight on that shoulder.” The Raj gives me a stern look and I wrinkle my nose.

Damn know-it-all man.

“I didn’t say I was healed, I said—”

The stampede into my room cuts off my retort and I have to laugh as they almost get stuck in the doorframe trying to push each other out of the way. Even the taciturn big guy is shouldering Fitz out of the way as they vie for a position at my bedside. Chess darts around to the other side and beams when he gets the seat next to me on the bed. I let him settle my injured limb against him carefully while Fitz and Rennie argue about who gets the opposite seat.

“It’s good to see you awake, Angel,” Chessie says softly. “I think I get why you were so upset this summer.”

“How long have I been out? ‘Cuz you were out for a week and we were about to commit Fitz. I had sparkly grippy socks picked out and everything.” I give him a wan smile, hoping to ease the tension in the room.

Fitz shoves the gargoyle and darts under his arms, plopping on my good side with a cheesy smirk. “I would have rocked those, Baby Girl. But I pity the mental health professional who has to probe this mess.” He points to his head and everyone bursts out laughing. “My brain isn’t exactly a cuddly place.”

I lean in to kiss his jaw, rubbing my nose along it. “I love your brain. If people don’t like it, they can get fucked.”

“If you’re offering, it’s been—”

Felix growls, smacking him in the back of the head. “Behave. She’s still healing, you animal.”

“Maybe once I have two functioning arms, baby?” I ruffle his hair, letting the long strands sift through my fingers. “But I still want to know how long I was out because you interrupted Chess.”

“Four days, Angel,” Chess says as his fingers trace over the back of my hand. “But they declared the match a tie because your opponent tested positive for predstasty and wolfsbane.”

“How did they know to test? I mean, I saw it in her eyes, but clearly, I wasn’t awake when you guys got me out of the ring.” I frown, thinking back to how crazed my opponent looked when she was coming at me the last time.

“I smelled it in her blood,” Fitz says proudly. “The scratches you got in were bleeding and I told the infirmary to do a tox scan. I went up against enough juicers in the pro leagues to recognize it. You’re lucky it didn’t send her into a mindless frenzy—wolfsbane is a sedative for canines, but for felines, it’s like PCP in humans. That fucking cougar was so high it was amazing she could find the damn ring.”

My eyes widen, and I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “I think the Heathers arranged it. I saw them looking all pleased on the sidelines before the last strike. They probably paid her or something.”

The dragon at the end of my bed shoots to his feet, wings popping free as he paces across the room. “First a poisoner at your prom, and now this shit? Perhaps your friends were in it with the dead girl, lunchable.”

I shake my head, then pause as the room spins a little. “No. Those girls would never chance vomit pics getting online and ruining their prom. They might have done this, but the prom is something else. Besides, the prom was scattershot—all the heirs got sick except me, so it was like the person didn’t know who they were aiming at.”

“Hmm,” Rennie says as he leans against my desk. “That means the poisoner might have been looking for someone who didn’t get sick. Perhaps by not drinking that night, you ended up becoming a target? That would explain the escalation of things once you arrived at Apex, non?”

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