Page 298 of Mayhem and Minnie

“What is it?”

“It’s foul. Noxious,” she mutters, wincing as she spits the remainder of the blood.

“But it was fine yesterday.”

“It’s this…” She points to my rapidly expanding dark spots. “It’s poisoning your blood.”

“Poison?” I croak.

Fucking hell.

I curse under my breath and lay my back against the tree. The gravity of the situation is slowly dawning on me. My body is becoming increasingly weak, and as the dark spots expand, pain echoes in my limbs. I can feel this spreading all through my body. My chest is almost fully covered by dark, painful spots. Probably my legs, too.

“I don’t know what type of poison. But it’s…” She squeezes her eyes shut. “It hurts.”

“Here.” I hand her the water.

She gulps it down, trying to wash the taste of the blood.

“What the hell did she do to you, Marlowe?” she asks, her expression terrified. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m dying, aren’t I?”

“No, no. Don’t even say that. Don’t even think about that. We’ll figure it out somehow.”

She stands up, pacing around. She scrubs her hands over her face.

“Minnie…”

“Don’t speak. I’m trying to think.”

“Don’t do anything stupid on my account, Minnie,” I grind out.

She doesn’t listen.

A blue mist surrounds her body, and within seconds, another person appears.

Molokai.

He narrows his eyes at Minnie, but as he slides his gaze toward me, surprise flares in his features.

“Kai. I need your help,” Minnie says as she rushes to her brother.

“What’s this?” he asks as he studies me intently.

“We don’t know. But it’s spreading fast. I fear that…”

Kai steps toward me. Crouching next to me, he takes my arm to inspect the dark spots.

“Walk me through what happened,” he says.

Minnie recounts everything that happened in the last few days, including the conversation with my mother and the fact that we suspect Katrina may have contained my illness as a child, only to release it now.

Molokai grunts, his expression pensive.

“Witches are not allowed to harm humans,” he notes.

“Would it be considered harming if she cured me when I was young?” I ask, taking big gulps of air in between words.

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