Page 96 of The Serpent’s Shadow

It was not the blue of asphyxiation. This was a tinge of sapphire that spoke of a different nuisance.

The Lepers were talking over themselves. Frida was at the forefront—the youngest of the group here and yet the loudest. “Give him space, you wretches!”

I crossed my arms over my chest, watching from the background. The helper in me wanted to administer aid, though the devil in me wanted to escape this place while I had the chance.

I knew where I was, generally, and could find my way to Vikingrune Academy. Of course, I had no idea what to do once I got there—whatever it was, I’d do it, if it meant seeing Ravinica and holding her in my arms.

Torn between two paths, I chewed the inside of my cheek.

The man was going to die. Clearly, he had imbibed something not agreeing with his insides. I knew just what it was, even if the Lepers Who Leapt did not.

Frida scowled over her shoulder at me. “What are you doing here, spear-ear? Back on your stump!”

I frowned to her. She enjoyed ridiculing me, calling me “spear-ear” as a slight, though I did not know why she hated me so badly. Perhaps she had been too deeply indoctrinated about the terrors of elvenkind in her past.

I said, “Your comrade will die if he doesn’t get help.”

Frida ripped the convulsing man’s shirt off, on her knees beside him, and started shoving down on his chest. “You think I don’t know that?!”

“That won’t help,” I pointed out. “His heart is not the issue. He’s not suffocating, either.”

She bared her bright white teeth at me, twisting her pretty features. “If you aren’t going to be a help, then get the fuck out of here!”

The Lepers circled Frida protectively, eyeing me. They wanted to fight me, for no other reason than their leader did.

“There’s an herb in the forest that will help,” I pointed out. “It will smooth his breathing. He will be vomiting for a week, but it’ll be better than dying.”

“Fuck off. How do you know—”

“Decades spent in the woods in Alfheim have lent themselves well to my knowledge of herbs and elixirs, Frida Gorndeen.”

Her bluster died on her lips, simmering. I could read the rage beneath her fair face. She looked down at the dying man, where the veins in his neck were starting to turn black from infection.

I said, “Let me go. I can be back in ten minutes. I know where the herbs are located.”

“Like Hel you will! I let you go now, you’re never coming back.”

Of course, that had been my plan. But seeing this manactuallyabout to die changed that. I would find a different means of escaping my captivity here.

I shrugged, not willing to play into her hand, and turned to leave the scene . . .

Knowing Frida would call out to me a moment later.

“Spear-ear! Get out there and find those fucking plants, then. And if you’re fucking me here, I’ll fuck you twice over down the line. Understand me?”

I smiled to myself at her outburst, nodded, and took off through the trees, out of the Leper camp.

Locating the specific herbs I needed— a spate of fungi hidden deep beneath some overturned, rotted treebark—took me a few minutes.

As I crouched to pull the fungi from the soil, my eyes teetered over the top of the rotted bark, deeper into the woods.

The forest called to me. Ravinica called to me, and I debated tossing aside my mission and leaving once and for all.

This is your opportunity, Corym. Do not squander it, because you may not have eyes off you for a long time after this.

With a sigh, I shook my head.

Words filtered in calmly behind me, drawing me up short and making my body go rigid with surprise.

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