Page 54 of Cursed Shadows

“Release me and I will tell you,” Baron replies, his voice calm, almost bordering on uninterested. My chest swells with hope.

“You think I’m a fool,” Anona laughs.

“Tell me, Anona, how do you feel?” Baron pauses. “Do you feel lightheaded, perhaps? Are you experiencing a shallowness of breath, a slight tingling in your fingers?”

She says nothing.

“It can be quite the agonizing way to go,” he continues. “Out of every poison in my collection,Crawler Mucustook the longest to develop an immunity.”

“We all inhaled it,” one of her henchmen points out.

Baron looks at him and nods. “Yes, we all did.”

“Then we’re all infected?” another one asks.

“It goes without saying, eh?” Baron chuckles.

“Mistress, I’m feeling tinglin’,” the same man says to Anona. She dismisses his concerns with a wave of her irritated hand.

“Who are you?” she asks Baron.

He shrugs, as if she should already know the answer. “My name is Revenant; perhaps you’ve heard of me?”

“No, I’ve never heard of you,” she barks back at him.

His smile broadens. “Then I am doing my job correctly.”

“Why do you carry such an arsenal of poisons?” she continues, and there’s a clean line of sweat beading from her brow. Either she’s nervous or theCrawler Mucusis beginning to work.

“Is that not quite obvious?”

“Answer the fucking question!” Anona yells at him.

“I’m an assassin,” Baron retorts with another shrug.

Anona swipes her arm across her forehead. Her skin grows paler by the second.

“Then what you speak is the truth?” she presses.

“I speak only the truth,” he responds matter-of-factly. “Release me if you do not wish to die a most painful death.”

“Argh, he’s bluffin’ mistress. That Mucus shit ain’t nothin’ but faerie potion,” scoffs Dravon.

“No, I’m havin’ a hard time breathin’,” one of the other men says. His skin is pasty white.

“Silence,” Anona responds, but there’s fear in her eyes. Her voice sounds tight and harsh. “Tell me which vial contains the antidote, or I’ll test each one on your pretty little angel friend.” With a nod of her head, she motions to Eilish.

My stomach drops and I notice Baron’s facial expression blanches for a split second before he catches himself.

Anona smiles broadly. “I imagine the angel doesn’t possess the same immunities you do?”

“I don’t care what you do to anyone here,” he responds, eyeing her narrowly. “The Shadow King hired me to ensure safe passage from Grimreap. I care as much for their lives as I do for yours.”

“You lie,” Anona retorts, with doubt in her voice.

“My own life, however, is something I care for very much. Release me and I will assist you.”

“We can’t give the angel the poisons,” Dravon reminds Anona. “Variant said he wants her alive.” He takes a deep breath. “He wants all o’ ‘em alive.”

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