Page 43 of Scales and Seduction

Without another word, I turn and rush across the bridge toward the cottage.

The moment I’m inside the cottage, the tension suffocates me. Silas is sitting next to the hearth in the living room with his eyes closed, caked with dried draugr blood. His eyes find mine, and I see the bone-deep exhaustion lingering there.

“Do you have the herb?” he asks, his voice tight and his brows furrowed with concern.

“Yes.” I rush down the hallway without saying another word.

Loran meets me in the bedroom doorway, dark purple circles underneath his eyes and a grim expression marring his face. I hand him the satchel, and his eyes light up. “I’ll get started.” He wastes no time, hurrying off into the kitchen, where he’ll draft up the antidote.

Ruby looks so fragile; the arrow is gone now, but the marred obsidian webbing has covered her entire back. Noodles is in his house cat form, curled against the bottom of her calf. He looks up at me, nodding sleepily and closing his eyes.She is weak.

I drop down to the bedside, holding her hand in mine so tightly, afraid that if I let her go, she might disappear. Her skin is clammy and cold, her breathing shallow. She’s losing the battle with the poison.

A fresh wave of fear swarms me, enveloping me like my heart’s in a vise.

“Ruby,” I whisper, brushing her damp hair back from her face. “I need you to come back to me. Please.” My voice cracks, my eyes growing wet. “I can’t lose you. Not now that I’ve found you..”

Her fingers twitch faintly in mine, a tiny flicker of hope that maybe I wasn’t too late. I lean down, pressing a soft kiss to her moist temple. “When you wake up, Ruby, I promise I will give myself to you. I am yours, in this life and the next. Everything I have will be yours. Nothing will ever harm you again. I promise you.”

“I love you.”

My mind buzzes with a thousand questions as I clutch Ruby’s tiny hand in mine. Each passing moment feels like a lifetime as her skin grows clammy and cold. My face is tear-stained, but I’m far less concerned that Noodles or Loran might see it now. It’s not weak to love your mate like I do, is it? No. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Loran stands in the doorway. The creaking wood sounds much louder in the silence of the room. In his trembling hands, he has a bowl full of the antidote. “I didn’t have a vial…” His voice is soft. “Silas left. I believe he was struggling with his emotions over this. We both really like her.”

“It’s alright; I know he’s more sensitive than he lets on…” I manage to say. Not that I don’t care about my friend. I do, genuinely. I know he is sensitive to energy, and the home’s oppressive weight hangs in the air.

Loran gets closer, pulling Ruby’s body upright so she’s leaning against his chest. He hangs her mouth open with two of his fingers. I hold my breath, waiting as he pours the thick gangrenous liquid down her throat.

Ruby’s chest rises with a shaky breath; her pale skin under the poison’s grip has turned nearly purple. For a long, endless moment, the world stops, and then her eyelids flutter.

I move forward, my heart thundering in my chest. “Ruby?”

Loran pauses me with a look. “Don’t get too close yet. She may vomit the antidote.”

Ruby looks as if she’s waking from a nightmare as the pale gray of her cheeks slowly pinkens. Her lashes flutter over her glossy, hazy eyes as if she can’t tell where she is. A soft groan escapes her lips, and she clutches her mouth, her face contorting in pain.

Then, without warning, Ruby lurches forward across the bed. Her stomach heaves, and she gags viciously. She vomits with such force across the bed sheets, it nearly makes it to the opposite end of the bed. Her body trembles as she lets out a defeated animal noise.

Loran’s hand is on her back, holding back her curls from her cheeks. “It’s alright; it will pass.”

I hate how my own stomach violently lurches as the gagging continues until her stomach empties.

A ragged breath hitches in Ruby’s throat, each gasp a desperate, shallow struggle for air. Her gaze is vacant; her eyes look so unfocused as she stammers, “I… I saw him.” Her voice is barely a whisper as she slurs her words like she’s not awake. “There was a man…” She swallows roughly, allowing her mouth a moment to moisten after hours of beating back death. Her voice cracks as she tries her best to gain more volume than a whisper. “He said the poison would…awaken something inside me.”

Loran shakes his head as though it’s a preposterous idea, mouthing to me that it’s impossible. “Come, let’s take off this sheet and lay you back down.”

I know he’s right. The poison can’t have that side effect on anyone. She likely hallucinated while she danced between the waking world and the darkness of the unknown.

Ruby shakes her head side to side vehemently. “No, he said my ancestors belonged here.” She grabs at her head. “He said I was one of you.”

My brow furrows in concern as I watch her fight against Loran’s gentle pressure on her to lie back down. She’ll refuse to quit until she feels heard.

“What did he mean, then?” I humor her, hoping once she has said her piece, she might calm back down.

Her eyes close, and slowly she leans back into the pillows, sighing in comfort. “I can’t remember… It was blurry. He said because of my ancestry that the poison will change me and that you love me very much.”

Her tiny hand rubs her eyes as she winces in pain. “My eyes hurt and feel funny.” Once her hand falls away and she opens them again, I see it. In her deep brown doe eyes is a vibrant flash of lavender. It flickers before we have time to fully grasp what it is. The glow fades away, and my heart skips at the implication of it all.

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