Page 76 of A Shadow in the Reaping
"No voice? There's no one here, it's just me. No one will hear you."
NO VOICE. STOLEN. I write.
"What?.." Ediye whispers. She tilts my head up to look in my eyes. Her gaze flows across my skin and she leans back to examine my throat. I see the swirl of her magic transform her eyes. It feels like looking into the heart of the universe, sparkling stars swirling like galaxies hurtling through the cosmos. "Silver?"
I nod.
Ediye's fingers travel a gentle path on my neck and she closes her eyes. She presses the precise point where the needle entered to deliver the toxin that stripped my siren song from my flesh. Ediye begins an incantation but my throat burns until the pain is unbearable. I clamp my hand around her wrist and beg her to stop with a soundless plea.
"My God," she whispers, her gaze flowing down my arms before they land on my face once more. The stars recede from her eyes as they return to their familiar, warm black. "Some kind of spell also, Lu."
The burn of my throat meets the cold serum in my blood. I feel a flutter of pain like pins needling my eye sockets. My fingertips are numb.
"Where is the Reaper?"
Killed. Back in the Shadow Realm,I write, though I can barely grip the pen. The numbness in my fingers climbs the backs of my hands, passes my wrists. My tongue feels too thick in my mouth.
"What did they put in you?"
Don't know. Blood of Adamen. Something black.
My hand jerks across the page. My arms and legs tremble. I drop to the floor and the last thing I hear is Ediye calling my name. The world goes dark.
When I wake, shivering and confused, Ediye is hovering over me, wiping a cold cloth across my skin. I try to talk but no sound comes out. For a moment I think it's a dream, a terrible dream. When I see the worry and despair in Ediye's eyes, I remember that it's real. I can't make a sound. Not an incredulous laugh at the irony of fates. Not a sweet song to bring Ediye joy or sooth the ball of nerves in my chest. Not a desolate cry of sorrow and loss. Nothing.
"You had a seizure," Ediye says, her voice quiet and soothing. I roll my tongue across my teeth and try to cleanse a fucking awful taste from my mouth.
What ungodly beast took a shit in my mouth?I write.
Ediye looks a little relieved by my note and almost smiles. She passes me a cup of warmed blood and nods to a second mug and a teapot that waft rank steam into the air. "It's a mix offerula asafoetidaand some other herbs I had on hand. It seemed to help."
Great. Here's hoping it doesn't happen again. Cheers.
Ediye watches as I take a sip of the blood and hang my pounding head. The fever still rages. Sweat still mists my skin. The numbness has receded from my fingertips but I feel weak, like just casting my hand across the page takes more strength than I have.
Thank you, Ediye. They would have kept going if you hadn't shown up.
"What do you mean?"
Something about 'waiting for the witch serum to take effect.' Then following it with a wolf serum. They wanted to make me into a hybrid weapon and use me against the Shadow Realm. It would somehow transform my venom into Angelwing poison, among other 'upgrades' I guess.
"Angelwing? You would... produce it?.."
I nod. My hand begins to tremble again and I feel the pins prodding at my eyes once more. I snap my fingers and point to the cup that contains the ass-smelling herbs. Ediye passes it over and I take a long drink and grimace, but the stabbing pain subsides, the tremor stops in my hand.
Ediye watches with a thoughtful, pensive frown. "Maybe that's what's going on with your body, Lu. Whatever process they started, it has begun but is incomplete. This witch serum is doing something, obviously. But maybe your body needs whatever is supposed to come next in order to stabilize."
Not fucking happening. You didn't see the hybrid's dick. It was abnormally huge. What if it makes my labia into a parachute?
Ediye smirks and runs her hand across my cheek. "Though I'm glad they didn't steal your fucked-up sense of humour, we really need to figure out what's happening to you and stop it before it gets worse. The apothecary I told you to see in Cairo, did you meet him?"
I nod.
"Good. He's partial to vampires. We'll go to him, he might be able to help," she says, standing over me as I remain seated on the floor. She grabs a cushion from her couch and guides me down until my head rests on the pillow. "Stay here, try not to move. I'll gather what I need to make a portal."
I nod and close my eyes. I listen to the sounds of Ediye fleeting through the kitchen, opening cupboard doors and muttering reminders to herself. I hear the pestle grinding fragrant herbs against the mortar.
"Need pine needles," Ediye says as she walks past me and opens the front door. I hear her footfalls bounce down the porch. I know she'll walk to the right side of the house where a pine tree shades her bedroom from the afternoon sun.
