Page 111 of Amethyst Flame
Because… “Why’d you change your mind?”
Dane blinked, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his gaze was full of regret. “Now that my people are involved, now that they know your hive is still operational, I’m not certain what they will do. You’ll be taken to the compound. I believe they will try to sustain your life. And test you, train you. You’re too valuable an asset for them not to exploit.”
“But…?” I said, dread making me cold.
“I don’t think they will ever allow you access to the dragon potion.” Dane pinched his nose. “God, you’ve got me talking like you now. Anyway, once my people arrive in Vegas, I won’t be in command. I won’t be calling the shots, and I promised that I would try to save your life from the molecular degradation you’re facing. I want to make good on that promise—while I still can.”
“You said the dragons won’t save me,” I reminded him.
“But they may extend your life. Buy you time. Make you more important in the eyes of my superiors. And if fighting Hive Will today will reinforce your dominance over your butterflies, then that’s even more time I can give you.”
On the one hand, he was scaring the shit out of me. And on the other, still scaring the shit out of me…but with a side of tears. Because if he was breaking his rules and going against his superiors, then he had to care about me, right?
Another explosion of lights shimmered across the windshield, lighting up the sky above the Strip. My imagination supplied the screams from the people below. Okay, I was back to being fully terrorized.
Jacob handed me the case, which I put on my lap. Only my butterflies could unlock it, so I gave the hand command for [open], and the latch released in a puff of purple.
Inside, heavy foam nestled a small vial of grass-green goo. I excised it with a delicate pinch of my finger and thumb. The glass was hot to the touch…and it was supposed to go in me. Like,inme.
I chewed my lip. “The first time I was infected, my butterflies were accidentally slathered on a cut on my hand.” And mixed in with pomegranate smoothie.
Dane lifted his hips and from his pocket produced a pocketknife. Of course he would have one. Always prepared, right?
“Actually, I’m just going to swallow it,” I said. My heart fluttered frantically in my chest as if it had grown wings. “Get it in me faster.”
I twisted the top off, and with it, a sinister spiral of smoky green sparkled above the lip of the glass. It was like I was back in Legendelirium with a mysterious elixir. Would it kill me or save me?
“Take it like a shot,” Jacob said. “One gulp. You’ve got this.”
I didn’t have time to dither. I put the vial to my lips, docked my head back, and swallowed the heat in one gulp. The taste hit me after—sweet like candy, sweet like poison.
Felt like an angry swarm of bees bulleting down in my throat and around my belly.
My guts clenched to hurl them back out, but I ground my jaw together and motioned for Dane to drive. Like now.
He pulled out of the gas station as a roar filled my ears and tears blurred my vision. My chest tightened, heat spreading into my back and shoulders. I drew a deep breath, willing my body to accept the invasion. But oxygen only fed the fire. For a moment, I worried about spontaneous human combustion.
“You okay, Mo?” Jacob said from the back.
I nodded, but a shiver happened at the same time, so really I just twitched all over. Instead, I offered a thumbs up.
It was a lie. My whole body burned and tingled like an arm or a leg that had been stuck in an awkward position had fallen asleep and was now waking. I panted, breathless, as the sensations consumed me.
Will had drunk a potion to get high. This didn’t feel like a high. This felt like the lowest burning pit in hell. But maybe that was where dragons were born.
Dane took the Kidnapper toward the glittering promise of the Strip. The sky above had turned deep, velvety indigo, cut by occasional blue lightning from the ground.
A wave of hot nausea swept me, and I shuddered through it…and belatedly made the command gesture to [heal]…myself. If it did any good, I couldn’t tell. My vision mottled with swampy green color.
Traffic was stopped, people hanging their heads out their windows to watch the sky or standing beside their idling cars, trying to see what the hold-up was. Cops blocked the flow toward the Strip, but Dane flashed some sort of badge and was waved through. A helicopter buzzed overhead, so I knew we were headed in the right direction.
Dane drove up onto the sidewalk, the Kidnapper’s bulk bullying people out of the way when they stood gaping like idiots…until we came to a complete stop in the crush of people and cars.
“We can’t get any closer,” Dane said.
Funny, we were outside the brand-new hotel where the EDM concert had been held, and it sounded like the same damn J-pop/synthwave mashup playing. That was when? Aweekago? I’d spent whole weeks binging TV and gaming in super sloth mode, nothing meaningful changing in my life. But this week? Fuck.
I opened my door and got out. My legs held, so that was something. But my skin felt weird, and I didn’t trust myself to speak. I was too afraid of what would come up my throat. My brain was on fire, my sight hyperfocused yet blurry at the edges.
