Page 116 of Cursed to Be Mine
As we were making that one, Sau told me it used to be used as a torture method. Hang someone upside down. Squirt one drop on the bottom of their foot, and wait for it to come out their shoulder.
The SCU made it illegal (and regardless of what Khalid had told me, Sau made it seem like the Special Crimes Unit really was their government), so this batch was for defense only. Although the house was protected to keep out other sups, she wanted to be prepared in case that spell was broken.“In war, rely on nothing.”
Testing another drop of the green potion on the strip of paper, she waits a second, then nods. “Make a note of this color, Scarlett. This is what you want it to look like. If it’s too light, add more spoiled meat. If it’s too dark, add more banana. You can’t go from black to green or white to green, but if you’re that far off, you’ll need to start over.”
After picking up the dropped peeler, I place it on the counter and lean over her shoulder to look at the forest-green drop in amongst a variety of colors.
“Here,” she says, picking up the paper. “Tear this into bits so each one has one spot of color while I go get you a notebook to put them in. It’ll be your grimoire, and we can go over all the steps you just learned.”
Nodding, I take it from her and move over to the table, away from the pot of ‘shit.’ Although she put the lid on it, it absolutely reeks.
As she heads out of the kitchen, I start to tear up thecolor dots, trying to remember which one was what.
The greens are for the pestilence potion we just made, and I lay them out on the table in a row of increasing shades.
The reds are the ifrit potion we started with. The color to aim for is a dark maroon.
The blues are from the healing potion, and that was the biggest batch we made. Her boys are ‘boys’ and haven’t learned much healing magic, preferring instead to study those that can kill. Leno, her second eldest, is the only one with much healing magic, but his magic comes from his plants and requires him to have access to them. So we made a lot of potions for them to carry.
My stomach twists as I envision just how many we made, and my mind drifts to Khalid. Both him and his mother assured me he was safe, but there’s a feeling I just can’t shake that he’s going to get hurt.
“Gods, that’s an awful smell.”
The sound of a deep feminine voice causes me to jump, and the chair I’m on creaks beneath my weight. Pushing to my feet, I blush as I turn to face the newcomer.
Her muscles are just as toned as Sau’s, but her stance is less graceful. She walks with her shoulders leading like a man rather than with her hips. More masculine, which is highlighted by her shaved head and lack of make up. Her eyes are pierced, as is her nose and ears. Tattoos crawl down her neck, and if I saw her on the street, I would have assumed she was in a biker gang.
She moves both hands around intricately. A tattoo of abstract lines glows lightly on her neck, and the sewage smell instantly disappears. I take a deep, much needed breath, drawing her attention to me.
She turns, and when her eyes catch mine, I have an instinctive urge to shout for Sau, my heart beating fast and my hands growing clammy.
She smiles at me, but that doesn’t make her look any more approachable.
“You must be Khalid’s girl. Scarlett, right?”
I nod jerkingly, wondering how long Sau will be. I have no idea what the rest of the house looks like, so can’t picture how long it’ll take her to go wherever there are notebooks and fetch me one.
“I hear he’s bonded with you already,” she says as she takes a seat and gestures for me to join her where I was.
I stay standing for a moment before settling back in my chair. I trust Khalid not to have left me with anyone that will hurt me.
“Aren’t you worried you’ll lose yourself?”
“Um…” I look at her in confusion.
“He hasn’t told you, has he?” She snorts. “Just typical of the men here. Do what we say. Don’t ask questions. They’re so boneheaded and old fashioned. In my family, women are treated equally.”
“Khalid treats me like an equal,” I say defensively, only to immediately recall him biting out my implant. I’m still not sure how he managed that, must’ve used magic, but he didn’t ask me. I didn’t even know he was doing it, and then he came inside me with the sole purpose of getting me pregnant. Although I agreed to it, I wasn’t… A frown pulls at my lips as I struggle to truly assess my feelings about it now that I’m outside of the bubble that is Khalid.
“So he’s told you all about the blood bond then, has he?” she asks, reaching over to touch my arm. “About how his feelings will mix with yours, so you lose allsight of whoyouactually are? If he wants you pregnant, bam, you’re suddenly willing to be pregnant. If he wants you docile, poof. ‘What can I make you for lunch, honey?’ If he loves you…” She looks at me in a way that curls my stomach more than the pestilence potion did. A heat crawls up my arm where she’s touching me, and I pull it away, resisting the urge to rub her essence off me.
“That’s not true,” I say, but my words are weak with uncertainty, and like a shark smelling blood, she leans in.
“Your relationship is with Khalid, and if he finds out I’m talking to you like this, he’ll probably kill me.”
Her eyes say she isn’t joking, and my breath catches in my throat.
“But I won’t be able to live with myself if you don’t know what you’re getting into.”
