Page 259 of Halfblood Deceived

Kamilla gave Aella a quick hug and then left at full speed.

Aella went back to her room, and a minute later, a nurse woman-handled her back into bed and scolded her about ripping off her IV and the wires. Aella refused to let herself be plugged into any machines or bags of useless fluids. The burly nurse looked at Aella as if she was considering throttling her, reminding her of several nuns. She injected Aella with medication for pain and mercifully left her alone.

Aella stared out the window unseeingly, feeling lightheaded, but she forced herself to remember the previous day. There had to be something. A hint to make sense of the bloody mess she and Diana were in.

That morning, Diana had helped Aella make a salad to accompany the roasted potatoes, and chicken Aella cooked for brunch. They’d cleaned the house and watched an episode of Diana’s favorite show together before getting ready for work. Diana had been happy. She’d teased Aella good-naturedly about her relationship with Zeydan. And she’d told Aella a bit about her date with a woman the previous night.

They’d gone to work on Diana’s bike as always. And chatted with their coworkers for a bit before starting the night, as always.

There had been nothing out of the ordinary, except for Jessa scowling at Aella for no good reason and the blueberry muffins…

Aella sprung up from the bed. She almost landed on her butt again.

Diana had been fine until the muffins.

Where did those muffins come from?

Aella’s head hurt as if her skull were splitting in half as she tried to remember…

But she did.

Oh, goddess.

Was it possible that someone had poisoned Diana through the muffins?

She knew there were witches capable of casting mind-control curses, but could magic like that be put in a horrible, dry muffin?

And what if she was simply acting on her dislike for the muffin-maker?

“Only one way to find out,” Aella muttered.

If she was right…

Gods. If she was right, the person who infused a curse in that dreadful muffin and manipulated Diana into hurting her coworkers would want to finish their job.

And Aella had been a target, too. Only she and Diana had been bestowed the wretched muffins. So she was an unfinished business.

But they weren’t stupid enough to come after her while she was in the hospital. They wouldn’t attack her in front of Kamilla, either.

So, she had to be the stupid one.

She had to become bait.

Aella could be bait.

She’d been forced to be bait before.

For Diana, she’d gladly be bait.

Her friends would not approve of her bait plans. And they would run off and tell Kamilla or Zeydan because they were nosy. Well-intentioned, and caring, but nosy as Hell.

So she needed to escape from the hospital.

Fearing finding the scary nurse, Aella opened the window as far as it went. She was on the third floor.

“You’ve been tossed from worse heights,” she muttered.

And you broke your bones, an annoyingly right little voice reminded her.

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