Page 93 of The Girl in the Forest

“Swallow the bits. The leaves will neutralize the poison.”

Her hand lightly brushed my back, and the contact was so blindingly painful I nearly blacked out. I gasped for breath. Tears pooled in my eyes, but with the leaves in my mouth, I couldn’t make a sound. Saliva seemed nonexistent after my drooling. Still, I chewed, forced myself to swallow.

“Where…”

“Vampires,” she hissed, leaning close. “Just listen, Noa. Don’t talk. We’re in cells. Deep underground. Levi is across from us. They shot iron bolts through him. One in his shoulder. One through his leg. It means he can’t shift into his wolf. It will kill him.”

I opened my mouth as she pushed another leaf against my lips. The crumbling pieces had the woodiness of stale herbs, and I tried not to gag.

“I can’t get to him,” Laura whispered. “But I can see him. He’s unconscious. A blessing for now. They dosed us with wolfbane powder at the house. I’m immune. Ever since… well, ever since the Alpen, I swore I’d never be vulnerable like that again. I’m a healer. I learned what plants could blunt wolfbane and I’ve been dosing myself for years. I pretended to be affected, and you need to pretend too, once the wolfbane wears off, or they’ll keep dosing you.”

She tipped a small bottle against my lips.

“They left water—it’s pure. I’ve been drinking it and I’d know if it wasn’t. Tiny sips. You’ll feel like crap, but it’s from your back and your arm, not the wolfbane.”

She was readjusting my shirt, which seemed oddly loose and… in pieces.

“Noa.” Her low tone was professional. “They cut through all your runes out of spite. To blunt any magic. I’ve stopped the worst of the bleeding, but if a guard comes by with food, I’ll ask for something to fight infection. The wolfbane acts as an anesthetic, mostly for nerve pain, so it’s going to get worse as the wolfbane wears off. You need to let it wear off, let the overdose leach from your system, and I’m sorry I’m not as good as Gray. I can’t heal you the way he does, but I can make it easier for you.”

“How…” I choked out.

“I can speed the healing. If you syphon a bit of energy, flow it into me, I’ll close the deepest cuts. You’ll need to try, Noa. It’s important.”

I curled my fingers into the straw, but the effort to syphon spun through me until I was dizzy. Spasms riddled my body. The burning was like worm poison all over again, only a hundred times worse, and Grayson wasn’t there to help me.

With the pain, I became unhinged, drifting, unable to hold my fingers still enough to make sustained contact with the straw or the stones beneath. I closed my eyes, breathed shallowly, fighting the sounds that quaked and struggled in my throat when I needed to be silent. I would not draw the attention of the guards Laura talked about—the ones who cut me—who would gloat at my weakness.

I hated it with each breath I sucked in through cracked lips. Hated the grief that wrenched through me. I’d failed when it mattered the most. I hadn’t protected my friends—I’d led them into disaster. And now, I couldn’t even syphon a spark of energy to help Laura with the healing.

“It’s okay.” Laura leaned close and brushed the hair from my damp cheek. “We’ll try later. Sleep now, sweetheart.”

“Sing… to me,” I whispered.

Tears stung my eyes when she started to sing.

Hush little baby… don’t you cry.

Her voice was sweet, pure, and if it was an illusion, I still drifted until the pain brought me back. My skin grew so taut I thought I was splitting open, inch by inch. The heat was worse. Not just my skin, but the muscles beneath—was this the damaged magic in the runes? Bleeding out?

I stared at the bloody slashes carved through the wolf sigil.

Whoever had wielded the knife paid extra attention to the wolf, nearly obliterating it.

Laura was still beside me, pouring precious drinking water over my back, down my arm to my wrist where the blood was sticky between my fingers. I gripped her hand, pulled a thread of heat and pushed it through her. She stroked with her free hand, moving over each wound until the muscles relaxed. The throb lessened, as if fewer cuts were open to the air. Laura leaned in, murmured her suspicions. The vampires had rubbed ointment into the wounds to keep them raw and open—one of their tortures. But I was the faille. I was a valuable threat that needed to be weakened. Hadn’t Mace warned me?

Hadn’t Grayson looked at me with shadows in his eyes? Trusting me, despite his anger over the danger?

For endless minutes, I stared at nothing while my heart beat and tears ran down my cheeks. For him, what I’d put him through. The anguish.

“Wait for me,” I’d told him. “I’ll be right back.”

The sob that broke free could not be muffled, but I pressed my lips against my fist and tried. In the dark, in the shadows, time had little meaning. I slept, and when I woke, the pain had lessened enough for me to look around. Laura was sleeping, curled in the corner. I had questions, but I wouldn’t disturb her for the answers.

I pushed upright, breathing through the effort. It was easier than I’d feared, and I sorted through what I could remember. The attack had been planned because someone had seeded the empty house with a girl’s energy. And if the enemy knew we were coming, they would have also attacked the team waiting in the forest.

Hours would pass before our silence became suspicious. Grayson would learn what had happened. He’d be angry. But he’d fight to find us. Mace and Fallon would fight, too. Bring reinforcements. Wolves I didn’t even know would risk their lives—more debts that I would owe to the dead.

But Laura. Levi. I hadn’t saved them all those years ago just to watch them die now. I owed them my strength. My wits, my faille abilities, and despite bloody runes and weakness, I could still fight.

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