Page 5 of A Rose Among Snakes

My stomach sank as he continued, my shoulders drooping with exhaustion.

“Do you know how much he ingested?” The stranger asked.

I found him watching me with a solemn expression. A shaft of sunlight filtered through a weak spot in the canopy of leaves, bathing his face in golden rays. My breath caught as I met his vibrant, green eyes, but I kept my voice even as I replied.

“I do not.”

He rubbed his jaw and turned his gaze to Jem, who had stopped laughing but still wore a blissful smile on his face.

“Do you have anyone to help you get home?”

“Mihrra!” My mother’s call echoed throughout the woods and I heaved a sigh of relief.

“Yes, that’s my mother.”

“Good,” he said. He kept his eyes on Jehiam. “If you don’t mind then, I must be getting on my way.”

“Of course.”

He backed up a couple of steps and I made to get on my feet, but he held a hand up halting me. He gave me a curt nod and turned to walk back up the embankment.

“Thank you,” I called. “I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”

He stopped and glanced over his shoulder, the corners of his mouth pulling down ruefully. “It’s the least I could do.”

I remembered the flask in my hand and called out to his back. “Wait, you forgot your flask.”

“Keep it,” he said without turning around. He reached the top and disappeared out of view. Thundering hooves a moment later announced his departure.

“Mihrra?” my mother called again.

“We’re over here.” My voice carried through the dark woods, even above the haunting laughter of the teenagers lost in a Ziffem-induced fog.

Chapter Three

It was a grueling night for us all. We had set Jem up in my room downstairs next to our mother’s bedroom, while I took the loft he shared with the twins. Mother and I had carried him home, one arm slung over each of our shoulders. It wasn’t entirely clear if his weakness stemmed from drinking in excess or the insane laughter erupting from him, but regardless, my mother berated him the entire walk home.

For hours, the sound of Jem’s heaving echoed off the wooden walls while our mother murmured and soothed him. When he wasn’t vomiting, though, he was moaning and begging for someone to help him. I lay in bed, Savine and Sashir asleep on either side, their arms wrapped around me for comfort. Listening to Jem’s agony as his high dissipated was gut-wrenching. I hadn’t stopped trembling since we had arrived home. Once the shock wore off, my mind was racing, replaying every horrific moment, but my body didn’t seem to understand I was not in danger. My limbs twitched at random intervals, and when Mother called for me, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Beside me, Sashir snored and rolled to face away. I pried Savine off my body, brushing her wildblonde curls away from her face before sliding out of the bed and descending the creaking ladder in a rush.

I found my mother in a chair beside Jehiam’s bed. She was holding a wet cloth to his forehead and turned to look at me as I stepped on a squeaking floorboard. Her normally tidy hair was tumbling loose around her face, and her lips were pressed into a thin line.

“Mihrra, we need more water.”

“How is he?” I asked as I took the empty bucket from where it rested at her feet.

“Not well, but it appears to be subsiding.”

Jehiam cried out, writhing in pain. His back arched off the mattress then dropped just as quickly. He whimpered but relaxed as my mother swiped away the tear rolling down his cheek.

My stomach lurched and I rushed outside into the brisk night air to fill the bucket at the well, grateful for the opportunity to escape the misery inside that room. I left it with my mother without taking another peek at Jem. I crawled back into the cramped bed with the twins and shut my eyes.

How could I even fathom leaving my family like this?

I was standing high up on a cliff edge overlooking a raging river bathed in moonlight. I heard the crunch of a footstep upon crumbling rock behind me, but when I turned around, my heel slipped over the edge. I couldn’t even scream as I fell, barely catching myself on the rock above my head.Panting, I glanced up to see a familiar face staring down at me, the corners of his gold-brown eyes creased with disappointment.

“Father, help me,” I gasped.

“You let me down, Mihrra.”

---