Page 66 of New Nebraska Home

My head was pounding, my mouth was bone dry, my jaw ached, and it felt like there was a cut on my head that stung. I couldn’t take a full breath without wanting to scream, so I was pretty sure I had broken or bruised a few ribs, and every bone in my body was weary and achy. It felt like I had aged forty years in just a few hours.

But there was something else that was wrong. Something was nagging at my gut.

“Why?” I asked, grimacing at the deep breath it had taken to be able to speak.

“Why what?” Brock asked. “Why did they head here? Because they’re small-minded evil people, and they thought with Malik in the jail, you would be unprotected.”

I shook my head. That wasn’t what I needed to know.

With another painful, deep breath, I tried again.

“Why did they leave?”

“Malik and I came back, and I think the dragon fire scared them.” Cal shrugged. “Maybe they thought the fire department would cause too much attention, or they didn’t want to burn?”

I shook my head again.

“They were ready to torch the place. Why did they leave? Why not stay and fight? They were already inside. Even with you guys back, it would have been four against a mob.”

“Because they got what they came for,” Malik said, running down the stairs. “We need to go now.”

“What did they come for?” Cal asked like he knew the answer, but didn’t want to say it out loud.

“Malik, no, don’t—” I needed him not to say what he was about to say. Pushing past the pain, I got to my feet and looked him in the eyes. “Tell me they didn’t come for him.”

“Leif is gone,” he said.

My knees weakened as I tried to wrap my head around what he’d said. “No, no.”

Malik pulled me into his arms, his grip sending waves of pain through my body. And it was exactly what I needed. I screamed but stifled myself almost immediately, gritting my teeth, holding the pain inside, and letting it sharpen my senses.

Pain may not have been pleasant, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t useful. Pain could fuel determination. It could keep you moving if nothing else was strong enough. If you used it right, pain could be the difference between life and death. My grandmother taught me how to use it, to not let it overwhelm you and defeat you. You only took what you needed, and you blocked out the rest.

“Where?” I growled, pushing myself out of his arms and looking for my baseball bat.

“Town center, but he is surrounded by people who’ve all been drugged.” Malik kept his arm on my back and handed me another bat.

“Drugged? With what?” Brock asked.

“Zmei, he is a basilisk,” Cal said. “He drugged everyone with his venom.”

“How do we undo basilisk venom?” I asked, not worrying about the fact that a freaking giant snake was slithering around my town.

Cal and Brock looked at me like they had no idea.

“Will they recover?” I asked.

Again, they didn’t have an answer.

“I think I might know,” Malik said, still rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve done a lot of reading on rare and mythical creatures, looking for my family. If we make him shift, then behead him. The venom should lose its magic.”

“Should?” I asked, leaning on the bat like a cane. “This isn’t a time for ‘should.’”

“It’s all hypothetical. I’ve never used it, only read about it, and some of the books on rare species like that are a little iffy on the details or are just wrong.”

That was annoying. I hated having unreliable information, but it wasn’t Malik’s fault.

“It’s the best information we have. Let’s behead the bastard. Do we need a guillotine or a silver sword?” I was only partially joking. “And what will happen to all the people he poisoned?”

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