Page 31 of When Storms Collide

Phineas crossed his arms over his chest, raising a skeptical brow. “I think not. One of them can go out and get it. I won’tleave again. I am owed this antidote just as much as they are. We made a deal.”

“I’ll go,” Puck offered, not wanting to argue further.

We didn’t want to raise suspicion by continually sending him off for ingredients, it was best if we went ourselves this time.

“I’ll go with you,” Tess offered, “can’t be out here alone in a time like this.”

“We all should go,” Saanvi offered, swinging her legs over the side of the table. “We could easily be ambushed—we need strength in numbers.”

“Youwon’t be going anywhere,” Alastir spoke without glancing up from his concoction. “You won’t be leaving this shop for two days, at least.”

Kenna bit her lip, clearly hesitant to leave Saanvi here alone.

“I’ll go with you,” I spoke, moving towards the door. “Three is better than one.”

Puck nodded in confirmation, his hand on the knob.

“And what, exactly, are we searching for?” Puck asked.

“A plant with dark red leaves and bright red flowers. You can’t miss it… its unmistakable. Though it only grows in Dragon’s Hollow.”

“Seriously?” Tess murmured under her breath, exasperated.

By the end of this day, we would have gone back and forth enough times that we could have made it from one end of Istmere to the other.

“Back to Dragon’s Hollow, then…” I said reluctantly as Puck opened the door.

We stepped out of the shop and out into The Shadow once more.

We weren’t exactly sure of the way back to the staircase that led out of The Shadow from Alastir’s family home. What we did know was the general direction we needed to move in. Tess and I followed Puck, allowing him to take the lead. We had pulled our cloaks over our heads and kept our gazes turned down, hoping not to draw any attention. It would have been helpful if one of us were a Nightshade and could use our heightened sense of smell to guide us.

Luckily, we didn’t pass the spot where we had slain Kane and his men again. We made it out of The Shadow and back into Prins as the weather took a turn. The sky overhead was turning an ominous grey color, the clouds roiling together angrily. A single raindrop fell against my cheek and I lifted my hand to wipe it away, raising my gaze towards the sky.

I couldn’t be certain that this storm was a natural one and not of magical origin, and the thought had a shiver runningdown my spine. But we were already halfway there, and there was no turning back now. Alastir needed the Dragon’s breath from Dragon’s Hollow to complete the Noctani antidote, and there was nothing that would stop us from retrieving it.

I felt a hope begin to wedge itself deep in my chest, and I tried to shake it away. Alastir had said he wasn’t sure if this spell would return the Noctani to their original state. Or if they would even survive it. The thought that I could lose Nikolai forever made my gut twist and my head throb. The fact that I wasn’t deadhadto mean something. I feared if the antidote killed the Noctani, then I would die too. I didn’t think there was any other way to get around the binding, despite it being broken in its current state.

I sent a silent prayer up to the Mother that the antidote didn’t kill them. That would be a worst-case scenario, and one we couldn’t afford.

We swung right on the cobbled streets as the sky opened up, sending a light rainfall down upon us. My feet splashed in the shallow rain puddles as we walked, cleansing Kane’s blood from my boots. By the time we had crested the hill into Dragon’s Hollow I was tiring, and I could see the same in Tess and Puck. It had been an incredibly long day, and nightfall was threatening to descend. We had been back and forth what felt like a million times, and we hadn’t thought it would take us this long. We hadn’t planned to stay the night in this part of the realm.

We had to make it back to Alastir before the sun set at the least, we had no place else to stay overnight except for hishome. We couldn’t risk an inn, despite my craving for a plush bed at the moment.

“Where should we begin searching?” Tess asked, pulling her cloak tighter around herself to help warm her skin and ward off the chill that had settled in the air.

“The fields where we used to train?” Puck asked, brow raised. “There are all sorts of flora towards the forest, I can’t quite remember ever seeing Dragon’s breath though.”

“We might not have noticed it if we weren’t searching for it,” I reminded him. “And it could have been the wrong season.”

“That’s true,” he conceded.

Thunder cracked loudly overhead, followed by a slow and steady rumble that vibrated through my feet and up my spine. Lightning streaked through the sky and hit one of the buildings behind us, sending sparks flying and a loud crash through the air.

“We’d better hurry if for no other reason than to get out of this weather,” Tess grumbled, forging onward, down the other side of the hill.

It was only about a twenty-minute walk through the rain-slicked streets before we glimpsed the old training fields in the distance. Puck had been right, there was flora of all shapes and colors sprouting and blooming on the outskirts of the forest.

I wave uneasiness rolled over me as I recalled that this exact forest was where we had seen Donika’s Araneoch monsters for the first time. Tess cast me a glance that told me she was thinking the same thing. We trudged towards the forest edgeand scanned the plants for dark red leaves with bright red flowers.

---