“Plus, what?”
“I’ve had a bad feeling all day. I don’t like that you’re sick. Something isn’t right.”
I’m about to tell him it’ll pass and I’ll probably be fine by morning, but I don’t get the chance.
When we walk back into the dining room, it’s mayhem. Several trolls are puking in trash cans, random buckets, and bowls.
A fae woman runs out the front door just in time to vomit in the bushes. She expels the contents of her stomach with so much force her wings bust out.
I cover my mouth, because watching everyone else hurl isn’t doing great things for my queasiness. “I thought it was just me.”
“Not just you, love.” Kirian’s arm tightens around my shoulders.
Most of the room has cleared out, but there are a few fae lingering by the bar as they try to pay their tab. But by the time we make it back over to our table, they start vomiting, too.
Every container in the place must be occupied, because the soupy barf splashes across the floor.
Oh my God.
I barely manage to suppress a gag. Groaning, I shield my eyes and avoid the awful smell by pressing my nose to Kirian’s chest.
“What can I do?” Damon gets up from his chair, and his face is flushed and covered in sweat.
He doesn’t look so good.
“Are you okay?” I ask, knowing he’s going to say he’s fine.
“I’m fine.” See?
“You’re not. You look like you’re about two seconds away from barfing back into your bowl.”
“Poison.” Damon directs the claim at Kirian. “It has to be.”
“Yes,” Kirian agrees, his voice strained.
Damon lets out a visible shudder as he clutches his middle. “I need to go to my room. I’m not about to regurgitate my dinner in front of everyone. Send a doctor my way when you get a chance.”
As he shuffles away, a hard cramp twists in my belly.
Kirian holds me tighter, and he sounds desperate when he pleads, “Kai, please fix her.”
“I can heal injuries, not illness.” The grumpy fae shakes his head. “You know this.”
“Try!”
Pursing his lips, Kai approaches me. As usual, his eyes have an emptiness to them when he brings his palms to my shoulders. Warmth comes from his hands, but other than that, I feel nothing.
“Better?” Kirian asks, so full of hope.
“No.” I lick my dry lips as a sickening gurgle rumbles in my gut.
“It’s no use.” Kai drops his hands. “I can’t cure poison.”
Kirian growls, but I can see from the resigned look on his face he already knew it wouldn’t work. “Torius, I need you stationed in the hallway outside our room. Kai, go find a doctor. They’re to treat Quinn first, no exceptions.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Kai jogs outside.
I can hear him shouting. Someone starts ringing a bell, and I’m not sure if it’s an emergency warning or part of the festivities still going on in the streets. There’s screaming, but I can’t tell if it’s happy sounds or if people are horrified by all the upchucking.
All I know is the loud sounds are making me feel worse.
“Poison,” I repeat, pressing a hand to my pounding head. When I glance up at Kirian, his face is twisted into a grimace of pain. Suddenly, my concern isn’t for myself anymore. I’ve never seen him look so pale before. “What kind of poison?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Kirian
As soon as we get to our room, Quinn runs to the toilet. I follow.
I don’t know what to do, and I feel helpless. I’ve never taken care of someone who suffers from ailments.
My mother got bad morning sickness when she was pregnant with Gia. That was a long time ago. I was young, and all she wanted was privacy.
Just as my father refused to leave her side then, I won’t leave Quinn now.
A wave of dizziness hits me as I wet a rag with cold water.
Having zero experience with illness, I don’t know how to recognize what my body needs. I feel something happening in my abdomen. My muscles cramp, and my stomach feels heavy, like a cannon ball is lodged inside my body.
“Is it normal for it to be this… violent?” I ask, wondering what’s in my immediate future.
Quinn’s laugh turns into a gag.
“For me? Yeah.” Her response is echoey because her face is hanging down into the toilet bowl. “You’ve never puked before? Not even once?”
“No. That might change soon, though,” I tell her, pressing the cloth to her forehead as I sink to the tiled floor.
I’ll hold off for as long as I can. Quinn needs me, so I’ll do everything I can to suppress my own urges.
“Poison,” she says again, worried. “Are we going to die?”
“No.”
Actually, I’m not sure. I’d like to think my body is strong enough to withstand something like this, but I don’t even know what this is.
There are many poisonous plants in the kingdom that can kill. It had to be in the soup, and there’s no way it got put there by accident. Too coincidental.
We were targeted.
My head swims and my throat burns. I feel a spasm in my diaphragm, and I can’t put off the inevitable any longer.
“Watch out.” I practically shove Quinn aside in my haste to get to the toilet. As I grasp the sides of the porcelain bowl, chunks and bile pass through my mouth. The odor of it makes me get sick all over again, and I heave until it seems like there’s nothing left. “Does it always smell this foul?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s nasty stuff.”
I don’t get a reprieve before my body is expelling more of the mysterious substance.
Amidst my vomiting, I realize Quinn is holding my hair back, just like I did for her. She rubs soft circles on my back and whispers soothing words. The wet rag mops the sweat from my forehead.
And I’ve never loved her more than I do right now.
She’s my best
