Chapter 213
Chapter 213
ARIA
And I couldn’t do anything but watch it come.
Couldn’t move. Couldn’t fight. Couldn’t even scream.
ཊཱི 67%u
Finished
The blade buried itself in my abdomen, just below my ribs. Deep. So deep I felt it scrape against bone. The pain was unlike anything I’d ever experienced-white-hot and all-consuming, radiating out from the wound in waves that made everything else disappear.
Ivory pulled the knife free with a wet sound that made me want to vomit. Blood poured from the wound, warm and thick, pooling beneath me.
“The Hunt always has accidents,” she repeated, standing and looking down at me with something like satisfaction. “People too weak to compete. It’s tragic, but understandable. You simply weren’t prepared for the demands. No one will blame you for failing. They’ll just be relieved they don’t have to watch you struggle anymore p>
She turned and walked away. Just left me there, bleeding out on the forest floor, dying alone while she disappeared into the trees without looking back.
I pressed my hand against the wound, trying to stem the bleeding, but blood just kept flowing between my fingers. Too much blood. Too fast. I was going to die here. Was going to bleed out in the forest while the Hunt continued around me, while my partner-the person who was supposed to work with me-walked away after murdering me.
This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real.
But the pain was real. The blood was real. The weakness spreading through my limbs as my body struggled to compensate for massive blood loss was devastatingly terrifyingly real.
I needed help. Needed medical attention. Needed something to stop the bleeding or I’d be dead in minutes.
My vision was starting to blur. My thoughts becoming foggy and disjointed. Shock setting in, probably. My body’s attempt to protect itself from the trauma even as it failed to actually address the life-threatening injury.
I tried to call for help but my voice came out as barely a whisper. Tried to move but my limbs felt impossibly heavy. Tried to stay conscious but darkness was creeping in at the edges of my vision.
I was dying. Actually dying. And there was nothing I could do about it.
My head rolled to the side and I saw something through the gathering darkness. A tree. Growing nearby. With distinctive leaves that I recognized even through my fading consciousness.
Nightshade. Belladonna. Deadly nightshade.
Except it wasn’t deadly. Not in the right doses. Not when used properly.
I’d learned about it during my time gathering herbs in Blackwood. Had read about its properties in that old book I’d found in the library. It was poisonous, yes-could kill if you consumed too much. But in small, controlled amounts, it had other properties.
Chapter 213
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Finished
It could slow bleeding. Could put wounds into a kind of stasis. Could buy time when time was running out.
I didn’t have much choice. I was dying anyway. What di I have to lose by trying?
Using strength I didn’t know I still possessed, I dragged myself toward the nightshade plant. Each movement sent fresh waves of agony through my abdomen. Each inch of progress cost more than I wanted to pay. But I kept going because the alternative was just ying there waiting to die.
I reached the plant and tore off several leaves with trembling hands. Shoved them in my mouth and began chewing, ignoring the bitter taste, the way my mouth in mediately went numb from the toxins.
I swallowed. Waited. Hoped desperately that I’d remembered correctly, that the dosage wouldn’t kill me faster than the stab wound was already killing me.
For several long moments, nothing happened. The blood kept flowing. The weakness kept spreading. I thought maybe I’d just poisoned myself for nothing.
Send Gifts
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80
Mated To My Mate’s Worst Enemy
Mark