“Thanks, Kiara,” Emma said. She put the tea and oil into her bag. She tilted her head as she watched Kiara stir the cauldron. “What are you making?”
“It’s an anti-anxiety potion,” Kiara said. “I’ve been brewing it all morning. I thought it would help calm Alexei.”
“That is seriously so sweet,” Emma said.
“It’s my own recipe,” Kiara stated. “I think it’ll really help him.”
As if on cue, Alexei entered the alchemy lab. He wandered to us with a wave. “Hey, guys,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“Just stopping by,” Emma said. “We can go if we’re interrupting something.”
Kiara smiled nervously, and Alexei went beet red. “No, uh,” he stammered. “You’re not interrupting anything.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” I heard Kiara mumble under her breath, but I don’t think Alexei heard her. She scooped the potion into a flask, then handed it to Alexei. “Here. Drink this. It’s my own special make. A calming potion for griffins.”
Alexei took the vial and looked at it. It glittered gold in the light. “I’ve never taken a potion before. Do you think it works?”
“You’ll never know unless you try,” Kiara teased. “Go on, give it a sip.”
Alexei shrugged. “Hey, if you made it, I trust you.” He raised the vial. “To your health, my good lady.”
Alexei downed the potion. He stood there for a moment, taking in its effects.
“Well? Does it work?” Emma asked.
Alexei went to answer, but the moment he opened his mouth, he gagged. His eyes widened, becoming bloodshot, while a small bit of foam worked its way out of the corner of his lips. Hives blistered all over his face— Alexei grabbed at his throat, then collapsed to his knees in shock.
“Alexei!” Kiara ran forward. She tried to keep him upright, but he slumped to the ground. More froth came out of his mouth, and he began writhing on the floor.
“He’s been poisoned! He needs an antidote!” Emma cried. Her face was horrified as she observed Alexei’s tremors.
“He can’t be! I didn’t use anything harmful! It’s all garden herbs!” Kiara burst.
At her side, Alexei slowly turned blue. His throat was closing up, suffocating him. His eyes closed half-shut and his hand fell to his side, going still.
We needed to act fast; otherwise, he was going to die. I didn’t believe Kiara had messed the potion up. She was too meticulous.
I thought of the options. Fae were only allergic to three things— iron, St. John’s Wort, and yarrow.
I picked up the vial and sniffed it. A bitter smell wafted to my nostrils, and it turned my stomach. “Yarrow,” I said quickly. I dumped the rest down the sink, and tossed the bottle. It shattered on the other side of the room.
At Alexei’s side, Kiara worked frantically. She combined walnuts, figs, rue leaves and salt into a wooden bowl. She ground them up, then wrenched a small vial of purple liquid out of her pocket. It smelled like acacia juice. She mixed it all together, throwing in saffron, ginger, and cinnamon. When it was done, she tilted Alexei’s head back and forced the potion down his throat.
Alexei calmed. His chest began to rise and fall, yet slowly. Some hives faded away from his face, but he was still unconscious.
“What did you make?” Emma asked.
“Mithridate,” Kiara said. “It’s an old magical cure for poisons. Come, we have to get him to the hospital wing.”
I transformed into a wolven, and the girls slung Alexei onto my back. We ran to the hospital wing, where the nurses took one look at Alexei and rushed him off to the emergency ward. Kiara tried to follow, but a nurse held her back.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t go back there,” she said. “It’s a restricted area.”
“It was my potion he drank,” Kiara pleaded. “You might need my help.”
The nurse hesitated for a moment before ushering her back. The doors swung closed behind her, and Emma and I were left waiting in the cold hallway.
Kiara wasn’t dumb enough to mistakenly put yarrow in her potion— and there was none to be found in the alchemy lab, anyway, because it was poisonous to students, which meant it had come from somewhere else.
There had only been two people in the alchemy classroom this morning when we arrived— Kiara, and Gabby.
Emma was thinking the same thing I was. She wiped away tears as she faced me. “Gabby was trying to hurt Kiara to get to me,” she whispered. “But Kiara had an anti-hex spell on her, so it saved her from the yarrow,