giving you.” Ferrick sets the tray down and, only a little grudgingly, I take a bite of jerky. Hungry as I am, I don’t let the food distract me. The crew looks at me with such pitying faces that it reminds me of when I’d been nearly killed by the Lusca or injured by Kaven. Their bodies are tense and jittery, as though they believe I might fall over at any moment. I’m about to reassure them that I’m fine, that they can all go get ready for our day, but the look they share stops me.
They’re not just being overly protective. Something’s wrong.
“Amora, we need to tell you something. But we need for you not to freak out, and to trust us.”
Chills flood my body as I recognize the tremor in Ferrick’s voice as genuine fear. He reaches his hand out and I take it without delay. Vataea sets a hand upon my thigh, and though she’s not the touchy-feely type, even Shanty’s lips are pressed firmly together, looking more angry than upset.
“We knew that tension was high within the kingdom,” Ferrick says. “We knew going into this that some were going to be resistant. But Amora, we don’t think your sickness last night had anything to do with alcohol. We think you were poisoned.”
I yank my hand from him as a sharp breath seizes hold of my lungs and stalls there. “Why?” I demand more tersely than I mean to. “Why would you think that?”
Bastian leans forward so that his elbows are on his knees and looks at me with the most severe expression I’ve ever seen. “You were throwing up blood. Ferrick was here all night, trying to keep you alive. I imagine you’d be dead without him; you didn’t stop until the sun was out.”
“You saw it, too?” I ask Ferrick, whose neck retracts in surprise. He starts to answer when Bastian’s voice turns to gravel.
“You think I’m lying?”
He has no reason to, but I don’t want to believe it. I hadn’t felt threatened last night. I felt like I’d been putting on the show Mother told me our people wanted, minus the occasional slipup, like with Lord Gregori.
Most of my people had seemed receptive to me. Had one of those faces truly been lying?
“No,” I offer quietly. “But could you have mistaken it for something else? I had a lot of stew in those puff pastries.”
His scrunches his nose and leans back in his seat. “It wasn’t stew. Curmana specializes in herbs, remember? Most of the ones you’ll find around here are for healing. In small doses, they’re relatively harmless, like the zolo leaf on Curmana’s emblem. But … not all herbs are safe, and let’s just say I used to know my way around Curmana’s marketplace. If you know where to look, poison isn’t hard to find.” His eyes flicker up to Shanty, whose lips clamp even tighter.
“He’s right,” she admits. “I’ve bought my fair share of it, using many different faces. There are many different forms of poison, but this one was lethal. You’re lucky Ferrick was here, and that whatever it was you consumed, it must have been only a small portion.”
The cold sweat is back, licking its way up my spine as realization sets in—I could have died last night. If Ferrick hadn’t been here, I would have died.
Vataea draws the blanket over my shoulder, and there’s a fierce protectiveness in her eyes that, if I didn’t know was for me, would be terrifying. “I will kill whoever did this.” Her words are flat and casual, like she’s telling us she’ll have toast for breakfast. Ferrick sets a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“If you don’t, then I will.” Bastian’s fists clench. “But first, we’ll need to find them.”
Ferrick nods and takes a seat on the edge of the bed. “Oh, we’ll find them,” he says without an ounce of hesitation. He dips his chin, making each of his words firmer. “We will find him, Amora. This isn’t something you get to do on your own. If we’re going to find whoever did this quickly, you have to let us help you.”
Much to my surprise and his, I can’t find the words to protest. For so long I’ve felt alone, even with my crew beside me. But now, seeing the anger in their eyes—feeling their fear—I want their support. I want to find the person behind this, and this isn’t an obstacle I want to face on my own.
Father died because of