Releasing Thomas, Kirsten asked, “So, why can’t I take this off?” Kirsten put her fingers around the pink sapphire and lifted it off her chest slightly to glance at it.
“No!” they shouted in unison, reaching for her as though she was a glass vase about to fall. Instantly, she let the crystal drop to her chest and dropped her arms to her sides.
“We used one of Solomon’s potions to push the venom out of your veins,” Max started to explain. “You woke up when it worked and, well,” he hesitated.
“And you took off the necklace,” Thomas said angrily.
Max nodded, “And you took the necklace off,” he finished. “The venom instantly began to attack your system again. Luckily, we got the necklace back on before the venom reached your heart.”
Kirsten examined the red streaking in her veins again. “So, that’s when the crystal started working again and I woke up? But how did the bite heal?” she asked, fingering the scar again.
“Well, we had another healing potion that we used. This time Thomas made sure you didn’t take the necklace off when you woke up. The second healing potion didn’t push the venom out the way the first one did, but it did heal the bite wound,” Max explained.
“And brought you out of your coma,” Bo said, sitting where Thomas had been on the couch before his emotions took over.
“And where are we?” Kirsten asked, looking around the room.
“Solomon’s,” Max said.
“He’s an old friend from Brookside,” Bo added.
“We’re in Brookside?” Kirsten asked surprised. “In two days?”
“Yeah, it’s sort of a long story,” Thomas said.
Bo and Thomas took over explaining all that had transpired since Kirsten first fell unconscious. When they had finally finished, Kirsten shook her head in disbelief, “Wow, that’s nuts. So, you met some people who said there’s a resistance?”
Thomas threw up his hands, “That’s what you took away from the story. No, ‘wow, I can’t believe my brother would lug my heavy limp body up a mountainside’? That really speaks to our strong relationship!”
Kirsten nudged him lovingly, “Hey, I’m not that heavy.”
Thomas chuckled, “When you’re running up a hill, trying to escape from an angry goblin horde in the middle of the night, yeah, you’re that heavy.”
Kirsten slung her arm around her brother, pulling him in, “Thank you, Thomas. Thank you for hauling my heavy limp body up a mountain in the middle of the night.”
“Thank you and you’re welcome sis,” he said with a grin.
“Where’s the water? I’m parched. And is there anything to eat around here?” Kirsten asked scooting to the edge of the couch.
“Yeah,” Max said. “Hold on.”
Kirsten watched him step carefully toward the back room, maneuvering through the mess. The place looked somewhat torn apart, furniture was turned over and papers scattered about. As he disappeared into the kitchen, Kirsten placed her hands on the edge of the couch and rose. Her legs wobbled and then buckled under her own weight.
She felt firm sets of hands grab her on either side and lift her back onto the couch. “Are you okay?” Bo asked as he and Thomas crouched beside her.
Kirsten rubbed her head, looking to Bo, “That was weird.”
“Your body is probably weakened from fighting off the venom,” Max suggested, walking back into the room with a pitcher of water.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this weak from just two days of rest,” Kirsten said, reaching for the water.
“I wouldn’t call what you went through ‘rest,’” Max said, handing her the pitcher.
“You’d better take it easy until your body adjusts to the venom,” Britt said, stepping closer. “Your system might act differently now that it’s been affected.”
Kirsten nodded as she sipped from the pitcher.
“How about that food?” Thomas asked. Kirsten could see he was rubbing his stomach.
As Max and Bo went into Solomon’s kitchen, Kirsten continued to drink from the pitcher, downing half of it within a minute. Both Britt and Thomas didn’t take their eyes off her, not saying a word.
“Why are you staring at me? I feel fine, other than my legs feeling like jelly,” Kirsten said, feeling like a caged animal.
“Sorry,” Britt said. She unfolded her arms and looked around the room. Kirsten watched as she made herself busy returning bottles of various shapes and colors to a cabinet across the room. Kirsten noticed that she was placing them in a particular order and assumed they were the potions Max mentioned.
“I can’t believe you found a potion that worked,” Kirsten said, tracing the red streaks in her veins with her finger.
Thomas shifted on the couch, “I didn’t help much with that part; everyone else really pitched in. I was too upset to do much other than make sure you were still breathing. You’re the only family I’ve got left, you know.”
“What about Anders?” Kirsten asked.
“He’s close, but you’re my sister. Besides, Anders is half a world away, training in magic and flying on that glorious dragon. Who knows if we’ll ever be close again?”
“I wonder how that’s going?” Kirsten asked, directing the question at no one in particular as she imagined what it would be like to fly on the back of a dragon.
“Clearly not as well as they intended,” Thomas replied. Kirsten shot him a glare to which he responded, “If Merglan’s forces are allowed to invade Westland unchallenged, that’s definitely not a sign that things are going our way.”
Kirsten didn’t let the silence after his statement linger before she redirected the conversation, “How did you all know that there would be something here that could help me?”
