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Some have turned to Venom for more than recreational purposes, claiming the substance gives them relief to some of the symptoms of various chronic illnesses. However, it should be noted that any relief gained from the substance is temporary and should not serve as a replacement for remedies prescribed by a family doctor or Healer.

Although overdosing on Venom is not typically a concern, the side effects that come with using the drug are significant and should be taken seriously. One of the side effects is a sharp increase in the user’s chances of contracting the Tricking.

Loren drummed her fingers against her chin. All this research applied to hellsehers. But she was not a hellseher.

The keys stuck again as she typed in another search. The chatter of other students walking down the hall drifted under the door as she waited for the page to load, that stupid rainbow cursor spinning again. She was glad when she didn’t recognize any of those voices. The last thing she needed right now was for Dallas or Sabrine to walk in and find her researching an illegal drug.

The page loaded bit by bit, and she started reading as soon as the new text appeared.

Unlike other illegal street drugs, Venom can only be administered through one method, and that is in the form of eye drops. It is black in color, its consistency thick like oil. It may sting on impact and cause blurry vision that dissipates relatively quickly. People who take Venom usually have instant results that are stronger and more long-lasting than other drugs.

Loren thought it through.

Stygian salt was the only other option she could think of that wouldn’t make her want to scratch her own flesh off, but she wasn’t sure it would be enough. She needed something extreme, something that would wake up her magic and let her fix this mess she’d walked into. She was born from the Arcanum Well, the same creation that had birthed hellsehers. She might be human, but she wasn’t ordinary.

She had an idea. It might not work, but she was willing to try it.

—

“I can’t believe we’re driving a fucking van,” Darien grumbled as he got into the driver’s seat and shut the door. It was a black chunk of a vehicle that smelled like must and coolant and the cheap pine air freshener swinging from the rear-view mirror.

Darien ripped the thing off the mirror, causing the small bat Familiar hiding behind it to chirp in anger and flare his leathery wings. He hung upside down from the mirror, clawed feet gripping the support. Blood-red eyes narrowed in on Darien until they were nothing but tiny dots.

“Whoops,” Darien chuckled. “Sorry, Creature. Didn’t see you there.”

Creature gave another irritated chirp before draping his wings around his body and going back to sleep. The thing was always sleeping, even when the moon was high in the sky, just like it was now.

“I don’t know,” Malakai began with an audible smile, reaching across the van to stroke a finger down his disgruntled cocoon of a Familiar, who looked like he wanted to roll his red eyes again, “I think it kinda suits you. You look like one of those sports moms who wake up at the ass-crack of dawn to drive their kids to practice.”

Darien unrolled his window—unrolled, because the vehicle didn’t have automatic windows—and chucked the tree-shaped air freshener into the night. It fluttered away on a breeze that was more offensive than the air freshener—a slightly sulfurous cocktail of seafood, trash, and sludge that had sat for too long in backed-up storm drains.

Rolling the window up so hard he nearly snapped the crank handle off, Darien said, “If I’m the sports mom, then you’re the bratty fucking kid.” He punched Malakai in the side of the head, making him curse, and rolled the chunk of a van away from the Iron Dock. Al was still watching, along with several of the men who’d loaded up the van with six black crates.

For something so important to Gaven, the shipment wasn’t very big. This was another thing stumping Darien—and another question he wouldn’t be able to answer tonight. Whatever was in these crates had to go for a price that Gaven wouldn’t want to lose out on.

Darien’s plan for tonight had gone awry the moment they’d met Al at the dock, and the hellseher had announced they would be delivering the shipment in one of the vehicles from Gaven’s personal fleet. Now, they wouldn’t be able to pull to the side of the road on the way there to see what was in the crates—what was so important to Gaven that he’d wanted Darien to deliver them himself. Another thing to drag out this detective work and pluck his last nerve until he was living bomb.

Malakai muttered, “We’ve got company.”

Darien looked in the rear-view mirror to see two vans identical to this one tailing them. “I can see that.”

The van jostled when they hit a speedbump. Creature tightened his wings in irritation, eyes squinting open briefly before shutting again.

The sight of the Familiar caused Darien to think of something. He smacked Malakai in the arm to get his attention.

Malakai mouthed, “What?”

Darien raised his knee up so he could use it to steer, and he felt like an idiot as he made a gesture with his hands, doing his best to make them look like wings, and then pointed into the back of the van.

Malakai wore a stupid grin, looking like he had about a million insults he wanted to use on Darien for making that gesture, but at least he understood the suggestion. He spoke to Creature through his thoughts, waking the bat back up.

With a roll of his eyes, being far more dramatic than he needed to be, Creature fluttered into the back of the vehicle and peeked in through the crates. Darien watched the vans in the rear-view mirror.

A minute later, Creature flew over to perch on Malakai’s shoulder.

Malakai mouthed, “Spell-protected.”

Of course.