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I looked up to Adrian with pinched brows. How often had he been coming down here?

Adrian breathed a laugh. “After this one.”

Daphne chuckled, then went to open a door. The door to her office, I realized.

It looked much different than the last time we were here. There were books scattered everywhere, vials ofliquid and powders on every surface that could support them.

She’d been doing research on something.

Adrian pulled me after him, following her into her office.

The second we were inside, he released me. Going to the far corner of the room and giving Daphne and I space.

Daphne skipped any greeting, her ever-perceptive gaze clocking the tension between us immediately. “I would really appreciate if you two would come visit when you aren’t all broody and sad. What is it this time?” she asked with a smile.

“Reyna is trying to break up with me,” Adrian said casually.

I whipped around to face him. He just cocked his head at me. “What? You are.”

I sputtered something unintelligible, then turned back to Daphne. Shelaughedand simply ignored that statement. “Are you checking in on the antidote?”

“Yes,” Adrian said. Daphne nodded, moving me to sit on the arm of one of the couches in her office, giving me a secret smile that readI smell bullshit.

“Don’t even,” I grumbled.

Daphne raised her hands with a laugh, then stepped back. “I’m almost there, I think,” she said, more to Adrian than to me. “Granted, I’ve been dedicating more time to our other project, but I think I’ll have something soon.” Then to me, “If I could just grab a little more of your blood, I can test it.”

I nodded, resigned to let her experiment on the off chance something worked. Daphne got to work, expertly drawing some blood from the vein at my elbowthen placing it on a vial. She sorted through some of the other vials on her desk, looking for something specific.

“I really have to organize this,” she said to herself.

“What is all of that?” I asked.

“Oh,” Daphne said, waving at the table. “A mess of things. A few of my own.” You could tell which were hers, all housed in delicate tubes and containers made out of sea glass. Then she gestured to another bottle, this one tall and gold with a sun embossed into the metal. That looked like something from— “And that’s the one Sebastian gave me to fix the poison from Piper,” she said passively, moving onto others on the desk.

But I wasn’t listening.

A stupid, reckless, desperate idea struck and I moved before reason could stop me. I lunged for the bottle. Making it far enough for my fingers to brush it before my entire body was seized by a painful grip, all the muscles in my body locking and my nerves erupting with fire.

I let out a helpless cry as I crashed to the ground, knocking the bottle off the table as I fell.

Chapter 28

Reyna

Adrian’s arms were around me before I fully hit the floor, softening my descent. “What the hell?” he barked, cradling my body in his arms and smoothing his hand over the arm that I’d reached for the bottle with.

It had suffered the worst of the damage from the poison, feeling like it might even be broken.

Adrian’s breathing was ragged, the sounds falling heavy into the dead silent room. Tears were gathering in the corners of my eyes, my heart breaking at my failed attempt. It probably wouldn’t have even worked, but it was worth a try.

If Sebastian had made it for Daphne, then maybe it would do something for the poison he’d given me. The pain was still shooting down my limbs, so intense that I couldn’t even remember if it was obvious that I was reaching for that vial. I prayed it was.

Silence drew out for another long stretch.

And then Daphne gasped loudly, her hand flying to her mouth.

I looked up at her to find her eyes darting over the room quickly, her mind working overtime. Her gaze snagged on the table, then where I was huddled on the floor with Adrian, then down to the bottle that I’d knocked down with me.