Page 88 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

-An excerpt from the Rhyming Alchemist’s Book of Verses

Mistlewick venom, more painful it grows

You’ll wish for sweet death, till free of its throes

The morning after Vaughn died, Taly found herself in the kitchen, rummaging through the pantry.

The fairies kept their distance, and for that, she was glad. They had known about the Queen’s plan, and she didn’t want to hear their excuses for not warning her. Wasn’t ready to accept even Leto’s apologies.

She didn’t want to acknowledge the hurt she felt knowing that the Queen had manipulated her, or that somehow, at some point, she had started to trust that she wouldn’t .

Those were things she would think about tomorrow. Perhaps the next day. When the memory didn’t feel quite so raw.

Skye had still been asleep when she slipped out of the apartment, completely dead to the world.

He had lost a lot of blood, and with it, aether.

He’d also said he’d been dosed with mistlewick venom, a nonlethal but still very dangerous poison.

It would take his body longer to heal, his magic longer to recover.

Which meant he would be needing faeflower.

And food—a lot of it. Shadow mages were absolute pigs even when they were healthy, and while she was no cook, she could manage a decent breakfast.

So, that’s what she focused on. There was fresh bread and butter—already brought in from the outdoor larder that reset at the beginning of every day—and she found eggs in the cold box along with sausage and bacon and leftover corn cakes.

There was even a pot of hydra and potato stew bubbling on the stove, so she grabbed that too.

Taly was just finishing loading everything onto a tray, trying to find a place for a pot of Skye’s favorite tea among the stacks of plates and covered serving dishes, when the Queen found her.

“This is a first,” Azura said, coming to stand in front of the long kitchen prep table that bisected the room. “In all my years, I don’t think I have ever seen you wield a spatula. I take it last night either went very well or very poorly.”

Taly didn’t answer. Didn’t even look up as she balanced the porcelain teapot on the top of the pile.

“Are you not speaking to me now?” Azura asked, chuckling softly. “That seems a bit juvenile. ”

Taly carefully picked up the tray.

“Everything I have done was to make you stronger.”

Bullshit. Bull - shit .

Azura had tricked her, lied to her . She’d been pushed beyond … Well, not beyond, but up to her breaking point.

And she hadn’t broken.

She’d come close, but…

Taly shook her head. She wasn’t ready for this conversation. Wasn’t ready to think about Vaughn. Wasn’t ready to forgive the Queen for using Skye to test her.

Back rigid, she aimed for the door.

Azura said nothing as she watched her go.

Skye awoke that morning and immediately wished he hadn’t.

Everything hurt. Every muscle, every cell.

Mistlewick venom was painful and long-lasting, so when Taly immediately began fussing, he let her.

She brought him trays of food and made him take faeflower and pain tonic, and when he asked if her new mender training had come with a uniform, and could she wear it (please), she just rolled her eyes, telling him that if he kept talking, she would start lacing the tonics with sleeping draught.

And then, of course, there was Calcifer. The mimic—whatever the hell that was. All Skye knew so far was that it was large and grumpy and had been shadowing Taly around the apartment ever since she returned from the kitchen.

Oh, and it didn’t like him. At all. It growled every time he so much as looked at Taly and kept trying to push her away when she sat down beside him to check his bandages.

And then when she had coaxed it up onto the bed beside him, it had “yawned.” Which was to say it had opened its mouth just so he could see what massive teeth it had.

“I think it wants to eat me,” Skye said, lying flat on his back—that was the position that hurt the least—and eyeing the gangly cat-thing lounging on the opposite side of the mercifully large bed.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Taly asked from beside him. She was resting on her side with one leg slung across his beneath the blankets. Over her shoulder, the beast glared at him, its large bat-like ears folded against its head.

“Other people have said this?”

Taly shrugged and turned the page. “Only Azura. And to be fair, he does feed on time aether, but he’s never taken more than what I give him.”

“Wait. What?”

“Time aether,” Taly said as if it was perfectly normal and not something utterly bone-chilling. Behind her, the beast twitched its long tail. “He prefers straight aether, but sometimes I give him spells linked to crystals.”

Skye just gaped until she looked up. “I think you might be crazy.”

“He’s not going to eat you.”

“No, it’s going to eat you , and then it’s going to kill me out of pure contempt. ”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Taly, it’s growling at me.” And then just to prove his point, Skye lifted the hand she’d been resting on his bare chest, setting it off to the side.

The growling stopped.

Picking her hand up again and cursing every part of him that still ached, he placed it back on his chest.

The beast gave a dangerous snarl.

Taly reached behind her and scratched behind one of the monster’s too-large ears, and it immediately gave a huff and settled, resting its head in the crook of her neck.

“He’s just cranky,” she said and turned back to her book.

Skye felt her bare foot graze his calf beneath the blanket in a way that was meant to be soothing.

“After all, he had to sleep downstairs last night, and now there’s a strange man in his bed. ”

“His bed?”

“Yes, and you’re on his side.”

Well, that explained the black fur on his pillow.

“Taly—” A yawn cut him off as a sudden wave of exhaustion crashed into him. “We’re not taking that thing home with us.” Even if they could figure out a way to get it back into the city, he wasn’t sure how comfortable he was bringing along a creature that fed on his mate’s aether.

Looking up, Taly gave him a small smile—the one that let him know that he had already lost, and there was no use fighting. “Why don’t we talk about this tonight after you’ve gotten some rest.” Translated, that meant the issue would never come up again, defaulting her a victory.

Skye gave another yawn, every muscle in his body protesting the movement. Why was he so tired? It’s almost like— “You gave me sleeping draught.”

She smoothed the edge of the bandage taped to his abdomen. There was blood leaking through the white linen. “Just a little,” she said unapologetically. “You keep moving around, and I went to a lot of trouble trying to patch you up. I can’t have you undoing all my hard work.”

Skye relaxed into the pillow, humming contentedly when Taly leaned over and brushed a kiss to his mouth. The one good thing about sleeping draught was that it also numbed the pain. “Shards, woman,” he mumbled. “It’s like you’ve been taking notes from Sarina.”

By the next morning, Skye’s aether was still close to depleted, and his wounds were only newly healed, still scabbing though it looked like there wouldn’t be any scars.

His torso was covered in bruises, and every part of him ached.

Which might explain why Taly had just stared at him like he’d grown a second head when he asked where to find the training grounds.

Though slower to provoke, fey females were as protective and territorial as their male counterparts, and even more impossible to negotiate with once those instincts had been triggered.

But after he’d explained that exercise would help him metabolize the remaining toxins in his system, she’d pointed the way.

Grudgingly. And with a promise that if he collapsed, she wasn’t going to drag his limp body back to bed.

And that was fair. He still couldn’t take a step without wincing. But he didn’t want to spend another day in bed. He was antsy. Restless. And there were too many thoughts, too many worries swirling around in his head .

Too many things he still needed to tell Taly but wasn’t sure how.

About her family. The shared dreams. When she projected. The bond. All were important, though none were the reason he now found himself in a training arena surrounded by stone arches, mercilessly beating the shit out of a wooden dummy.

THUD.

His fist slammed into the wood.

It hadn’t been a lie, what he’d told Taly. Not exactly.

Exercise increased his pulse, his bloodflow.

And while that usually wouldn’t have done anything for him—besides make him wish he’d stayed in bed—thanks to Ivain’s new training, he could alter his body chemistry on a cellular level.

Channel what little aether his body had managed to recover directly into his liver, thus isolating the poison. Making it easier to sweat out.

THUD.

After only an hour, the pain was gone, and his wounds had fully closed. The air here was so rich, his aether reserve was already close to full.

THUD.

He hadn’t even had to meditate. Hadn’t needed but the barest whisper of magic to pull at the ambient aether in the air, pushing it into his blood, his cells, and jump-starting his body’s already-accelerated healing.

It had all been so easy once he’d been able to think about the how and the why , to figure out the ways his body fit together.

If only he’d been able to think this clearly when he’d been facing off with Vaughn. To feel the mistlewick venom as it saturated his blood. Its edges were rough. It was something other , something that had no place inside him.

Why was it so easy now ? Why not then? Why couldn’t he have figured this out when it had actually fucking mattered?

He spun and kicked the dummy, then brought up a fist.

The wood cracked.

Wood that had been reinforced to withstand a shadow mage’s strength.