Chapter 36 Rune
rune
. . .
Months of training, mission drills, case studies, and falling into the adaptive routine made time blur by way too fast. Outside of our bubble was a stream of some kind of affliction spreading on campus.
Surprisingly, the first years had been mostly unaffected.
Thankfully, our squad had been untouched… until now.
Lorian knocked on Eleanor’s door. “Hey, Elle, you okay?”
Ragged breathing came from the other side of the door before it cracked open, revealing Eleanor with her light brown hair with white spots scattered throughout in disarray.
“Eleanor?” I gasped.
Her brown doe-eyes were glassy as she stared at us, and her button nose was red and dripping green snot. I swore I felt heat coming off her in waves as she stood there trembling. “I—” she covered her mouth and launched into a coughing fit.
Everyone but Lorian instinctively stepped back.
“Eleanor, hey, look at me.” Lorian moved forward, cupping her face and tilting her head up so she could look at him once her coughs subsided.
She did, barely. “Don’t—tell—Jarvins—” she sucked in a sharp breath, stumbling into Lorian’s broad chest. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Lorian stated, a frown creasing his brows. “You’re sick.”
“Sick? Supernaturals don’t get sick,” Hawk scoffed.
“Shifters can, but it’s so rare it’s almost unheard of,” Lorian mumbled. “Elle, are you doing okay?”
“So tired,” she croaked.
The zipper of her academy-issued suit had only been half-way pulled up in the back. She was so exhausted she couldn’t even properly dress herself.
Lorian carefully zipped it the rest of the way for her.
Koa moved through the doorway, his chest gently moving past my back as his blue flames of healing magic licked up his hands. “Let me try to heal whatever this is.” He smoothed his fingers along her temple.
Her breathing evened ever so slightly, and her eyes cleared enough to find Lorian’s.
“See, I’m fine,” she whispered, but she flinched as another tremor wracked through her.
“My healing bought her time,” Koa said, his jaw tightening. “I don’t know what that is, honestly. But she needs to go to the infirmary.”
“Others have been sick, too,” Raze mentioned, rubbing his jaw from the living area because he wasn’t getting too close. “The infirmary’s been full for the past month from what I’ve heard. So many students have missed assignments and were sent home because of it.”
“Poison,” I muttered as Mom’s earlier warnings spiked through my thoughts. “There’s a human-made poison going around. It tracks that this illness could be because of poisoning.”
“But how would Elle get poisoned?” Aura blinked at me in confusion. “Wouldn’t germs make more sense? Just students getting sick. Like the spread of the flu or whatever.”
All of us whipped our heads around to stare at her in surprise.
“Supernaturals don’t get sick like this, Aura,” I told her with a frown. “Surely, you know that.”
She swallowed hard and glanced away. “Right. You’re right. I’m just so worried for her. My cousin was sick with an infectious disease from another imp, and she passed.”
“Not helping,” Lorian snarled.
“We need to get Eleanor to the infirmary.” Koa clasped Lorian on the shoulder and squeezed to get his attention.
Lorian blinked a few times before bending and scooping Eleanor up into his arms, carrying her bridal style. “I’ll take her.”
“No—don’t. Finals,” she croaked. “I can’t…if I miss—”
“She could be kicked from the academy if she misses finals,” Dimitri finished for her from the door.
“Fuck,” Lorian breathed out.
“I can help.” I held up a hand and waved it. “Purgegut.”
Everyone looked at me in confusion.
“What is that, venom baby?” Slater tilted his head, his red eyes burning into me.
“It’s a venom,” I told him before looking at Eleanor, who was still struggling to keep her eyes open. “It won’t take the effects of the poison away, but it can purge whatever is left of the poison in your body, which will stop it from getting worse.”
“If it is a poison,” Aura muttered under her breath, worry shining in her eyes as she took in Eleanor’s state.
“Purgegut venom,” I explained, already standing next to Eleanor in Lorian’s arms, “is from a rare venomous viper up in the mountains. It forces the body to kick out whatever doesn’t belong through stomach spasms, vomiting, and profuse sweating.
Like layered toxins, poisons, other venoms, and even lower-level hexes.
It won’t fix a chronic disease, the few that supernaturals can develop, but it ejects any foreign invaders.
Really, it was one of the worst venoms I’ve ever been injected with.
” I shivered as I remembered upchucking my entire breakfast after the bite.
Asshole viper looked so pleased with himself.
“How long until the toxins get out of her system?” Koa asked, his brown ember-scattered eyes meeting mine.
“Five minutes, maybe less.” I met Eleanor’s shaky gaze next. “You’ll be miserable and still feeling the effects of whatever poison this is, but you won’t be getting worse than you already are after it’s done.”
Eleanor swallowed, throat working back and forth before she nodded. “Do it, please.”
I coaxed the purgegut venom up, feeling the heat prickle in my fingertip. I pressed that finger to the pad of her thumb for skin to skin contact for a second, then pulled back. “Done.”
She didn’t even flinch. She was too busy keeping herself conscious.
The venom hit her within ten seconds.
Her body tried to fold in on itself as Lorian adjusted his hold on her. Sweat beaded at her hairline and slid off her in quick threads. Her breath went from shallow and fast to paper-thin gasps that sounded more painful than before.
Lorian held her close. “You’re doing great. Breathe with me, Elle.”
Koa placed a blue-flamed palm at the base of her neck, pushing healing magic through her. Although, I didn’t think it was actually helping.
“Here!” Hawk shoved a bin into place just in time.
Eleanor lurched forward and emptied her stomach. Acid, bile, and whatever the poison was spewed out. The sound was awful, but the smell was worse.
Aura turned away only long enough to yank the window in Eleanor’s room open.
Two minutes passed. Sweat poured off her as her teeth chattered between clenched breaths.
Three minutes passed. Hot-cold flashes shook her body and Lorian’s as he held her.
Four minutes into it, and she purged the last of the toxin, retch after retch until there was nothing left to get out.
At five minutes, she finally stilled. The tremors ebbed to small shivers, and she leaned against Lorian with a heavy breath.
The color hadn’t returned to her face, but the fog behind her gaze had faded.
“It burned,” she rasped, voice like sandpaper, “but I think I can stand without help. That’s something.”
Aura’s mouth flattened into a line. “Infirmary is a better choice than forcing her through Jarvins’s final. It could make her worse.”
“No,” she protested as Lorian eased her down. She planted her feet and wobbled, bracing on his forearm. “Finals.”
Aura shot her a look. “I hate the idea of you stressing your body when you’re in this state, but okay.”
“I’m more concerned about how Eleanor was poisoned in our house.” I frowned, crossing my arms.
Slater’s arms wrapped around me from behind as he dropped a kiss to my shoulder. “It was probably during class or something.”
“Or the walk to and from,” Zuko added, stealing a kiss from my lips. “We’re in an academy of future agents. Who knows how it happened.”
“Unfortunately true,” Dimitri muttered, turning his head away from us and walking toward the door. “Let’s move.”
Jarvins clocked the issue the very moment we strode into Apex Simulator 1.6 for Charm and Deception’s final. He was practically vibrating with excitement at the control center until he laid eyes on Eleanor, pale and barely upright, leaning against Lorian.
“Eleanor, what the Fates?” Jarvins shook his head in shock.
“She’s here for the exam,” I told him with a hopeful expression.
“She’s worried she’d fail if she went to the infirmary instead,” Lorian explained.
Jarvins clicked his tongue before nodding. “Very well. Dedication noted. You may take the exam, Eleanor. This is good practice for the squad to help an injured, sick in this case, squadmate on a mission.”
Eleanor managed a ghost of a smile. “Thank you, Professor Jarvins.”
“Final brief for this class,” Jarvins announced, clapping once.
The walls rippled before the room melted into a chandelier-filled embassy hall. Under the light, the polished marble floors gleamed. The low murmurs of powerful supernaturals mixed with the music in the air.
We were thrown into the simulation with the smallest amount of information we’d been given yet. We wore dramatic masks and formal wear that replaced our academy suits.
Glittering black fabric hugged me from breasts to thigh like a second skin. I blinked down at my dress. It was a short midnight dress that left my legs bare. The neckline was a deep plunge that framed my collarbones and ended halfway down where my boobs spilled out, barely covering my nipples.
A whisper of air slid across my exposed skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
“Damn.” Slater choked on his own breath. He wore a blazing red tux and a velvet bow tie. Snakey peeked from around his neck like he was Slater’s tie.
“Fuck me,” Zuko murmured, eyes glued to my body before resting on my face. He wore a black-on-black suit with an orange lining that flashed when he moved.
“You…wow.” Koa loosened the tie on his obsidian suit and glanced away. Heat haloed off him. The top button was left open, showing off the thin gold chain at his throat.
“I know seduction is a strategy, but you’re dressed to kill.” Dimitri’s fangs slid down as he inhaled deeply in a three-piece charcoal suit that was perfectly in place. The way the jacket broke over his shoulders made him look like he was hiding serious muscles.