Fatefall - 27

Chapter 27 - Poppy

This man---Drystan---was a loyal friend of mine. He knew the risks associated with his…assignment. It took nearly a year, but Dusan---with Drystan’s assistance---made his first escape attempt.

The false Fate was definitely dead. 

Poppy stared at the corpse with distaste, a torrent of emotions slamming into her. She’d seen bodies before---had felt a dying pulse beneath her fingertips, had caused it. So why did this one leave her shaky?

Perhaps it was the aching in her chest and the way she struggled for breath. The false Fate had possessed the strongest Grace of Life Poppy had ever encountered. Poppy’s mouth tasted of blood and she tried not to think about how close she’d been to actually dying. 

A few feet away, Adrian seemed to be having a similar reaction. He wiped at the crimson staining his upper lip, eyes wild. She was about to ask him if he was okay when a shout cut her off.

“Help! Nakoa is hurt!”

Jett hovered over Nakoa, his face pale. Poppy scrambled to his side, freezing as a soft hiss came from Nakoa’s side.

“Jett,” Poppy whispered, barely trusting herself to speak. “Do not move.”

He swallowed sharply, gaze falling to the creature that wriggled its way out from underneath Nakoa’s stomach. Poppy’s heart gave a lurch. An Angel’s Breath scorpion.

The scorpion scuttled away and Jett finally relaxed.

Poppy let loose a string of curses, aware of Sage and Adrian joining her and Jett at Nakoa’s side. She allowed her hands to rest on Nakoa’s forehead, getting a better sense of what all was wrong with the girl.

Her Grace recoiled and Poppy’s head snapped back. 

“That can’t be a good sign,” Sage mumbled under his breath, voice strained with pain. 

“Nakoa’s been stung nine times by an Angel’s Breath scorpion,” Poppy said. Stay pragmatic. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Still, it was hard to stay rational when it felt like only minutes ago she and Nakoa had been discussing something as silly as a dance. “The Angel’s Breath scorpion is the most deadly creature in Xegalla. The poison sets in fast but it’ll take days for her to die. We need to get her to a checkpoint as soon as possible or she’ll die.”

“Isn’t there a cure?” Adrian asked. “There’s always an antidote--”

“Only if it’s administered within the hour,” Sage interrupted. “If Nakoa doesn’t get treatment by then, she’ll be condemned to a slow and painful death.”

“On that cheery note, does anyone see a checkpoint around?” Jett asked. 

Poppy didn’t hear Sage answer. Her mind was fixated on Nakoa’s shallow breathing and clammy skin. No Grace of Life could completely heal an injury like this, but…

She glanced towards the forest. It wasn’t too far of a walk. 

Poppy took inventory of her teammate’s various ailments. Sage had some sort of sprained ankle and Adrian probably had a concussion. Only Jett seemed relatively unharmed, save for a couple of scratches.

“Sage, I need to heal your ankle,” she said, ignoring the confused looks that the three boys sent her. 

“But Nakoa--” Sage started.

“Your ankle!” Poppy spat. Sage reluctantly scooted closer to Poppy, drawing up his pant leg so she could see the swollen skin. Without asking for permission, she laid a hand on his leg and forced her Grace to mend the tissues. Sage gave a cry of protest but then said nothing as Jett laid a hand on his shoulder. 

“Poppy, I swear to the Fates that you better have a plan,” Adrian said.

She glanced up at him, debating how in depth to explain her vague idea of a solution. “I can’t save Nakoa entirely, but I can at least slow the poison. If I transfer a little bit of it to each of us--”

“Then we’ll all be in danger of dying,” said Jett, crossing his arms. 

“Yes, but then Nakoa will at least have a small chance at survival. Right now, I give her another twenty minutes before she succumbs entirely to the amount of poison coursing through her veins,” Poppy explained, giving the fact a moment to sink in. “If we help her carry the poison---at least until we reach the woods---I can transfer most of it to the trees. We might kill half the forest, yes, but Nakoa will have a chance at living.”

“Why can’t you just give all of her poison to the trees?” Sage asked.

If it had been anyone else, Poppy would have smacked them. But Sage didn’t have a Grace. His naivety was rooted in inexperience, not stupidity.

“I am not strong enough,” admitted Poppy. “My Grace would fail me halfway through, and because the poison has to travel through me first, I would end up dead as well. This is the best I can do.”

She almost expected someone to make a comment about how her best wasn’t good enough. Then she reminded herself that she wasn’t with the assassins. That these people valued her for more than just her Grace.

Instead, Adrian asked, “Is there anything we can do to help?”

Poppy wiped her sweaty palms on her jacket. “Cut open your palm.”

She didn’t wait to hear any arguments, just stole one of Jett’s daggers and slid the blade across both of her palms before laying a hand over one of Nakoa’s many stings.

“I’ll go first,” Jett offered, laying his bloody hand in Poppy’s. 

Her Grace unfolded inside of her, connecting Nakoa to Jett like a taut rope that looped through Poppy’s arms, noosed around her neck, and wrapped around her shoulders. She closed her eyes, sensing the poison in Nakoa and drawing it towards herself and Jett. 

The second the poison made contact with Poppy’s blood a chill rolled down her spine. She pinched her lip between her teeth as the poison crept through the bridge her Grace had created. Her heart stumbled as though it knew that she was putting her life in danger. Still, she forced the poison along until it reached Jett. He gave an involuntary shudder and she tightened her grip on his hand. 

Jett’s pulse leapt erratically under her touch and she sensed the pain that she was causing him. The moments stretched into an eternity as Poppy poured as much poison as she was willing to risk into Jett before cutting off the connection. 

“Wrap your hand up with the bandana,” she ordered through gritted teeth. 

Someone else took her palm. Her Grace told her it was Sage. 

Poppy repeated the process of transferring the poison from Nakoa to Sage, trying to ignore the labored breathing coming from all sides of her. Unlike Jett, Sage’s fingers twisted and writhed. Poppy ended up giving him less of the poison, afraid that with his other injuries, he might keel over dead long before they reached the forest. 

And then came Adrian, his skin warm and soft to the touch. His Grace slid between them like a sheen of oil before retreating, courtesy of Adrian’s ever improving control. 

Adrian didn’t even wince as the poison swam into his blood. Poppy knew her Grace was working---she could feel his pain as if it were her own---and so she had to admire his ability to mask his discomfort. 

Once she finished with Adrian, she cut off the connection with Nakoa and wrapped their wounds with the bandanas. 

Though Poppy carried none of the poison inside of her, she still felt like her bones were being smashed to bits. It was like living in a thick cloud of agony. Her Grace pleaded with her to heal her teammates, but Poppy knew it would kill her to try. 

“The trees,” Adrian muttered, his eyes losing focus. “They’ve never felt further away.”

Poppy glanced at Sage and Jett, who wore similar pained expressions. She was the only one capable of carrying Nakoa at this point, which would have been a whole lot earlier if Nakoa didn’t stand a whole head and a half taller than Poppy. 

In the end, she stole the false Fate’s cloak and draped Nakoa over it, creating a makeshift sled. The boys watched her, too exhausted to be of any assistance.

“Time to get moving,” she called out, earning a few groans in response. “Unless you plan on paying the afterlife a visit, I’d get your butts moving.”

Jett swore at her, but the boys reluctantly climbed to their feet and trailed after her like a horde of the undead. 

Progress was slow.

Poppy struggled to drag Nakoa’s weight over the dunes, the sand crumbling beneath her feet and sending her several paces backwards. Her Grace kept tabs on her teammates, tracking their pulses and levels of pain. The sensation of their agony faded away as her own aches overwhelmed her and soon Poppy found herself tempted to collapse and never get up again.

Nakoa needs you, she reminded herself.

What’s one more body, her mind countered. 

This body would have a friendly face. 

She shook her head, realizing she was arguing with herself. Maybe checking on the boys would prove a good distraction--

Never mind. 

Sage had dropped to his knees and was crawling forward at the pace of a snail while Jett trailed behind, stumbling like a drunken man. Adrian wasn’t much better either as he trudged through the sands, his pain so strong Poppy could taste it.

They weren’t going to make it.

There was nothing more Poppy could do to help without jeopardizing her Grace. If only she had the Grace of Soul to force her teammates to pick up the pace. 

“Just a little further,” she urged, knowing they probably couldn’t hear her.

No response. They were running out of time. 

Poppy forced her legs to move faster. It didn’t help that Nakoa seemed to grow heavier with every passing second. One step after another. Her muscles burned. Somewhere in the distance, the crack of a firework split across the sky. Poppy sped up once again. 

And then, by some stroke of luck, her feet hit solid ground. Not sand, but dirt. Thick and blessedly cool dirt. Poppy wanted to flop over and let her sunburnt limbs rest on the damp forest floor, but her Grace sent out a warning flare from Nakoa’s direction. A reminder that her whole team was dying. 

The boys were a few steps behind her, their skin flushed and clammy to the touch. Poppy didn’t bother with words, fully aware that they were not in a state to obey. Instead, she guided them to their knees at the base of three separate trees where she untied their bandanas and let their bloody palms rest against the bark. 

In Aecheral, this would’ve been seen as witchcraft. Perhaps it was. This sort of magic was unnatural. Unhealthy. 

But Poppy had broken the laws of nature before, and she would do it again. 

She started with Adrian, placing her hand on his wrist as she tried to ignore the fluttering in her gut. You have every right to be nervous.

Or, at least, she told herself it was nerves that had her heart practically tripping over itself. 

Her Grace sank underneath his skin, easily bypassing his Grace due to his weakened state. Maybe it knew she wasn’t a threat. Maybe it recognized her. Poppy shoved the thought to the very back of her mind and focused on driving the poison from Adrian’s veins into the tree. 

Normally, the Grace of Life was like coaxing a small animal. Poppy would gently persuade a plant or a body to do her bidding. This was a new experience altogether. The poison did not want to relinquish its hold on Adrian, and it took a great deal of Poppy’s energy to rip it from Adrian’s body and stuff it into the tree. It felt sort of like what she imagined wrestling a wolf would be like. 

With no time for coddling, she let Adrian drop to the dirt and hurried over to Sage, and then Jett to repeat the process. It was equally exhausting, especially with Sage’s other injuries---which had allowed the poison to gain a greater grip on him. Not to mention the fact that Jett had passed out halfway through Poppy’s process, which had nearly scared her half to death.

With the three boys relatively safe, Poppy moved on to Nakoa. 

The girl had tenacity, Poppy had to admit. Nakoa still hung on to life by a single thread, her pulse soft enough to be the brush of a butterfly’s wings. 

Poppy dragged Nakoa to a bed of ferns and then pulled the cloak out from under her. 

She knew the limits of her Grace. Had tested them once before only to discover that was way more powerful than anyone had realized. It had led to her unplanned flight from Aecheral, as well as the persecution of her entire family. Needless to say, Poppy knew that attempting to save Nakoa any more would only lead to consequences.

And it’s a price I’m willing to pay, she told herself, setting to work. 

Just as she had with the boys, Poppy drove the poison in Nakoa towards the plants surrounding her. It fought her relentlessly, even attempting to latch onto Poppy. Her Grace hacked it away and sent it sinking into the roots of the ferns. 

Once the ferns were completely dead---the life stolen from them by the poison---Poppy sent the poison even further. The shrubs, the trees, and even the grass---none of it was safe. She let herself drown in the power. Let it consume her. Her awareness of the mortal world fell away as she chased the poison deep into the earth. Somehow, she could sense the rivulets of venom pouring from the puncture marks on Nakoa’s legs and arms. Somehow, she knew that Jett was awake. That Adrian was standing behind her mortal vessel---

Poppy slammed back into her body, crumpling backward as reality collapsed onto her with the weight of the sky itself. 

“I don’t know if I should praise you or chastise you,” Adrian muttered, his breath close enough to tickle her cheek.

She was sitting on his lap.

Poppy tried to scramble away, heat flooding her face, but Adrian held her tight, his hands like blocks of ice against her skin. 

“I’m voting for the telling-her-how-stupid she was option,” Jett said, giving Poppy a look that seemed to say I’m glad you’re all right but please never do that again.

“What…what do you mean? I saved you?” Poppy protested. 

“Yeah, that part was great,” Adrian agreed. “I’m going to be honest when I say I wasn’t exactly thrilled about letting you fill my veins with deadly poison, but, hey, you managed to keep us alive. So congrats. It was great, Poppy, until you had to go and kill half the forest.”

She blinked. Kill…Kill half the forest?

Poppy’s heart sank like a rock as she took in her surroundings and realized Adrian was right. 

The ferns under Nakoa weren’t the only dead things in the forest anymore. It looked as though someone had taken a bucket of gray paint and coated everything within a few miles with it. The three trees Poppy had filled with the poison from Jett, Sage, and Adrian were gone completely, like they’d never been there to begin with. All the other trees were leafless, the shrubs nothing more than tumbleweeds. And underneath Nakoa…

The ground was white, like marble, with rays radiating like a starburst outward. It looked like the site of some sacred ritual…

Poppy cursed under her breath. 

“Nakoa’s alive, at least,” Sage said, his hand resting on Nakoa’s forehead. “Fates, Poppy, she’s not even feverish. What in the world did you do?”

“I…I don’t know,” Poppy whispered. Which was the truth. She didn’t know what she’d done. Completely healing Nakoa should have been impossible. She looped her finger through a curl of her hair, thinking of the last time she’d done something of this scale…

Maybe Nakoa wasn’t even completely healed. Maybe this was a fluke. Poppy reached out with her Grace to check when she realized that her Grace wasn’t responding. 

She whipped her attention back to Adrian. “What did you do to my Grace?”

Adrian grimaced, the tiny scar at the corner of his lips dipping as he frowned. “The same thing I did to Jett’s---I nullified it for a bit.”

“You had no right!”

“I had every right, Poppy. Your skin was glowing. When Jett tried to jerk you out of whatever trance you were in, your Grace flung him backwards.” Adrian swallowed sharply. “Fates, Poppy, this shouldn’t be possible.”

Every sentence deepened her guilt. Jett seemed unharmed, but maybe she was just assuming. If only she had her Grace to check…

And glowing? She recalled how her hands had glowed during the First Trial. 

“I don’t know what’s happening,” she said primly. “But that doesn’t make it okay for you to steal my Grace without my permission.”

“You can have it back when I decide you’re not in danger of doing anything rash with it,” Adrian countered, finally releasing Poppy’s arms. 

“You don’t have the control for that.”

Adrian didn’t take the bait. He helped Poppy to her feet and she had to pretend that she was annoyed with his assistance when really his arm was the only thing keeping her upright. 

“Y’know, I can’t check on Nakoa if I don’t have a Grace,” Poppy pointed out. 

“Sage already has that covered. He said her pulse has stabilized and he doesn’t believe that she’s in danger of dying,” Adrian said. 

“Are we really trusting Sage’s opinion on this?”

“What makes your opinion so much more valuable than his?” Jett cut in, laying a protective hand on Sage’s shoulder. 

Poppy rolled her eyes. She knew she was outvoted, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept defeat. “Fine. I’ll trust Sage---just this once. So when do I get my Grace back?”

Adrian ran his free hand through his hair. “Unless we need it for the duration of the Trial, I’m keeping it hidden until we’re safely back in the city.”

She gaped at him. For the duration of the Trial, he wanted to leave her Graceless. Vulnerable. Broken. “Since when do we have to follow your orders all the time?” she asked, tugging out of his grip and hating how the ground wobbled beneath her.

“I’m a prince, Poppy. You’ll always have to obey me.” He said it with a smile, like it was a joke. To Poppy, it sounded more like a cruel threat. His expression softened a bit as he caught her trembling fingers. “Please, Poppy. It’s for your own safety. And I swear on my life that I’ll return your Grace to you the second it’s necessary--”

“I didn’t ask for your promises, Your Highness,” Poppy spat. “I know how much they’re worth.”

Adrian narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that I’m sure you promised your brother you’d keep him safe, too, and yet here we are.” 

Adrian shrank back, clutching his hands to his chest as hurt flared in his eyes. “You have no right to speak of him like that.”

“Were you with him when he died? I bet he cried your name when he was killed. Probably wondered why the brother who’d vowed to protect him didn’t come.” Poppy savored Adrian’s wounded expression. Let him see how it feels to have a person you thought cared about you betray you.

“All right, I think that’s enough,” Jett interjected, stepping between Adrian and Poppy with his hands raised. He turned to face Adrian. “Why don’t you just give the lovely lady back her Grace--”

“Not a chance,” Adrian snarled.

Jett angled his head toward Poppy. “You owe him an apology if you want your Grace back.”

“I’d rather die,” Poppy growled.

“That can be arranged,” Adrian said. 

“Oh, like you could beat me in a fight--”

“--caught you once before, I can do it again--”

“--touch me and I’ll make sure no one can even recognize your corpse--”

“Both of you shut up!” Sage shouted, his voice cracking as he blushed. “You can kill each other after the Tournament is over and we don’t have to worry about being disqualified. For now, you need to put your differences aside and--”

“This doesn’t involve you,” Poppy said, glaring at him.

Sage’s nostrils flared, but he kept his mouth shut. Jett, on the other hand, gave Poppy a dirty look that reminded her of an overworked mother.

“Listen, it’s still the middle of the night,” said Sage. “The false Fates are still fair game. So I really don’t care what the two of you do to each other as long as a) it’s quiet and b) neither of you end up dead. In the meantime, I think it’s probably best if we start searching for a checkpoint---which should be relatively easy considering Poppy butchered half the forest. Does that sound like a good enough plan for you?”

Poppy reluctantly nodded, and Adrian copied her. 

“Adrian, why don’t you help Sage rig up some way to carry Nakoa,” Jett suggested, obviously trying to separate Adrian and Poppy. 

Adrian began making way over to Sage, but he veered towards Poppy and grabbed her arm, angling his head so his mouth hovered just over her ear. A shiver rolled down her spine as she realized it was practically identical to how close he’d been earlier. His lips grazed her skin as he whispered,”If I find out you had anything to do with Asher’s death, Poppy, I will make you wish you were never born. I will personally take you to Aecheral and I will kill your family in front of you, and then, when their blood is on your hands I will either send you back to whatever assassin hole you crawled out of, or I’ll give you to the Aecherian witchhunters and let them punish you for your crimes. Do you understand me?”

Poppy’s breath caught in her throat. She nodded once, fear freezing the rest of her in place. She could sense the truth in his words, even without the Grace of Deceit. She had no doubt that Adrian would follow through on his threats.

He threw her arm aside and stormed away to Sage’s side, leaving Poppy burning with rage and helplessness.