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Jeannie grabbed my arm, her eyes bugging as she took a ragged breath.
“I can’t… I can’t…” she gasped.
The rash snaked up her throat. She was going to suffocate.
I wrenched out of her grip and grabbed the plant and bowl of water. Setting them both on a nearby table, I ripped leaves off the plant and tore them in half, throwing them into the bowl of water.
A pot of cutlery sat in the middle of the table and I grabbed a fork and prodded the leaves in the water.
This would make the most horrendous mugwort tea, but we didn’t have the luxury of time.
“Jeannie!” her friend shouted, as the girl took a shuddering breath and fell still.
Time slowed as adrenaline shot through my system.
I snatched Allison’s glass of water off our table and poured it over Jeannie’s face.
She gasped and juddered as the shock roused her.
“Here.” I grabbed the bowl and knelt next to her. “You’ve got to drink this, Jeannie.”
I looped an arm under her shoulders and eased her head up, pressing the rim of the bowl to her lips.
Jeannie took measured gulps, but choked on the third mouthful. The concoction sprayed all down her top and dripped into her mousey hair.
She inhaled another shaky breath, and around her throat, the spread of the rash receded just an inch.
“In here!” Kira dashed in, followed by two paramedics dressed in their purple uniform.
Both their eyes widened at the sight of the rash.
“Stand back, all of you!” one of them ordered.
I lowered Jeannie back to the ground, Allison’s hands grabbing my arm to guide me away.
I clutched the bowl of mugwort tea to my stomach as the paramedics surrounded Jeannie.
How had aconite, a cautiously used ingredient by all magic practitioners, found its way into this girl’s system?
Allison watched me pace from her foetal position on the waiting room chair.
The paramedics had insisted we come to the hospital after learning we had given Jeannie mugwort tea. Aconite poisoning had been rare enough even in London, but on Dusk? Unheard of. The doctors needed the witnesses close by in case they required more information.
Kira had taken advantage of the empty waiting room to flutter, cross-legged, just underneath the light fittings.
Her wings always were the most jittery part about her when she was nervous.
I ran a hand through my hair and caught a few knots between my fingers.
We couldn’t have gotten Jeannie to a hospital any faster, but that didn’t mean she was going to survive. The tea had halted the aconite’s progress, but done little to undo its damage.
I glanced at the spot on my arm where William’s good luck mark lay under my jacket. Without it, could we have even helped as much as we did?
Footsteps approached from down the hall and I stopped pacing.
Sandra appeared, her scrubs stained and her hair wild.
“Is she all right?” Allison asked, as Sandra opened her mouth to speak.
