Page 91 of How Does It Feel?

It smelled like carrots? What in the—?

What poison smelled like carro—

Water hemlock was in the carrot family and was incredibly toxic!

I immediately dipped the tiniest bit of my pinky into the green liquid and wiped it on the top of my forearm.

Within a few seconds, the skin began to redden and hive.

It was definitely water hemlock. I was certain of it. It grew along the park’s wet meadows regularly and caused severe skin reactions from touching it.

I set the cup down and smiled at the poison, feeling slightly more optimistic.

Another snake, this one red with bright green stripes, fell on the table and nearly knocked one of the cups over before I screamed and kicked it with my foot.

I needed to hurry. They were coming faster.

The sixth cup was filled with what looked to be another cup of clear liquid, but upon smelling it, I immediately placed lemon. Strong lemon. Unless it was poison masked with lemon, I had to believe that this was an antidote. Lemon juice was incredibly acidic. I filed that away in my mind as I set the cup down and continued to the final cup.

The clear-ish pale green liquid looked similar to the others, maybe a bit lighter. Some sediment had settled to the bottom of the cup, and I squinted to see if it might lend to a hint. No luck. It just looked like small white dots. That could’ve been anything. I sniffed the liquid.

I gagged, almost dropping the cup.

It smelled like raw meat.

How disg—

Root something . . . snakeroot! I was shaking so hard I could barely see.

White snakeroot was an incredibly common poisonous weed with tiny white fluffy flowers! That could be what the white speckles on the bottom were from, and it smells like raw meat. Quite an unmistakable fragrance.

The plant was so incredibly toxic that people died just from drinking the milk of a cow that recently grazed on white snakeroot. That had to be what it was!

As if on command, at least five snakes fell to the floor with a sickening sound.

The floor was covered now with slithering hissing snakes.

My eyes clenched shut with fear as they slid over each other across the floor. Some were the size of a garter snake, but some were absolutely giant.

My god, what I wouldn’t give to get out of this room and away from these creatures. I loved all animals and could even appreciate them, but some unfounded part of my body was absolutely terrified of these snakes.

Okay, there was no sense in wasting any more time.

I couldn’t help but feel like the oracle had been trying to help me by giving me a few human herbs—

The humans.

Did Mendax still plan on taking over the human realm and destroying all the humans?

I growled in frustration at my chaotic mind as I tried to focus on the cups in front of my knees. I couldn’t just leave the humans to be annihilated when I could have done something.

Okay, one problem at a time.

I needed to make it out of here alive, and then I would try and work a deal with Mendax or something. There had to be something I could negotiate to at least stall the humans’ demise. Maybe as his bonded, he could no longer hurt humans—

Oh my god, could that be a thing? How would I find that out? He had bonded us in haste, so maybe he hadn’t thought that through?

I smoothed the sweat-dampened hair from my face and tried to sort my chaotic thoughts.