"She will be alright, My Lord," Doctor Aris had whispered, wiping the sweat from his wrinkled forehead with a white cloth. He looked exhausted. "The venom was from a Viper. It is very strong, but we caught it just in ti. The tonic will neutralize the poison in her blood."
The doctor had looked down at Camilla’s sleeping face. Her breathing was finally steady, and the blue tint had left her lips.
"She will sleep very heavily tonight," the doctor explained, packing his tools back into his leather bag. "The shock to her system was imnse. Her leg will ache terribly for a few days, and she might have a slight fever, but I assure you, she will survive this."
Now, Damon and Kade were standing alone in Damon’s private study on the ground floor of the mansion.
Damon was sitting comfortably behind his massive desk. Kade, however, was not comfortable. The aide was pacing back and forth in front of the large glass window, his heavy boots thudding against the wooden floorboards. He looked deeply troubled and highly suspicious.
"I do not understand it, My Lord," Kade said, running a hand nervously through his plain brown hair. Kade was left completely puzzled by the bizarre events in the garden. He stopped pacing and looked directly at Damon.
"Where did that snake co from?" Kade asked, throwing his hands up in frustration.
"I have served in this household for years, General," Kade continued, his voice full of deep confusion and professional paranoia. "I have walked every single inch of those grounds. I have overseen the security protocols myself. I have never seen a single snake in this house before today."
Kade leaned his hands on the edge of the oak desk. "Our gardeners are the absolute best in the capital. They clear the brush every morning. They lay down sulfur powder near the walls to repel pests. It is mathematically impossible for a venomous snake that large to just appear in the middle of a perfectly manicured garden in the broad daylight!"
Damon leaned back slowly in his comfortable leather chair. He rested his chin on his steepled fingers.
He looked at Kade’s stressed face. Damon knew exactly where the dark green snake ca from. It did not co from the forest. It did not crawl under the stone walls. It ca directly from Camilla’s mouth. She had spoken it into existence with her dark wishes. But he absolutely could not tell his aide that truth. Kade would think they were both completely insane.
Kade stood up straight, his face hardening with resolve.
"Should I find new gardeners, My Lord?" Kade asked, fully prepared to fire the entire outdoor staff for their perceived failure to protect the family. "Should I hire a specialized team of hunters from the city to sweep the entire estate with dogs? We must find the nest before anyone else gets bitten."
Damon slowly lowered his hands to the surface of the oak desk. He shook his head slowly from side to side.
"No need, Kade," Damon replied. His voice was incredibly calm, smooth, and entirely unbothered. "Do not fire anyone. Do not hire any hunters."
Kade blinked in surprise. "But My Lord..."
"They are doing their jobs incredibly well," Damon interrupted smoothly, raising a hand to silence his aide. "The gardens are beautiful. This was just... an unnatural occurrence. A strange, unpredictable fluke of nature. The snake is gone. It fled back into the wild. Leave the gardeners alone. They have done nothing wrong."
Kade stared at the General in complete, utter surprise. His jaw actually dropped open a little bit.
Is the General becoming soft? Kade wondered internally, struggling to understand the command. Usually, the Tyrant General would punish everyone remotely involved if his wife was injured on his property, just to make a point about security. Or is he just completely uninterested in Lady Camilla’s safety because he still despises her and plans to divorce her anyway?
"Yes, My Lord," Kade finally replied, deciding it was much safer not to question his master’s strange, sudden leniency. He bowed his head respectfully, turned on his heel, and left the study to return to his guard duties, his mind still filled with unanswered questions.
Damon sat alone in the quiet study. He looked at the closed door.
Late that night, the mansion was completely silent. The moon had risen high in the night sky, casting a bright, cold, silver light through the large glass doors of Camilla’s bedroom balcony. The light spilled across the wooden floorboards, illuminating the edge of her large bed.
The room was still and quiet, slling faintly of the bitter dicinal herbs wrapped around her leg.
Camilla slowly, painfully opened her eyes.
The room was dark, but her eyes quickly adjusted. She could see the familiar, looming shapes of her large wooden closet and the heavy velvet curtains drawn back from the windows.
Her mouth felt incredibly dry, like it was stuffed with cotton, and there was a horrible, bitter, nasty taste resting heavily on the back of her tongue from the anti-venom tonic.
But worst of all was her left leg. It felt incredibly heavy, like it was made of solid lead. It was throbbing with a dull, constant, burning ache right above her ankle. Every ti her heart beat, a pulse of pain shot up her calf.
She rembered the white gazebo. She rembered her clever plan. She rembered the dark green snake, and the terrifying speed of those sharp fangs sinking into her skin.
Camilla slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, groaning softly as she leaned her back against her soft, plush pillows. She looked down the length of the bed at the thick, bulky white bandages wrapped tightly around her ankle.
She let out a long, loud, incredibly frustrated sigh. She dragged both of her hands slowly down her face, rubbing her tired eyes.
"Not again," Camilla groaned softly into the quiet, empty room. Her voice was raspy and weak.
She realized exactly what had happened to her. She had blacked out. Again.
This was the second ti in exactly twenty-four hours she had ended up completely unconscious in a bed. First, the massive lightning strike on the balcony, and now a venomous snake bite in the sunny gazebo. For a highly trained, master assassin from the modern world who prided herself on total control, spending this much ti passed out was deeply, profoundly humiliating.
She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and stared angrily up at the beams of the ceiling.
Her mind began to piece the complex puzzle together.
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