Revelations by Sophia Sharp

pain, but before he could say anything, she had him pinned to the ground. Once there, it was only a small matter of lifting his shirt over his head. Nora moved faster than he could have possibly expected. Before she knew it, he sat in front of her with his shirt off.
    “There,” he spat. “Are you happy, now?”
    “No,” Nora breathed softly.
    The wound looked terrible. The blood that had gushed out of it originally stained Alexander’s entire upper arm and chest, but had since dried. The gash itself was still moist, and it bubbled with a thick, black substance. A scab had started to form, but it barely crusted around the outside, and once it met the black substance, it just stopped.
    “This is no ordinary wound,” Nora said. She had taken a first aid class, once, as required by her school, and could tell a badly infected cut when she saw one. This one looked much, much worse.
    “What are you talking about?” Alexander asked. “You’re wrong. It feels fine .”
    “Really?” Nora raised an eyebrow and squeezed the bicep on his bad arm with her hand. Alexander grunted and started breathing faster in pain. She let go.
    “So it hurts a little,” Alexander conceded angrily. “It will heal, like I said.”
    “Have you seen it?”
    “What?”
    “Have you looked at it, yourself?”
    “What kind of a stupid question is that? Of course I’ve—” he cut off as his gaze came to rest on his shoulder. On seeing it, his eyes widened warily.
    “You’re right,” he breathed, concern clear in his voice. For the first time since she had come back, he spoke the way she remembered. “It should not be like that.”
    “What do you think happened?”
    “I know what happened,” Alexander replied gravely. “It makes sense, now…”
    “What does?”
    He looked at her, but said nothing.
    “Alexander? Alexander!”
    He swallowed hard. “I think it was no ordinary arrow. No, to have done so much, it had to have been laced.”
    “Laced? Laced with what?”
    “Poison.”
    Nora’s head spun. What could be poison to the Vassiz? From the little she knew, they seemed nearly immortal beasts, living for generations at a time and never slowing down.
    “What do we do?” she asked. “We need to get you an antidote. Right?” He didn’t reply. “Right?”
    He shook his head slowly. “There is only one substance I have heard of…read of, many years ago…that could produce such a wound. And from what I know – there is no cure.”
    Nora gasped. Did that mean…did that mean he would just get worse? Was there enough poison for it to be lethal ? The hole in his shoulder looked terrible. Beyond healing. But surely they could do something. Right?
    “Can we isolate it?” Nora asked. “Make sure the poison doesn’t spread, something like that?”
    “It’s already hit the bloodstream,” Alexander said. He laughed ruefully. “I know its effects. First, the mind goes. Then the body breaks out in fever. Some can fight it off for longer than others, but left untreated…like I said. There is no cure.”
    “We must be able to do something!” Nora exclaimed.
    Alexander met her gaze calmly. “I will try to fight it, Nora, but…I don’t know how long I can. If I…start to act differently, speak to you differently…know it is the poison taking hold. It is not who I am.”
    Nora shook her head. “That’s nonsense. You’ll heal. You can last against it.”
    Alexander nodded in thought. “There is…one potential saving grace.”
    “Yes?” Nora asked, eager to find out more. “Tell me, what is it?”
    “The poison comes from a plant that is very rare. It is impossible to obtain, now – the species went extinct over two hundred years ago. I suspect that all the poison Korver’s pack had was placed on the tip of that arrowhead. And that is what we have to pin our hopes on. That they did not have enough for it be lethal.”
    “So what do we do now?” Nora asked.
    “First,” Alexander said, “give me my shirt back.