Chapter 6: The Healer's Poison

The fever broke near midnight, leaving me hollowed out and shivering in a pool of cold sweat. The agonizing, skull-splitting pain had receded to a persistent, grinding ache that settled deep in my bones. It was an improvement, but only in the way that a dull knife is preferable to a sharp one—it still cut, just slower. Exhaustion weighed on me like a stone, but sleep was a distant shore I couldn't reach. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face—the cold contempt warring with a flicker...