Read Online An Hour of Need by Bella Forrest - Free Book Online Page B

Frans’ hut… There were quite a few books on botany, weren’t there?”
    I hardly dared to think about what Orlando was implying.
    Could it be? Could these trees have something to do with the antidote?

Grace
    “ U h , we need to get out of the way,” Caleb said suddenly, looking behind us. I couldn’t see what he had noticed, but he had obviously heard something with his vampire ears.
    “Sounds like more hunters are coming through the portal,” my mother said.
    “Let’s head up into the trees,” Horatio suggested.
    Following Horatio’s lead, Ibrahim transported us up into the tree tops. He settled us down along a branch that was so large all of us could comfortably stand… Well, as comfortably as you could stand, like a hundred feet above the ground, while surrounded by creepy-crawlies and God knew what else.
    My aunt Rose had already spotted a monstrous spider, which just happened to be crawling near where she and Caleb had been planted. She clutched Caleb’s arm hard. Caleb smirked, pulling her to stand on the other side of him so that he acted as a barrier. As brave as Rose was, she was still a little girl when it came to spiders. And crabs.
    “Now we’re closer,” Ibrahim said beneath his breath, moving toward one of the squishy leaves surrounding us, “let’s check these out…”
    He slipped out a Swiss army knife from his pocket and sliced off a sliver of the leaf’s flesh. We all watched as the gooey substance within the leaf dribbled into Ibrahim’s cupped right hand. In texture, the substance wasn’t far off from the gel found in aloe vera, except this was tinged yellow and appeared more gooey.
    “D-Do you think there’s any way…” I began.
    My voice trailed off as I stared at Ibrahim disemboweling the chunk of leaf. He poured the remaining runny gel-like substance into his hand, separating it from the skin.
    He sniffed both the leaf and the fluid before replying, “I think it’s possible. I mean, the way those hunters are working down there, it looks like they’re trying to drive this tree into extinction. I do believe this species is native only to Aviary.”
    Although it would make sense, I still struggled to wrap my mind around how something so pedestrian as a tree could possibly have anything to do with curing the deadly Bloodless infection.
    “The thing is,” Ibrahim went on thoughtfully, “I’m not sure how we would test it. These leaves are obviously the most potent part of the tree, but they could very well be poisonous. I don’t know what kind of effect they could have on a person’s system.”
    I extended a hand to the yellow gel the warlock was holding.
    “May I touch it?” I asked.
    He nodded.
    I dipped my finger into the substance—surprisingly cool—and brought it to my nose. Yes. This smelled sweet. An odd smell for something poisonous. I usually thought of poisonous things as bitter, sharp, or pungent to the nose in some way.
    Then again, I wasn’t exactly a botany professor.
    Horatio also broke off a chunk from one of the leaves and examined it. “Hm. I’m afraid I don’t have much to add to this conversation,” he said. “I’ve never come across this type of tree before in my life. This is the first time I’ve ever visited Aviary.”
    Being born into a family of jinn royalty, I supposed that Horatio would have had no reason to visit Aviary.
    I glanced back down at the film of yellow coating the tip of my forefinger. I was so tempted in that moment to taste it, to see what it did, if anything. What’s the worst that could happen? I’m dying anyway.
    “How about I try it?” Orlando spoke up behind me.
    I whirled on him. “Huh? You?”
    The rest of my family showed equal surprise.
    “Yes,” he replied, his jaw set. “Me. Given everything I’ve learned from you people since leaving Bloodless Chicago, I’m pretty damn sure that whatever those bastards did to me, I have some mild form of Bloodless DNA in my system that’s made me so sick. I