Of Fae and Hate

A hiss leaves my lips as the glass shatters when it collides with my hand. The hot liquid scorches across both my hand and my right knee, drenching my jeans.

“Shit,” Clemmen curses, hopping to her feet.

I grit my teeth, the burning worsening.

“Get that under cold water,” Professor Misael urges me even as he rushes off to grab some towels. “The potion only works on creatures of the ether, but it's still hot enough to burn you.” He spares me another look before retrieving towels from the shelf.

I climb to my feet, my chest tight.

I look down at my hand and he’s right, it's burning, but the burn is going way deeper than it should for the temperature which I’m guessing hasn't reached its peak yet since Clemmen had just cast the incantation.

But already my flesh is burning away from my skin and from the pain shooting through my knee, I’m betting the skin is being eaten away there as well.

A hand wraps around my waist before I’m pulled against a warm body. “Hide it,” Brynsyn whispers harshly in my ear before raising his voice. “I’ll make sure she gets it cleaned up,” he calls out to Professor Misael.

There’s a response that I’m pretty sure was no funny business, but Brynsyn is already rushing me out of the door.

“Fuck, it’s affecting you,” he swears.

The pain in my knee is growing worse and I let out a cry as I nearly go stumbling down. Brynsyn lifts me up, being careful not to directly touch where the potion landed. He breaks into a full run down the hall and I can hear footsteps following behind us but I don’t even try to turn and see who it is, taking deep breaths to push through the pain.

Brynsyn kicks a door open and I realize it’s the women’s bathroom. He plops me down onto the counter and turns on the faucet.

The door flies open again and Alik’s face is full of concern as he steps inside. He quickly checks the stall even as Brynsyn is already stripping my pants off of me. Alik locks the main door when all the stalls turn up empty.

“That’s not just a common burn,” he says as he steps over to appear at my now exposed knee. I don’t have the guts to look at it. If I do, all the contents of my breakfast will come up, because I know it’s bad just from how it feels.

“No, the actual potion is taking effect,” Brynsyn tells him as he pushes his hands under the running faucet.

A whimper slips past my lips and I close my eyes when they start to burn, tears threatening.

“Nerys, this is going to hurt, but I promise it’ll help,” Brynsyn says.

My gaze is blurry as I open my eyes to look at him. His hands are cupped under the still running water and he’s collected a whole handful. His green eyes have gone completely black and as a flurry of words leaves his lips, the water in his hands changes colors.

“Her knee first, it's worse than her hand,” Alik tells him a moment before something is being pushed up against my lips. “Bite down,” Alike demands.

Blindly, I open my mouth and by the time I realize it's Alik’s wrist, Brynsyn is already throwing the water onto my knee.

I bite down on Alik’s wrist hard enough that the metallic taste of blood fills my mouth. The pain worsens and I only manage to let one final whimper pass from my lips before everything goes black.