Heart of a rogue

* Chapter 18 - Liyu

"Look very carefully, Lucy. Some plants or flowers look similar but have different potency. While these buds look the same, if this one blooms, it will be a poisonous flower, and if this one blooms, it will create hallucinations." Jenny knew a lot about medical herbs—she knew too much.

She said she learned it from her mother, who learned it from hers, but this practice was kind of frowned upon.

"There's no way I can learn all of that. You just showed me like twenty of the same flowers," I groaned in the rays of the sun. Her lessons were killing me.

Jenny chuckled and patted my head. "I don't have a daughter to pass my practice onto. You're smart, so I think you'll get most of it into that head of yours in less than a year."

She smiled with motherly love at me, a feeling that still felt foreign. She chuckled again, but then started coughing.

Her illness was becoming worse, and even her medicinal plants weren't curing it. They were keeping it under control—or rather, keeping it from getting worse.

"What happened to you? How come you're sick? Wolves shouldn't be sick." I handed her a glass of water to ease her dry throat.

"Hmm, well, long story short, I was close to dying from silver. Once it enters your bloodstream, you need to be quick. Only one plant cures it if you use it in less than twenty-four hours. After that, it will heal the worst effects, but you'll never be the old you," she explained vaguely.

She grabbed her book, filled with drawings she made herself, and her notes. Though she left out how to prepare them, every plant needed a different way of preparation. For one, called the Link flower, if you eat the leaves fresh, it will give you a stomach ache. But if you cook them for exactly one minute in boiling water and eat them, it will numb you a little—enough that back in the day, they used it when a woman went into childbirth.

Same plant, but different effects based on the way you prepare and use it.

"So which one did you use for your illness?" I asked.

She showed me a picture of another plant. I had seen it before! It was a pretty common one around here.

"This one is called Liyu. It's not just a plant you use for medical potential... It's usually a plant that you stay away from, but when prepared perfectly, it absorbs the poison in your bloodstream. And when you combine it with this one, it will ease the after-effects of silver poisoning."

I hummed, listening to her teaching. "Then what is that flower called that you combine it with?"

"Just a simple Lavender flower. You grind it into a paste and cook it with the Liyu very slowly for about two hours. Just a teaspoon of the paste is enough every day, so I make it weekly."

"And how do you prepare the Liyu by itself, should you need to save someone from silver poisoning?"

"That's a reason for the future, Lu." She gently patted my head, ending the conversation like that, because I wasn't ready for this practice yet.

...

I waited at Sam's side for days, contemplating what to do. Abel came to check up on me multiple times. Declan did too, but he kept his distance. He gave me the space I needed, and he protected himself from the reaction we have towards one another.

Hell, even I wanted to jump him. But I wouldn't do it. Not with him closing the deal on his relationship with Charlotte. The name alone made me growl.

Sam wasn't doing so well. He was still in a coma. His lungs suffered the worst, and the medicine they used here wasn't doing shit.