Hell's Eyes

BRIANNA SHAFFERY

you to partake in something so dangerous, but I am glad to see you well enough.” Elsie nearly grinned, slipping back into the safe embrace of sleep. “‘Twas merely an adventure.” Down in the quiet street of Halberry’s main square, Herman found he had left the Hyacinths—left Elsie—with a lightened heart. One patient had recovered. The elixir he’d made from the cerbertes’ saliva could work—it had worked—to reverse the effects of its bewitching eyes. But Miss Hyacinth’s case was mild and his action almost immediate. Mr. Noblémyn had gone weeks without treatment, spiraling further under the cerbertes kit’s spell before he’d been able to receive help. Time would tell, Herman reminded himself. What was done could be undone with perhaps just a little more time. Mr. Noblémyn might yet still recover from his misfortune. After all, Fate seemed to have looked favorably upon him once, for if he had gazed into the eyes of the grown cerbertes, his descent into his deepest fears would’ve paralyzed him at once. Mr. Noblémyn was very lucky. Lucky indeed to have found such a hero as Miss Hyacinth who’d taken action upon noticing his peculiar behavior these past weeks. Shaking his head, Herman let himself into Halberry’s Herbary, unaware of the shadowy creature observing him from the cover of the Shadow Forest’s tree line.

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