Allison's POV
Lucian had, in fact, been bitten by a snake.
He'd had the presence of mind to stash the dead snake in a Ziploc bag near the cave entrance—like evidence at a crime scene.
Only after we reached the hospital and a pair of tired-looking ER doctors confirmed the snake was non-venomous did anyone finally let out a real breath.
Now he lay pale and sweating in the hospital bed, still burning with a low-grade fever, while I sat in the visitor's chair pretending to read a magazine I hadn't turned a page in twenty minutes.
Inside me, a tangled mess of emotions churned—relief, guilt, confusion—all colliding like bumper cars in a dark carnival.
I had a pretty solid theory about what triggered the fever.
Getting soaked to the bone in the storm, charging into a cave f
