"She's mine," I said, answering the unasked question.
Neisa stood up and pulled back the tattered curtain leading into her small house. "The ingredients you paid for were expensive. Some were hard to find on such short notice."
She paused at the threshold, her jaw tightening. "But I have the base for the antidote simmering. If you are truly going to get me into that Academy, Irene... this potion had better be for someone important enough to make it happen."
I stepped over the creaking floorboards, entering the dim, herb-scented interior of her home. "Trust me, Neisa. The man waiting for this potion is exactly the kind of person who can open any door in this kingdom." I stated with a straight face.
"Or tear it off its hinges," I whispered to myself.
Neisa looked at the bubbling cauldron in the corner, then back at me, a grim sort of alliance forming in the silence.
