Two days into the journey, Julian felt the tonic's protection start to c***k.
It began as a faint tremor in his left hand, barely noticeable at first, easy to dismiss as simple cold from the mountain air biting through his gloves. By midafternoon, the tremor had spread to both hands, and by the time they made camp for the night, his chest had begun aching again, dull but unmistakable, the same warning sign that had preceded his collapse weeks earlier.
"You're favoring your right side," Thorne said, watching him dismount with careful, assessing eyes. "And you've stopped eating properly since this morning."
"I'm fine."
"You're lying." Thorne crossed to their small fire, crouching to build it higher against the growing chill. "The tonic was never meant to last a full week. I warned you it
