Chapter 50: Sleeping beauty

**Alice’s Point of view**


Finally alone, I turn to Elliot. His beautiful face is still relaxed as if he was sleeping. I trace the contours of his face with my fingertips, making sparks appear. 
The heart machine beeps a little faster.
"I can't believe it. Are you going to chase me around or what?"
It beeps a little faster.
"I'm not talking to you, Elliot. I'm talking to this evil machine. When I got hit by the car, I kept hearing it the whole time I was in the hospital, it drove me insane."
I swallow. "It's thanks to you that I woke up. I'm sorry I couldn't do the same for you in the library." 
A first tear escapes, then I start to cry uncontrollably.
"Elliot, please. You have to wake up."
I cry for several minutes. I cry of anger, pain, sadness, despair and fear. As if a barrier had just broken, all these emotions that I've buried since the beginning of this whole story overwhelm me and I feel like I'm drowning in this chaos.
After a few minutes, I recover my mind and urge myself to calm down. This is not the time to break down but to stay strong.
"Excuse me. It's just that I feel so helpless. I don't know how to help you."
I dry my tears and look at his beautiful face. He seems to be upset but it's probably just my imagination. 
"Besides, my grandfather got into a fight with me and my father didn't even intervene. He was willing to let him hurt me. What kind of father does that?" I shake my head. "I'm completely lost. I don't know what to do or think. When I think that not so long ago my life was calm, my future mapped out. And now everything is a blur."
I raise my head. "What do you think?"
His face is still impassive.
I sigh. "You look like Sleeping beauty."
A stupid idea comes to me and I straighten up slightly. I caress his beautiful face, put my hand behind his neck and lean in to kiss him.
I try to be gentle but the sparks come alive and my blood starts to boil. I grab his lower lip between mine and suck gently, before nibbling on it.
His heart is racing but that's the only thing that's animated in him, his lips remaining desperately immobile.
I step back a few inches, disappointed.
"It was worth a try."  
I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes for a few minutes.
"You know, I've been thinking. We know you were poisoned at the Castle and I'm pretty sure it happened during the ball. I doubt it was by injection, you would have felt it. So the only solution is ingestion. I was thinking about the meal. It's easy to bring a dish to a particular person. We need to get a list of the staff, see if anyone is connected to Alpha Thomas.
What I don't understand though, is why you were the only one targeted. I mean, last time it was Derek, you and me. They did a good job of poisoning you so they could have done it for two more people." 
I sigh and scratch my head. "Actually, it's not that weird. They tried to murder me differently than Derek and you." I growl. "And as usual, the further we go, the less I understand." 
Owen finally returns with sandwiches and sodas, which he hands me. 
"I'm not very hungry after all." I say.
"You need to eat. You need to be strong when he wakes up."
I grunt and take the sandwich he hands me, forcing myself to bite into it. I don't even feel the taste, I just chew and swallow, like a robot.
I see that he forces himself too, looking almost disgusted.
"Don't you like it?"
He shakes his head. "Yes, I do. It's my favorite sandwich, but I've been forcing myself to eat for a while now."
"Why?"
He looks down and sighs heavily. 
"I see. You know, he doesn't eat as much as he used to too." I say.
He raises his head, his eyes hopeful. "Really?"
I nod. "He's not sleeping very well either."
He then gets a call from Simon and puts the speakerphone on so I can hear.
"We found a book about these famous plants. It was hidden under a concrete slab, a sign that no one wanted us to find it. Apparently, it's volume 5, which is not a good sign at all. If the other four are as thick as this one, we have a lot to worry about."
"We found the plant you were talking about Alice." Says Melanie. "Scarlet silver is a silver powder that was somehow mixed with scarlet wolfsbane. The seed of this plant was obtained from a delphinium that was watered with a so-called magic potion, meaning that only a witch can do it. But that's not the weirdest thing."
"We looked at the symptoms that can be caused by poisoning with these three compounds. None of them cause the breakdown in communication with the wolf. None of them." Sam says.
I frown. "That's not possible. Elliot assured me he couldn't hear Leo. There has to be an explanation."
"Yes. There's only one possible." Says Sam. "He ingested two different poisons."