Glug. Glug. Glug.
When Zayne woke up, the mushroom pot was still boiling.
It was cooking his head like a stew.
The flesh on his entire head was fully done.
His nerves had been cooked through.
He could not feel pain at all.
He reached over and felt around on Eva.
She was still poisoned and unconscious.
With a thought, his immortality's terrifying regeneration kicked in.
The cooked flesh peeled off in chunks.
It kept dropping until a fresh skull was exposed.
Then new muscle fibers grew across bone.
Blood vessels formed.
Skin followed.
Even his eyeballs, which had fallen out, regenerated and popped back into place.
"The mushrooms really were delicious," Zayne muttered with a bitter smile.
"Next time I should sleep farther from the pot."
He was not a masochist.
He had no interest in getting his head boiled on purpose.
That horrifying scene played out in full view of the Treasureback Golden Turtle.
It had been hanging upside down all night.
