Alchemist Academy: Book 1

by Ryan, Matt

  I wanted to throw up. She still wanted to play the houses against each other, even when I knew she’d killed one of us. I’d made a promise to Daniel’s father, and I intended to find a way to keep it.

  “Like what?” Bridget asked.

  “I won’t say specifically, but I will tell you this: you’ll want to win for the good of everyone around you.” Verity stared at Mark and then at the book in her hands. “Today’s stone is one we’ve been trying to make for a long time. Aluminum dust, universal solvent, and two more ingredients. It’s best you don’t know what they are.”

  Probably baby seal oil or something equally awful. I could just picture Verity going out onto the surface of Antarctica to steal penguin eggs and club baby whales popping up for a breath.

  “Is there something amusing, Allie?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Good, because these ingredients are of the highest level and one drop can be the accumulation of years of work. Come on up here and get them.”

  I hesitated at first, but walked to her desk to find a selection of vials and bowls divided into two pairs. I took the left-hand group of materials and carried them back to my desk.

  Mark made like he was going to get up, and Verity spoke.

  “Please, Mark. Don’t kid yourself. The only reason you’re here is because Allie thinks you help her make stones.”

  He didn’t say anything, but mouthed a few words as he sat back down.

  “Now, these aren’t simple stones that you’d see in room twenty-eight. These are going to take everything you’ve got.”

  “What does it do?” Bridget asked.

  “Let’s not worry about what the stone does, as much as how you’re going to make it.”

  Bridget clattered around the vials and the bowl of silver powder. She turned back to me so Verity couldn’t see her. Her eyes went wide and she mouthed the word “no” to me. She widened her eyes even farther to punch home her meaning.

  Of course it could be a trick, something to throw me off my game, to allow her a chance to make the stone first and shove whatever horrible thing the loser got in my face.

  The aluminum powder sat in front of me in a bowl. I thought about aluminum being toxic and wondered if I should ask for a mask. Oh, well, I’d just hold my breath. I poured in a small amount of powder. Dust particles didn’t float around like I’d feared. All of it clumped together at the bottom of the bowl.

  I cleared my head as I took the vial of opaque yellow fluid and poured it in. The next one looked like plain water and had a pungent, vinegary smell. I shook as I poured in the solvent, while keeping my thoughts clear of any emotion.

  With wooden spoon in hand, I stirred for what seemed like a long time, until I finally dropped it into the bowl. I took a deep breath and felt dizzy from the pressure I’d put on my head.

  Verity watched from the front of the classroom. She frowned as I gave up and took a long breath when Bridget did the same. We had both failed to make the stone, and for another moment, I felt a bit of the poison Bridget had put in my blood drain out.

  “You both failed. Very interesting.” Verity rubbed her chin and moved away from her desk. “I thought you two bitches might be up to something.” Hate filled her face.

  I leaned back in the chair, unable to avoid her piercing stare.

  “I tried my hardest—” Bridget began to say, but Verity stuck a hand in her face.

  “Don’t even think for one second that you two have me fooled. You think I would waste good ingredients on this testing stone? Yes, that’s right, this was a test. I put out the simplest of stones that even your pet could have made.” Verity closed her eyes and crossed her arms. “I blame myself.” She smiled, and I recoiled from it. It was the same smile she’d given Dave before she murdered his son. “I haven’t properly motivated you. I haven’t given you a sufficient reason to make a stone, now, have I?”

  “I’m sure we can make a stone. Just give us another chance,” Bridget whined.

  “I know you will. Bridget, if you can’t make this next stone, I’m going to use a freeze stone on you and turn you over to some of the eager boys in the Red house. I’ll make sure they have enough freeze stones to do whatever it is they want to do to you for a long and horrible time. And don’t worry, you’ll be awake enough to hear and feel everything.”

  Bridget whimpered and lowered her head. Verity turned to me and in an instant, threw a stone.

  I recoiled, protecting my face, and I heard Mark moan. He held his hand and shook it. The tips of his fingers turned blue, and then it traveled down his fingers into his hand. His whole hand turned blue in under a minute. He kept shaking his hand and wincing from the pain.

  “You’re tough, Mark. Most people would be screaming by now.” She stared at me with her hateful glare. “If the blue reaches his heart, he’ll die. Not even a life stone would bring him back.” She walked to the front of the room and continued. “Now, this is the real stone I need you to make.” She pulled a beige cloth off a stand in the corner of the room. “You’d better hurry, Allie. He doesn’t have much time.”

  Mark shook his head.

  “If he dies, I will never make another stone for you again.” I glanced at Mark and put my shaking hands under the desk.

  Verity took a few steps closer. “Each second you wait, it works farther into his muscles, tearing down tissue and weakening his bones. How’s the arm, Mark?”

  I twitched at each side effect. Mark shook his head again, but he looked paler and gripped his arm tight. His face was filled with pain.

  “Don’t do it. I’ll be fine,” Mark croaked out. I saw the panic building in his face as he stretched his arm out from his body as far as he could.

  Verity hovered near me with a smile. She knew she had me, and the rage filled me enough that I was sure I could have made any stone she wanted me to. “Fine, I’ll make it. But heal him first.”

  “No. Is it getting close to the shoulder yet?”

  Mark gripped his shoulder. The blue had already passed his elbow and was creeping toward his bicep.

  “It won’t be long now.”

  “Fine, but if you don’t cure him, I’m going to use the stone I make on you.”

  Verity laughed. “You can try.”

  I would make a stupid stone, if it meant saving him. Just like the first stone, she’d laid out two sets of ingredients. I didn’t pay attention to what they were and collected them. I set each vial on my desk and set my old mixing bowl on the floor next to me.

  “Don’t do this,” Mark begged, holding his shoulder.

  “Mark, shut up.” I might have been too sharp with him, but I was already summoning my anger. Thinking of what Verity had done last night and what she’d threatened to do to Bridget was enough cause for anger. Toss in Mark dying next to me, and it sent me to an edge I hadn’t known existed.

  I didn’t keep track of the ingredients as I poured them in. I didn’t care if I was making a freaking atom bomb for Verity; I couldn’t let Mark just die next to me. The wooden spoon dug into my hand as I gripped it hard. I spun the spoon around the bowl and waited for the sound of the stone dropping.

  It plunked and clanked around the glass bowl. I grabbed it with a black cloth and cocked back my hand, ready to throw.

  “Done. Now stop it. Whatever you did to him, stop it now.”

  She glanced at Mark and threw a stone at him, hitting him in the chest. He caught it with his blue arm and the stone melted into his skin. He yelled in pain, jumped from the desk and stumbled past me, hitting the wall of books. He fell to the floor, grabbing at his arm.

  A moment later, relief swept over his face and he wiggled his fingers. The blue was receding and the tan color of his skin returning. He stood and stretched out his hand, smiling.

  I dumped the stone into the bowl and ran to Mark.

  Verity tiptoed closer, staring at the contents of the bowl. Her brow crunched around her eyes as she approached and then her eyes went wide when she spotted the
stone in the bowl. Her mouth hung open and she licked her lips. Lifting the bowl off my table, she cradled it like a mother holding her newborn child.

  Another stone clunked around Bridget’s bowl. “Done.” She slumped in her chair and folded her arms.

  I thought I heard her sniffling.

  Verity turned to her with her mouth still open and gave her bowl a questioning look. She placed my bowl next to Bridget’s.

  “You both can leave. You too, Mark.” Verity leaned over the desk, staring at the two bowls.

  Bridget got up and rushed out of the room.

  I touched Mark’s arm. It felt ice cold, but at least the color had returned and it looked completely normal again. He made a tight fist and sneered at Verity’s back.

  “Leave,” she snapped.

  I pulled on him and we left room five.

  Bridget was standing near the door, bent over with her hands on her knees, looking red in the eyes. Mark closed the door to room five and I took a deep breath. I had saved Mark, but at what cost? What had we made?

  “You okay?” he asked Bridget.

  “I feel like we just made something very terrible for her,” Bridget said.

  “I have the same feeling. Do you know what we made, Mark?” I said.

  “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen those ingredients in my mom’s collection.”

  “I can’t come back here tomorrow and make another stone for her. It’s going to kill me. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day, but if I have to keep doing this, I’m going to want to die.” Tears filled Bridget’s eyes.

  I eyed the elevator door next to room five. “We won’t have to stay here for another day.”

  “What are you up to?” Mark asked.

  I clenched my jaw. The last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place and I hadn’t even realized it. “I have a few things to get, and then, yeah, we’re getting out of here.” I just needed enough time to make a few stones.

  “What’s going on in there?” Jackie called from the street below my window.

  “Don’t answer her,” I begged. She would never take silence as an answer. “Take off your shirt and pants.”

  “Excuse me?” Mark had surprised eyes and a big, stupid grin on his face, but his hands had already moved to the buttons on his pants.

  “We need to have a reason to be alone. If we don’t, she’ll force us down to another one of her block parties.” I reached to the bottom of my shirt and pulled it over my head.

  Mark stared at me in my bra. “This is a plan I can get behind.” He tore off his shirt and pants in two seconds flat.

  Staring at his body, I stopped at the red boxers. My breath clenched in my throat, and I totally forgot what we were getting undressed for. Mark slid onto the bed and crawled under the sheet.

  “You look good without a shirt,” he said.

  I looked down at my heaving chest, stuffed in a red bra. Huh, we match. Rolling my eyes, I jumped into bed next to him. “Don’t get any ideas,” I warned.

  The door shot open and Jackie stood on the other side. Her mouth hung low as she took in the scene. “You little sluts,” she said in a half-playful, half-jealous tone. “No wonder you’ve been hiding in here.”

  I pulled up the sheet to cover my chest. Mark rolled over onto his stomach.

  “Can we have some privacy?” I asked.

  Jackie ignored my request and skipped across the room. Sitting on the bed by Mark’s feet, she continued, “I wouldn’t be a very good house leader if I didn’t make sure my peeps were being safe, now, would I?” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a condom. She placed it on Mark’s bare back and then patted him on the butt. “Very nice ass, Mark.” Ogling him, she looked at every inch of his body with hunger. “Damn.”

  “Jackie, get the hell out of here,” I warned.

  She laughed, but got off the bed. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure no one comes up here to interrupt.” She tapped her teeth with one of her fingers. “Do you need any pointers, Mark? I can tell you right now what kind of attention a girl like Allie deserves.”

  “No,” I replied for him.

  “The first thing you should know about a woman, down there, is—”

  “Get out!” I yelled, and threw a pillow at her.

  She laughed again, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. “Fine, fine, I’m gone.” She rushed past the open door and reached back to grab it closed.

  I let out the longest breath of my life. My body felt sweaty and I fanned my chest.

  “She’s an interesting one,” Mark said, sitting up.

  “More like crazy.”

  “I don’t know. I would have loved to hear her advice about a woman’s down there region.” He smirked and held the condom in his hands.

  I hit him with a pillow. “If you can help me figure out how to make a portal-the-hell-out-of-here stone, I’ll consider giving you a personal lesson.” As if I had a clue, but Mark perked up at the offer.

  Looking at my stomach and chest, he nodded. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  I pulled my shirt back over my head. Mark took much longer to put his clothes back on.

  “So, what’s this plan of yours? I’ve seen it on your face since we left room five,” Mark said.

  “The elevator.”

  “The one where Deegan had to dig through a large key ring that he keeps on his person, just to get it open? And how do we even know where we are right now? We wouldn’t last one hour in Antarctica.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to come up with an answer. “I just know we have to get out of here. After seeing what happened to Daniel, I can’t make another stone for her.” Mark opened his mouth, but I talked over him. “She’ll find another way to ‘motivate’ me tomorrow and the day after that.”

  “I agree with you. You can’t make another thing for her. I have a terrible feeling each time, like we’re doing a great wrong.”

  “You don’t think I know? I made a freaking stone that locked that Dave guy into a perpetual nightmare. Who knows what my other stones have done?” It was hard to keep a serious tone while Mark was sitting at the end of my bed, shirtless.

  “Fine, but we have to get the key from Deegan.”

  “Oh, God, yes, yes. Mark!”

  He stared at me with a shocked expression and a bit of color hit his cheeks.

  “Jackie needs to hear that.” I shrugged. “I bet I just bought us a little more time before her strange ass comes up here to interfere again.”

  Mark didn’t say anything for a while and then swallowed.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m just not used to you calling my name out like that.”

  I smiled and covered my face. “Leave Deegan to me, but I need to make a few more stones to prepare.”

  We snuck down the stairs. A few Reds glanced at us but kept talking. We walked to the door behind the stairs.

  “What if Jackie is in there?” I asked.

  “So what if I am?”

  I winced and turned to see her standing there with a cocked brow. “Oh, hey, Jackie,” I offered lamely. “We were just….” I glanced to Mark for help.

  “We were just looking for more protection. It kind of went quick.”

  I lit up at the thought and nodded.

  Jackie frowned. “What’s going on? And don’t think for a second I believed your cat-like screeching up there, Allie.”

  I covered my face with my hand and tried to wipe the embarrassment away. “Come with us.” I pushed the door open and found a few people sitting at various tables around the room. Some had materials set in front of them, while others were mingling in small groups.

  “Everyone out,” Jackie said. “Now,” she added, and waved her hand at the door over and over again.

  She got a few grunts and complaints, but they all left.

  Jackie turned to us. “Now, why don’t you tell me what selling your good name was worth?”

  I didn’t listen as I rushed around the room, grabbin
g the ingredients I needed. Jackie huffed as I remained silent, but I was going to make these stones before I worried about placating her. In a few minutes I had the stones I needed stuffed in my sack. I turned to Jackie.

  “We found a way out of here.”

  The building shook.

  “Not again, not this soon.” Jackie stared at the ceiling. “Wait, what do you mean, you found a way out of here?”

  Verity’s voice sounded muffled in the stone room, but we heard it well enough. “All students, report to your rooms to make booster stones. Room five, report to room ten.”

  Mark winced, grabbed at his stomach and fell to one knee.

  I reached down to him. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He grunted in pain and balled up.

  “Diarrhea? I told you to stay away from the mystery meat in the cafeteria.” Jackie shook her head.

  I scowled at her. “It’s not from bad meat. He’s ill.”

  The building shook again.

  “We’d better get to our classroom. You’ll disappear if they find out you didn’t help with the booster stones.”

  “Everyone will be gone…” I said to myself.

  “What?” Jackie asked.

  I pointed to the ceiling. “This is going to be our best chance of getting out of here.”

  I remembered the chaos it had created last time. Best of all, Verity would be locked in, trying to portal the whole academy.

  Mark groaned again and rolled to the floor in a fetal position.

  “Is he going to be all right?” Jackie asked, and knelt down next to him.

  “Go. I’ll help Mark,” I said.

  Jackie frowned and stood with her arms crossed. “If you two found a way out, I’m not leaving your side.”

  “Just go,” I yelled. “I’ll explain it all to you later.”