The Fake Heart (Time Alchemist Series)

by Revelle, Allice

  No matter. Kathleen Hearst was back in her grave, although my heart felt like black tar at holding her precious heirloom—the same, precious jewelry she had as a little girl that gave her hope and saved her life. I was a horrible, horrible person.

  I didn’t even notice Jack appear in front of me as he yanked my hand away, and snatched the necklace up, clutching it in his greedy hands. I reached out to grab it again, but he sent me flying, pushing me away with his arm, and I landed in the ground with a shriek. Dirt and grass got in my mouth, and I coughed them up. My mouth tasted like vomit and my throat was unbearably dry, like dust. My body hurt all over.

  Jack and Marjorie seemed to have forgotten about me as they gathered near each other. Marjorie cheered, her beautiful brown hair flowing in the air as she looked longingly at Jack, cheeks flushed like a little girl waiting to open her Christmas present.

  But then Jack’s eyes, wide with glee and triumph, began to turn into surprise. And then they hardened completely.

  “NO!” his voice seemed to reverberate all throughout the cemetery, scaring a few sleeping bats from their homes in the thick trees. “Goddamnit, Goddamnit!”

  “M-Master Ivan!” Marjorie faltered, trying to reach him, until the ground beneath our feet started to shake violently, and she fell to the ground. I stayed in my spot, holding the ends of somebody’s grave to try and hold still as I witnessed what was going on.

  “Damn you Guinevere! God damn you!” he howled, the ground shaking even faster as rocks jutted up and down from the cold earth, like in those arcade games of whack-a-mole. Even the nearby graves were starting to crack from the pressure of his alchemy going out of control.

  Marjorie, looking as pale as milk, crawled towards him and wrapped her arms around one of his legs. “I beg for your forgiveness Master Ivan!” she cried over the thunderous cracks of the earth, “As long as we are together, nothing can stop us from achieving your immortality! Nothing—”

  Ivan, his eyes completely black, like death, shot her a withering look. She shrank even further. And all of a sudden, the shaking and cracking stopped.

  It was a deathly quiet, until Ivan finally spoke, his words clear as a bell. “That was your final chance, Marjorie. I have no use for a failure like you anymore.”

  A large jagged point of the earth shot up, snapping Marjorie’s body in half like a doll. Her eyes wide with shock and hurt. Her mouth was open in a large O, but her cries were stuck. She had no time to let them out. Blood spurted out of her open mouth. The two halves of her body lay motionless on the ground; deep pools of dark blood circling around the ends.

  Then any light or hope she had in her eyes faded in seconds.

  Jack threw Kathleen’s necklace in my direction as he screamed in fury towards the night sky. It bounded towards me and I snatched it up, the locket already wide open.

  But no Elixir inside.

  CHAPTER 28

  “Everything I’ve worked for! Everything is ruined! Ruined!” Jack screeched, slamming his fists into the nearby graves so hard that his hands began spurting blood. The graves themselves cracked underneath the pressure, splitting like cracked, bloodied teeth. “Curse you Guinevere! Curse you to hell!”

  The earth around us shook so violently that I stumbled forward. My chin and hands scraped against the ground as I watched in horror as Jack’s temper got the best of him.

  I have to calm him down, I thought, What do I do? What do I do?!

  I need him to think I’m on his side before I end up like Marjorie. I held back the bile burning in my throat when my eyes caught sight of her empty ones, her face frozen in time. She had been so loyal to him, willing to kill for him, and he had killed her in a horrible, uncontrollable rage.

  I saw the look of pain in her eyes—she was in love with Ivan. And he had tossed her aside like a useless, broken glass doll.

  And I would be next if I didn’t do something!

  “Jack!” I screamed over the rumbling, “Jack! Listen to me!”

  His own screaming had stopped, but the shaking still continued, “Jack! Jack! I know how we can fix this! Listen to me!”

  I screamed so hard my throat felt raw, but still I kept screaming, until minutes later, the small earthquake he was causing finally dwindled down to an almost gentle thrumming. He was hunched over, breathing heavily. But his inky black orbs found mine. I couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran up my spine.

  He let out a throaty laugh. “What makes you think you can do anything, you stupid girl?”

  I bit my split lip, a fresh bit of blood leaking out. The taste of copper and cotton was stuck in my mouth. I really wished I was some cool water alchemist so I could get something to drink.

  You need to play this right, Emery. You can do this.

  “I want to help you Jack,” I pleaded, getting up on my knees. The tattered and bloody ends of my dress sticking to my legs like glue. “Please, I just want to help you.”

  He let out a bark of laughter, shoulders shaking, “You? You want to help me? How pathetic can you get? Women with their fragile little hearts are so easily swayed, ready to jump at my every command. Every generation is the same. It’s beyond help.”

  I glanced over at the pieces of Marjorie’s dead body. Her eyes wide, as if she was pleading for her love to spare her. I grimaced. “Marjorie loved you.”

  “She was a fool,” he said, “Nothing but my pawn to get what I want.”

  Here it was, the opportunity. I snatched it. “What did you want, Jack?” my voice dry. I dug my nails into the dirt floor, praying this would work. “Why did you search so hard for the Elixir?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” he sneered, staggering to a standing position, “I wanted what was rightfully mine! Immortality!” He smashed his boot against the stone and I let out a screech as the floor beneath it cracked in half, swallowing the round headstone in its crevice. “It was mine! It should have been mine! Why didn’t that old fool see that?!”

  “You mean Flamel,” I swallowed, backing against the stone that was still intact so I wouldn’t be his next target, “Flamel gave the Elixir to Guinevere—not you.”

  “That’s right,” he gave a strange sad laugh, “Everything had gone according to plan—we would have both obtained immortality and spend our lives together, but he made the one mistake of giving Guinevere the Elixir instead of me! He betrayed me! And she as well!

  “It was always just the two of us—beautiful, graceful Guinevere, for my eyes only. She loved me as much as I loved her. We planned to run away together—away from her pathetic excuse of a husband who complained and my pitiful wife who cried endlessly about my work, away from the judgmental eyes of our people—and become the most feared alchemists of the world!

  “But when I read of Flamel’s will—how she would get the Elixir all to herself, instead of me. I became furious! How dare he treat me like that, after I had served him all my life! So I planned. I would take what was rightfully mine—both the Elixir and Guinevere away from his greedy hands. But I was too late! That bastard disappeared, and Guinevere—my dear, sweet, beloved Guinevere—had turned on me!”

  “It was rightfully yours,” I lied, trying to stand up, “You were his best pupil. He should have trusted you more.”

  “Precisely!” he lifted his head and shouted to the moon, as if Flamel and Guinevere were watching his sad performance from the skies, “I went through hell to find her! I did everything for her! And how did she repay me?! By stabbing me in the back, that’s what she did!”

  I winced as his voice became louder. The shaking started again and I would’ve lost my balance if I hadn’t been holding onto the round stone. Something slim and hard bounced against my foot and I looked down to see Marjorie’s metal flashlight. It was like a beacon of hope, and I scooped down to retrieve it and stuffed it in the front of my silk dress in hopes Jack didn’t spot it (Who needs a purse anyway when you have a bra?).

  I waited until he calmed down until I tried again, “You loved her, but she betraye
d you. You have a right to be angry!” My knees shook as he stared at me—as if he were seeing me for the first time. Before he could explode again, I kept going, “I have pages of Guinevere’s journal,” I said, although it was sort of the truth. I had the translated notes, but still, “We can fit together the pieces and find another shard of the Elixir. We can do it together.” I felt like I had swallowed something sour at the word “together”, but…it looked as if Ivan was taking the bait.

  His eyes narrowed as he looked me up and down, “Why should I believe you?”

  I held my breath, refusing to look away. I would not be intimidated and I would not show fear. “Because…I love Jack,” I finally said. And in my heart, it was true. I had loved Jack. Not this person. “I…I love you.”

  Somebody please shoot me. Please. Jack’s eyes widened a smidgen, but a sinister smile played on his lips. His eyes rolled over me, looking at me in a new light. Now he knew I would do anything for him. I was his new pet to play with. Perfect.

  “Take me to the boy,” he said, “Take me to Guinevere’s apprentice, and then I shall decide if you are indeed worthy of sharing a life of immortality with me.” So that’s how he roped Marjorie into this whole mess. He probably promised tons of eager and love struck girls—like, sadly, me—with the powers of immortality and youth if they helped him.

  So that’s how you are, I thought, you can’t do it by yourself; you need somebody to help you. You need me.

  “To L-Leon?” I stuttered, gripping my dress with my bloodied hands, “Why do you want me to take you to Leon?”

  Without a word, Jack shrugged off his black tux, letting it fall to the floor. He unbuttoned his shirt halfway before pulling it aside. On his chest, right over his heart, was the most beautiful tattoo I ever saw. It was shaped almost exactly like mine—with the numbers and hands of an old fashioned clock—except the tiny black hands on his chest was moving. Tick, tick, tick. The smallest hand of the clock-like tattoo was only centimeters away from twelve. The largest had moved a space past the eleven mark.

  “I haven’t much time,” he said, buttoning his shirt back up, “I need another vessel before this body deteriorates. Now take me to that boy.”

  I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his spot on his chest, even as he walked towards me with briskness. His jacket lay untouched on the ground. “W-what are you going to do to Leon?”

  He took one of my cold hands, kissing it with those poisonous lips of his before answering, “He should consider himself lucky—he shall be Ivan Novak’s next vessel.”

  ◊◊◊◊◊

  We walked back towards where we met, hand in hand. I glanced back briefly to see the ground was as smooth as it was hours ago (well, it certainly felt like hours; it was probably only mere minutes); the cracks in the earth were gone and the headstones sat up right in place; and no dead body of St. Mary’s Headmistress in sight. Jack had used his alchemy to sink Marjorie’s body into the depths of the earth, hidden away from the world—a crime he would never be accused of.

  I shuddered, squeezing back the tears that threatened to spill.

  Poor Marjorie. Betrayed in the absolute worst way possible and not even given a proper burial.

  Jack’s hand was like a poisonous scorpion wrapped around my hand. I wanted to jerk it away. I wanted to get away from his venomous touch. Our walk is slow because of my ankle, but I pretend like it’s nothing. I didn’t want him holding me to his beating heart and inhaling his familiar scent and being lost in the past. I needed to concentrate.

  “I…m-may I ask you something, Jack?” I asked, throat tightening as I squeezed his hand in fake assurance and a sign of permission, and to make sure he wasn’t going to explode at any second on me. And it’s not like I was stalling…okay, maybe just a little bit.

  He turned to me, smiling like a snake, “What would you like to know, my dear Emery?”

  The way he referred to me as some sort of possession made my stomach churn, but I forced my eyes to stare right into his, “How did you even know there was a shard of the Elixir around here?”

  His eyes gleamed over as he spoke, “I’ve been following my Guinevere and her pathetic apprentices since the very beginning. It wasn’t hard, mere child’s play, if you ask me.”

  Nobody did.

  “About a year ago, I received a clue that Guinevere would be retracing her steps and heading back south,” he continued, “It was certainly a long shot, but I knew Guinevere would have chosen a spot near the water—she so loved the ocean; she was as beautiful and free as the waves that washed onto the shores of my soul, it seemed. It didn’t take me too long to narrow it down to this quaint city of Savannah—it’s roots deep into history and time itself, murderous secrets hidden underneath it’s…‘Southern charm’ as they say.”

  I swallowed the softball sized lump in my dusty throat as his gaze turned back up to the moon—as if Guinevere was like the moon itself; beautiful, awe-inspiring and illuminating with power…but just out of his reach.

  “Why St. Mary’s Academy?” I asked as we kept walking, past the statue of Little Gracie again—this time she looked positively heart-broken. As if she already knew of my fate and was crying silent tears.

  “I needed to secure a place of power and wealth, a place where I could hide in plain sight—and St. Mary’s was right up my alley. It wasn’t hard to sneak into the school at all.” Here, he gave a bark of laughter; it made me jump from his sudden unexpectedly change of tone. “And it was pathetically easy to manipulate that stupid wench. All I had to do was offer her a prize she couldn’t resist.”

  My heart felt like it turned into a ball of ice. The Headmistress of St. Mary’s Academy…she had done all of those things—the unusual punishments, the nasty cold shoulders (no pun intended) and the near killing threats—because she had loved Jack. I saw in her eyes that she wasn’t following Ivan just because of his promise of eternal life.

  She loved him. She loved him so much that it got her murderer.

  Headmistress Margaret had been taken over by Ivan, too. She was his victim.

  Jack, seemingly unfazed by my frozen state, kept on, “And it didn’t take too long to narrow down a list of potential vessels. Jackson Alexander had everything I needed—the charming looks, the brains, the endless wealth and the social status. But even he couldn’t get me what I wanted—”

  “The Elixir,” I said.

  “Precisely. A year had passed and I was no closer to finding such location—until I found you, Emery.”

  “M-Me?”

  “Yes. Since we are confessing, I must admit that becoming Jack Alexander was a bit of a pain; I had to make it look like I truly was him, to avoid suspicion, and continue with those…god awful running exercises night and day. But if I hadn’t run that day through the woods, I would have never spotted Guinevere’s two apprentices together—and you. I knew you were my key to getting the Elixir. All I had to do was wait for you to catch the bait.” He gave a hoot of laughter at my burning face, “And you certainly took it like a dog takes to a piece of salted meat!”

  I felt as if I had been slapped over and over again, as he pulled me away from the headstones and angel statues, and the withering flowers to forgotten loved ones, crusty and brown from the harsh winter air, towards his newest target.

  CHAPTER 29

  Soon, we came near the entrance of the secret tunnels that led back to the school grounds. It made me wonder, if a popular junior like Karin Foster knew the tunnels existed, then maybe Jack did too—and who knows how many other people actually used them. How did he get here, anyway? Did he take them too, or did he just use Jack’s status to easily snatch a car and a clueless driver and whisked himself away from the part of the Winter Formal to here? There were so many questions my head literally hurt from thinking about it all.

  The small area of trees where Dove was attacked was dark and empty. Dove was nowhere to be found. I almost cried in relief. Especially since Jack didn’t even seem to have noticed!

&
nbsp; Thank God. Thank God. Thank God!

  But that happiness shriveled like a raisin in the sun. Leon was still unconscious, practically nestled between two headstones. Blood pooled around his body, and his limbs bent at odd angles.

  But he was alive. He was breathing. His breath made small clouds in the air and I wanted to race over and become his shield and sword, like he had done so many times for me. But I stood frozen by Jack’s side as if my feet had sunk into the ground. He released my hand and walked forward to Leon, crouching down to his face before ripping his brown jacket and white tee away, revealing his bruised chest and bleeding stomach. I inwardly gasped, wishing I could do something.

  Jack’s eyes were closed as he spoke in some strange, ancient language. He placed a hand over Leon’s heart and a white light illuminated from it. The light grew brighter, as did the spot on Jack’s chest, and I saw Leon struggling and gasping in pain, even though his eyes were still shut.

  Leon’s eyes snapped open, his sea-green eyes no longer there—instead it was just all white His mouth was wide open and a strange sort of pale smoke was coming from his mouth. His whole body tensed up as he arched his back. There were disgusting crackling noises, as if his bones were being crushed by a large semi truck. Jack’s eyes were open now, and the blackness of his orbs was starting to fade to light gray, and then white; his skin turned an ash color. But his smirk—that evil smile—wouldn’t leave.

  Leon gasped in pain, mouth trying to form some sort of words as I watched, frozen in horror. His blank eyes were on me and his lips kept moving, forming silent words.

  “Em…er…y…”

  A hot flash of anger erupted over my skin, and I pulled out the flashlight from the front of my dress and threw it as hard as my aching muscles could. It landed with a satisfying smack against Jack’s head and whatever alchemy he was doing instantly stopped; the eerie lights vanished like a fuse had gone out. Leon’s body flumped against the ground and he breathed heavily, a sheen of sweat covering his pale skin.