“We were only bitten once each.” I squeezed her reassuringly. “It isn’t your fault, Sin. You’re so strong. You’re still smiling despite everything. You’re braver than anyone.”
She sniffled, gripping my arm with cold fingers, then visibly pulled herself together. “Aaron and Kai were in here earlier. They stopped to say hello. Kai had a black eye.”
Ouch. That sucked, but lucky for him, his face was so perfect he probably still looked better than ninety percent of men.
“They were extremely vague about why they looked all beat up.” She waited to see if I’d explain, then puffed in annoyance. “Tobias came in as they were leaving. It wasn’t pretty.”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn’t hear everything, but it sounded like Tobias had come to get Aaron for something off that itinerary. Aaron started shouting at his dad that he wasn’t going to any meetings or interviews until”—she blushed bright red—“I was safe.”
She cleared her throat, then added, “Aaron said a few other things too. He asked—or more yelled that his parents care more about shoving him in front of as many of their elite friends as possible than they do about spending time with him.”
I winced sympathetically.
“Then he stormed off, threatening not to come back next year,” Sin concluded sadly. “His parents seem so nice, but …”
But behind their niceness was family drama ugly enough that Aaron had left at eighteen and only visited once or twice a year. After Aaron and Kai’s fight, I was more than eager to get everyone back home to the Crow and Hammer.
“Any updates from Kelvin?” I asked.
She shook her head. “What he has to do isn’t easy. He’s testing the shifter for alchemic components that could’ve caused its increased strength. After that, he’ll have to choose—or possibly invent—a counter-potion to reduce the shifter’s power so that druidess can drag it out of me.”
That sounded downright impossible, but I wasn’t a transmutation expert.
We chatted for a few more minutes, then I gave her a lung-crushing farewell hug. As I left the infirmary, classroom doors opened, the final lesson of the day over. I maneuvered through the swarm of students until I reached a door in the auxiliary wing.
At my knock, the door cracked open and a blond head appeared. “Oh, hi Tori.”
“Hey Brian,” I greeted the apprentice alchemist. “Can I get an update?”
Yeah, I’d asked Sin already, but I wanted it firsthand.
Brian opened the door wider. Inside the spacious room, a counter was covered in … I wasn’t even sure. Arcana circles drawn in white chalk, containers of ingredients, vials and bottles of potions. Chemistry equipment—hot plates, beakers, burners with blue flames boiling liquids, and weirdly shaped glass vessels—gave the impression of an evil laboratory. A small black cauldron gushed orange steam.
Kelvin, his braided beard frizzy and his black apron stained, held a grimoire in one hand as he shook a beaker of thick jade liquid. Behind him on a table, a plastic sheet covered a lumpy shape I assumed was the shifter body we’d brought back that morning. I automatically started breathing through my mouth in case it stank.
Brian stepped into the hall and swung the door most of the way closed. “It’s … going. He’s identified some components but nothing that can explain the metaphysical transcendence.”
“The what now?”
“The physical transmutation,” Kelvin boomed, yanking the door open and almost knocking Brian over as he pushed through the threshold, “has infused the wolf spirit with unnatural strength. Not cell transmutation but something beyond it. Most likely, a shifter was transmutated and the spirit inside it absorbed the effects. Its host then died, and the now-enhanced spirit possessed Sin instead.”
“Yes,” Brian muttered. “That’s why the spirit is so powerful.”
“If I’m correct,” Kelvin continued, speaking right over the end of Brian’s sentence, “the alchemist behind these shifters is of rare genius. I know only a handful of master alchemists with the expertise to unravel the transmutation, let alone create it.”
“Are you one of those master alchemists?” I asked, unable to help my dry tone.
“Of course!” He shoved the jade liquid at Brian. “Negative result. Dispose of that and prepare for an activated alkali test.”
Brian took the beaker and hastened into the lab.
Kelvin smiled through his beard. “Don’t fret, young lady. It isn’t the fastest process, but I’ll have a solution for Sin in time.”
I blinked up at him, then returned his smile. For all his bluster and ego, he didn’t seem like a bad guy.
I returned to the manor and hastened to the third floor to freshen up for dinner. Normally not something I worried about, but here? Dinners were multi-course affairs. Looking extra nice was a small price to pay for delicious food.
In my room, I twisted my hair into a loose bun and added a sweater over my long-sleeved shirt, then dug into my suitcase for my deodorant. Where was it? I was sure I’d tossed it on top.
I sank back on my heels and studied my luggage. Had I folded my jeans that neatly? I unzipped my toiletry bag. My deodorant sat on top of my three whole shades of lip gloss. Shaking my head, I applied it, tossed it back in the toiletry bag, and stood. The maids were lovely but I didn’t need them tidying my suitcase.
Stopping at Ezra’s door, I tapped on the wood. When no one answered, I silently turned the handle and peeked inside. Light slashed across the floor, illuminating the Ezra-shaped lump under the blankets. He was sleeping again. Maybe, just maybe, his insomnia had lifted.
I shut the door and headed down to dinner, feeling more hopeful than I had since the first shifter attack.
Chapter Fifteen
Snuggled deep in my bed, I drifted on the edge of sleep. At first, I’d thought this bed was way too squishy to sleep on, but now that I’d gotten used to it, the cloud-like softness was the best thing ever.
I rolled onto my side and buried my face in the lavender-scented pillowcase. After dinner, Aaron and Kai—his black eye repaired by a healer—had discussed their plans for hunting the alpha wolf. We were scheduled to head out bright and early the next morning. Ezra had slept right through dinner, but he’d be joining us for the hunt.
The clack of a door handle broke into my sleepy stupor. My eyebrows scrunched as my bedroom brightened, then the door clicked closed.
Grumbling, I flopped onto my back, legs tangled in the blankets, and squinted my eyes open. The room was dark, a soft glow leaking between the drapes from a lamp outside. My vision was blurred, my eyes tired and dry, but I couldn’t miss the man ghosting toward my bed.
My breath caught. A stranger in my room would’ve petrified me, but I knew his silhouette as well as I knew my own shadow.
“Ezra?” I mumbled sleepily. “What’s wrong?”
He crossed the plush carpet, then the mattress dipped as he put a knee on my bed. I blinked my drowsiness away, confusion and a dart of anticipation firing through me. The dim glow from the window caressed his bronze skin; he wore only a pair of thin cotton pants. His torso was all curving muscle and hard planes, his scars softened in the darkness. He leaned over me, light catching in his eyes.
Panic ripped through me.
His hand clamped over my mouth in an iron grip, stifling my petrified gasp. He lowered his head, our noses almost touching.
“Tori,” he hissed.
Instead of ice-white and chocolate-brown, two crimson eyes glowed in his face, the deep red burning black in the center. This was Ezra’s body, but it wasn’t him.
Ezra can’t come to the phone right now. Please leave a message with his demon.
“It is time we have a little talk,” he crooned, his words lilting with a guttural accent. “Shall we talk? You must promise not to scream.”
My harsh breaths whistled through my nose. Terror gripped me like icy claws, visceral memories hitting hard. The inhuman, primeval hatred in those glowin
g eyes was exactly the same as it’d been that night six weeks ago—but this time, I didn’t have my fall-spell in hand to save myself.
He leaned down, putting his lips to my ear.
“If you scream,” the demon whispered, warm breath tickling my skin, “Ezra will die.”
My racing heart stumbled. He smiled at my frightened expression, then pulled his hand away from my face. I inhaled deeply, trying to think. He hadn’t killed me yet, so I just had to hang on until Ezra regained control. Assuming he could.
“Eterran,” I whispered hoarsely. “How are you controlling Ezra?”
Eterran slid onto the bed, lying on his side, head propped on one hand. We faced each other, inches between our reclined bodies. From a distance, we may have looked casual, intimate even, but I’d never been more tense in my life. As panic threatened to overwhelm me, I summoned anger to my defense.
“Answer me,” I ordered, praying he wouldn’t call my bluff, “or I will definitely scream.”
Eterran, for obvious reasons, wasn’t concerned. “You do not want to scream, payilas talūk. You might wake Ezra.”
“Wake him?”
The words didn’t make sense. My brain buzzed uselessly.
“It has been very difficult,” the demon murmured, vicious delight marring Ezra’s face. “I spent years, many careful years, learning this.”
“Learning what?” I asked shrilly.
“Shh,” Eterran breathed. “Do not wake him.”
I stared, cold horror rising up in my chest as though my lungs were filling with ice water. The last time I’d seen the demon take control, Ezra had been unconscious. If the demon was back, did that mean …
My throat spasmed with terrified disbelief. “Is Ezra asleep right now?”
The demon smiled. No, that couldn’t be it. Eterran could force himself into the driver’s seat if Ezra lost emotional control or passed out—but only if Ezra was already tapping the demon’s power. Ezra didn’t wield demon magic in his sleep.
“I was very careful,” Eterran repeated silkily, “to make sure he did not notice my attempts. Only in these past weeks did I increase my efforts …”
He brushed his thumb against my chin, the touch almost affectionate. I shuddered away from his hand. I wanted to fling myself off the bed and bolt from the room, but I didn’t dare move.
“And only because of you.”
My fear-logged brain wasn’t piecing it together, the urgent need to escape consuming too much of my computing power. “What are you talking about?”
“Even now,” Eterran replied with a quiet, contemptuous laugh, “you do not suspect.”
A moment where that sick horror in my chest quadrupled—then an involuntary gasp scraped my throat as I finally figured it out.
“You’ve been causing Ezra’s insomnia?” My head spun nauseatingly. “You’re the reason Ezra hasn’t been able to sleep? You—”
He leaned close, a cruel smile on his lips. “Good girl. Now you understand.”
My teeth clenched so hard that pain flared through my jaw. This bastard demon had been trying to take control of Ezra while he slept, and each time, Ezra had woken in a panic, sensing the danger but not realizing its source.
But, judging by the demon reclined in front of me, Eterran had now figured out how to slip past Ezra’s defenses.
“You—” I began, rage joining my terror.
His eyes brightened eerily. “If Ezra discovers this, he will die. You don’t want him to die, do you, Tori?”
I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. “Why would he die?”
“I warned you that they have not told you everything.”
“Everything about what?”
“Ezra knows his body and soul are destined to be mine. If he finds out what I can do, he will tell his friends, and his friends will kill him.”
My muscles locked down. No. Never. Aaron and Kai would never—could never kill Ezra. Even if … even if …
Darius’s voice murmured in my memory. “If Ezra had ever seemed like a danger to anyone in the guild, we would have taken the necessary steps.”
Necessary steps. One of those had been removing Ezra from the guild and getting him away from other people. The next step, the obvious fallback, the only possible option … was to kill him before his demon took full control.
If I told Aaron and Kai, they might end Ezra’s life. If I told Darius, he’d take that “necessary step” and eliminate the danger. If I told Ezra … he wouldn’t hide it. He didn’t want to put others at risk. That’s why he’d told Darius he was a demon mage before joining the Crow and Hammer.
“But you,” Eterran crooned, “you do not want Ezra to die.” He pressed a finger to my lips. “So this is our secret, yes?”
Sick to my stomach and every limb trembling, I glared at him, hating him more than I’d ever hated anyone. “You’re a disgusting, despicable monster.”
“Ezra thinks so too.”
“What do you want with me? Why are we having this little talk?”
“We want the same thing, Tori.”
“Like hell we do.”
He shifted closer again and I shoved back, dragging the blankets with me. “Stay away.”
In a flash, he grabbed my wrist. He pressed my hand against his bare chest, my fingers splayed across the three round scars where, six weeks ago, a demon had impaled Ezra with its claws.
“This is your desire,” Eterran purred. “To touch him. For him to touch you.”
I tried to tear my arm away, but he was too strong. He held my hand against his hot skin—too hot. Feverish. Unnatural.
“You are not Ezra,” I ground out.
“This body is the same.” He smirked. “This body is what we must discuss, payilas. I am trapped within it, and as long as I am, it belongs to me. You and I want the same thing: my freedom from this karidris hh’ainun—this human flesh that is my prison.”
I stopped trying to pry his hand off my wrist. “What?”
“The amulet,” he breathed. “Vh’alyir’s amulet. You stole it from Dīnen et Lūsh’vēr, didn’t you?”
“From … what?”
“He recognized me. Twice he tried to give me the amulet, but Ezra would not allow it.”
My heart pounded. The winged demon. Eterran was talking about the unbound winged demon we’d fought six weeks ago.
“But the third time,” I whispered, remembering that violent, terrifying night in the park, “he was already tapping your power, and you …”
And Eterran had wrested control away. Ezra had been so upset, his emotions running high—because of me and my stupid mouth.
The demon’s eyes blazed scarlet. “Do you understand what the amulet is?”
“It … it frees a demon from his contract?”
“Yes. It can free me from this prison, this death sentence. Ezra will be freed from the same. Give me the amulet and you can save us both.”
I sucked in air. Calm, I needed to stay calm. “Will it save Ezra, or will it give you full control of his body? I was told you could never be separated from him, no matter what.”
Eterran considered me, the seconds stretching out. “I am not certain.”
“Not certain about what?” I asked suspiciously.
“If I will be freed from his body or gain control of it.”
My mistrust deepened. “Why would you admit that?”
“Demons do not lie.” His fingers caught my chin, forcing my eyes to his. “I am not certain, but there is a chance. If you do nothing, Ezra will be mine. I will take his body, destroy his mind, and consume his soul. That I promise you. But with the amulet, there is a chance Ezra can be freed from me and survive.”
Or the amulet could hasten Ezra’s destruction. “So you want me to give you the amulet.” A thought hit me. “You searched my stuff, didn’t you?”
He gave me a leering smile and I jerked my chin out of his hand. Thank my lucky stars I hadn’t been dumb enough to bring a dangerous, secret demonic ar
tifact on vacation with me.
“Will you give me the amulet?” he asked softly.
“No.” My stomach twisted and I swallowed back the urge to vomit. “But I’ll consider it … on one condition.”
His crimson eyes narrowed, and I hated the demon, hated seeing him inside Ezra. Twisting him. Torturing him. Tears stung my eyes but I refused to show weakness.
“You need to leave Ezra alone,” I said. “You won’t disturb his sleep or control him until I talk to you about the amulet—after I do some research of my own, because I don’t trust a single foul word you’ve said.”
“You cannot research a demonic amulet in the world of hh’ainun. Those who know of it do not exist here.”
“Agree to my terms or I’ll wake Ezra up right now.”
Eterran thought. “I swear to neither control Ezra while he sleeps, nor disturb his sleep, for a lunar cycle. Until the next full moon, I will wait.”
That was probably the best I would get. “Fine. Now take Ezra back to his bed and leave him the hell alone.”
His hand was on my face before I could stop him, fingers brushing over my cheek in a mockery of affection. “Good payilas. You are giving him his only chance. Don’t forget that.”
I recoiled but he was already rolling off the bed. Eterran’s glowing eyes flashed over me, loathing in his gaze, his sadistic smile tainting Ezra’s lips. Then he was gone, closing the door soundlessly behind him.
Holding my breath, I waited. When he didn’t return, I slumped into the blankets, hugging my pillow as my whole body shook. The tears I’d held back leaked down my face.
My skin tingled where Ezra’s fingers had brushed across my cheek. But it hadn’t been Ezra touching me, and I wanted to rip Eterran to pieces for that as much as anything else.
Chapter Sixteen
“Ah,” Sin sighed. “Sunlight!”
She spread her arms, face tilted toward the watery winter sun in the pale blue sky. Thursday’s weather had taken a pleasant turn; it was well above freezing, without a cloud in sight, the warmth only somewhat marred by a fitful wind. Yesterday, I would’ve been worshipping the sun with her, but today, it stabbed my tired eyes. If the sky had matched my mood, it would’ve been a twisting black vortex of doom.
The Alchemist and an Amaretto: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Five Page 13