“I did,” said the King, his voice little more than a whisper as he looked at the daughter he hadn’t seen for so many years. “I knew it. I always knew it. Even as a young girl you were… different. The way you treated your mother and me, and Ari, the way you treated small animals and the weak. You thrived on power and enjoyed the suffering of others. This is why I could never give you the crown, Ana. Not because you are… were… a girl, but because of the darkness in your soul.”
“You never loved me,” the Alchemist said.
“That’s not true,” the King said. “I did. Until you made yourself impossible to love. Your mother still cries for you every day. Did you know that?”
The Alchemist flinched, then caught himself and sneered. “Then perhaps she should have treated me better when I was there. Maybe opened her eyes and seen me for who I really was.”
“And this is who you are?” the King asked, his voice gaining volume with his anger. “A man?”
The Alchemist lifted his chin and stared at his father. “Men have it easier in Wintergreen. Why would anyone want to be a woman?”
He glanced at Jasmine, the only woman present and she wondered if he had a point. But she liked who she was. She’d never craved to be anything else. It didn’t seem to make sense that in order to advance your gender, you abandoned it altogether. Ana’s drastic change had to be more than that.
“So, what was your plan here, Ana?” asked Ari, stepping forward. “What was the point of hurting so many people with your elixirs? Who were you really trying to hurt?”
“You know that,” the Alchemist said. “You. Both of you.”
“Punishing us for being male?” asked Ari. “That’s no better than you feeling punished for being born female.”
“Oh, Ari.” The Alchemist shook his head and tutted. “Wherever did you get the impression that life is fair?”
And that was where Jasmine decided the Alchemist was right. Life wasn’t fair. It took away people you loved without warning and put people filled with hate in their place.
“Where’s my brother?” Jasmine interrupted. This had gone on long enough. She needed to know where Raph was. She needed to make him safe. “What have you done with him?”
The Alchemist turned to her and smiled. “Hello, Jasmine.”
Her stomach turned over. “Where’s Raphael? Is he at the apothecary?”
“I’m not finished with him yet.” The Alchemist grinned. “He has a little recipe to share with me first.”
“You are finished!” Ari stepped forward and without any warning punched the Alchemist square in the jaw.
The Alchemist stumbled backward and was immediately seized by two guards who gripped him by his arms in case he decided to retaliate.
“Where is he?” Ari asked, drawing his face close to the Alchemist but not raising his fist to him again.
“Let me go and I’ll tell you,” the Alchemist said, seeming to only just realize the position he was in. He had no power to be making demands here.
“That’s not going to happen,” said the King, joining Ari at his side. “You’re going to tell us where the boy is and then we’re going to have a long talk about how you’re going to undo the damage you’ve done to your own kingdom.”
“This isn’t my kingdom,” said the Alchemist, spitting at his father. “It never was. It’s yours and Ari’s. I’d hoped it might one day be mine, but you’re ruining everything. Why do you always have to ruin everything?”
Jasmine thought the Alchemist sounded more like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away, than the evil murderer he was. It just showed that everyone had their breaking point. Clearly, Ari had reached his when he’d resorted to using his fist.
The King instructed the guards to take the Alchemist in their cart and follow them to the apothecary, where Jasmine and Ari were certain Raph would be.
The Alchemist struggled, desperate to get away as he was dragged to the cart. Taking away his control seemed to be the worst punishment for someone like him, although it was far from punishment enough.
“Are you okay?” asked Ari, placing a hand gently on Jasmine’s arm.
She nodded. “Just worried about Raph.”
“Me too.”
They climbed aboard the carriage and set off for the apothecary. Jasmine knew there’d be more surprises ahead. She just hoped that this time, they were good ones and that Raph would be safe.
ARI
THE NOW
The carriage pulled up at Jasmine’s house. Ari went to jump out, but Jasmine beat him to it. She’d waited long enough and was in a hurry to find Raphael.
Ari followed, hoping desperately that there was good news ahead. Jasmine had already been through far too much. Whatever they found, he was going to be there for her.
Jasmine raced through the house, opening doors and taking a quick glance in each room, before moving on.
The house felt empty, with a lot of the furniture having been removed to burn in the gazebo. Or was it just that it was no longer a happy family home that made it feel so lifeless?
“Raphael!” Jasmine called. He’d heard her shout that name far too many times already. And it was all Ana’s fault. His own sister had done this to Jasmine. He could never forgive that.
“Raph!” The tone of Jasmine’s cry told Ari that she’d found her brother and he ran toward her voice, hoping for good news.
It was hard to tell at first if it was good or bad. Raphael was in a small bedroom, tied to a chair with ropes, his eyes closed and head slumped back.
“Help me untie him,” Jasmine pleaded, as Ari dropped to his knees and started working on the ropes.
The last rope came undone and Ari lifted Raphael from the chair and carried him to the bed.
“He’s breathing,” he said to Jasmine. “He needs the elixir. Do you have any with you?”
Jasmine shook her head. “We used it all up at the palace. He told me most of the ingredients but kept the last two as a surprise. Oh Ari, why didn’t I make him tell me? This boy has worked so hard to save me, and all I’ve ever done is let him down.”
“That’s not true,” Ari said. “You’ve been a wonderful sister to him. You’re the last person who needs to feel guilty here. Sadly, the one person who’s responsible and should be feeling guilty, is probably the last person who will.”
“What are we going to do? I have to save him. I have to.” Her face was pure anguish.
“You can do this,” he said, meaning it. “You know your brother better than anyone. You can figure it out. I’m certain you can. We’ll make up the elixir with the missing ingredients and you can try as many as you need until we get it right.”
She nodded slowly, thinking about what he said. “But there are hundreds of possibilities. Thousands perhaps. If it were that easy, then the Alchemist would have figured it out for himself, instead of keeping Raph captive here.”
“But he doesn’t know Raphael like you do. You can do this. Think like him, Jazz!” He used the shortened version of her name as a connection to her brother, reminding her of their bond. She really could do this.
A small smile lit her face. “I do have an idea…”
“I knew it!”
“Let’s think about this for a moment,” she said, taking his hand. “The Alchemist wants the formula. He’s clearly desperate for it. Why?”
Ari shrugged. He couldn’t think of a single reason. The Alchemist had wanted to harm people, not cure them.
“The boy,” she said. “That bedroom we found. It has to be the boy. Maybe he has the blue plague and the Alchemist wants to cure him.”
Ari’s eyebrows shot up. “I think you might be right. But where is he? And who is he? You don’t think he’s Ana’s child, do you?”
“Maybe,” said Jasmine, kissing Raphael’s forehead and standing up.
“Did we check all the rooms before finding Raphael?”
She shook her head. “Not my father’s room.”
“Which one is that?�
�� asked Ari. “Hurry.”
Jasmine took him by the hand and led him back out to the hallway to another room off to the side of the house. She pushed open the door and sure enough, there was a small boy asleep in a very large bed. Or was he dead? It was hard to tell.
Jasmine got to him first and gasped.
“What?” asked Ari, although as soon as he saw the boy, his question was answered.
The child was almost an exact replica of Ari as a boy. The likeness was uncanny.
“My poor nephew,” said Ari, bending to touch the boy on his cheek. His hand recoiled at the touch of him. He was so cold.
“Jasmine, I think he’s… can you feel a pulse?”
She picked up his wrist and pressed her fingers to his skin.
“I’m so sorry, Ari. I think we were too late.”
Ari choked back a tear, as pain ripped through his gut. His nephew who he’d never had the chance to get to know, was dead. How could this have happened? So now his sister had not only the blood of half her kingdom on her hands, but also the blood of her son.
“You have to find the cure,” said Ari, turning to Jasmine. “We can’t let Raph die, too. This has to end.”
Jasmine went to him and stood on her tiptoes, reaching for his cheek with her lips. He stooped and accepted her kiss, although it did little to relieve the pain in his heart.
“I really am sorry about your nephew,” she said.
“I know you are. Thank you.”
She gave his hand a squeeze and hurried from the room.
“Please ask my father to come in,” Ari called after her, unsure if she heard him.
He sat on a chair next to the bed and took his nephew’s cold hand.
“Hello,” he said, knowing the boy could no longer hear, but wanting to talk to him all the same. “I’m… your uncle. I’m Uncle Ari. I’m so sorry I didn’t get here in time to help you.”
“Who is this?” Ari’s father was standing in the doorway. “This isn’t Jasmine’s brother.”
“No, but look closer,” said Ari, urging him to come forward.
His father crossed the room and stood on the other side of the bed, his eyes widening when he got a proper look at the boy who was undoubtedly his grandson.
“Oh my!” he said. “Ari, I don’t understand. Is this… your child?”
“No!” If the situation weren’t so grave, Ari would have laughed. “Not my child. He’s Ana’s.”
“He’s the image of you. It’s quite… well, it’s quite uncanny.”
Ari nodded. “I know.”
“What’s wrong with him?” his father asked. “Is he… oh, no, Ari. Is he dead?”
“I’m so sorry Father, but yes, he is.” Ari let go of the boy’s hand to embrace his father.
The two men held each other for a few moments, drawing comfort, as they fought back their grief. They’d found one family member only to lose another that they hadn’t even known existed before now.
Ari’s father patted him on the back as he released his grip on him.
“Did Jasmine find her brother?” he asked, blinking back tears.
Ari nodded. “She did. He’s down the hall. Alive. But I don’t think he can hold on much longer.”
“Then Ana needs to wake him up!” Ari watched as his father slammed his fist on the bedhead. “What is she thinking, hurting innocent children like this?”
“She can’t wake him,” said Ari, finding it easier to think of his sister as female when she wasn’t anywhere in sight. “You heard her. She wanted to get the cure from Raphael herself. Hang on…”
“What?” his father asked.
“How could she get the cure from Raphael if she needed the cure to wake him up first?”
“You’re not making any sense,” his father said, rubbing his temples as he paced the room.
“It’s complicated,” said Ari. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a moment. I have to do something.”
His father nodded and Ari went back to Raphael, certain that whatever Ana had used to put him to sleep wasn’t the plague. It was something far more temporary. Now that he looked at him, he didn’t have that same blue tinge to his skin that he’d had last time.
He went out to the guards and asked them to bring the Alchemist inside. They grabbed the Alchemist roughly by the arms and dragged him through the house to Raphael’s side, holding him steady at Ari’s request.
“How do I wake him up?” Ari asked.
“If these guards would let go of me, I could show you.” The Alchemist struggled, unable to break free.
“Very well,” said Ari. “But if you make one wrong move, you’ll be tied to that chair in the same way you tied Raphael to it. Only much, much tighter.”
The guards released the Alchemist and as he brushed himself down and stretched his arms, Ari realized that he didn’t see him as his sister anymore. He was most definitely… the Alchemist. Ana had disappeared.
“Wake him up right now,” said Ari, folding his arms.
The guards hovered close by, ready to protect their future King if required.
“I know your secret, Ari,” he said. “Why you’re immune from my elixirs. I’ve always known. You think you’re the only one aware of your defect. I can overpower it, though.”
“Well, we know why you’re immune to the plague,” said Ari, trying to turn it straight back onto this vile man. “A bit hard to fall prey to a male plague, when you’re actually a woman.”
The Alchemist flinched in the same way as if he’d been slapped. “Just like it’s hard to fall prey when you have—”
“Enough!” Ari snapped. “You don’t get to call the shots here. Wake Raphael up immediately.”
The Alchemist blinked slowly, then as if waking himself up, he reached for the inside pocket of his jacket. The two guards stepped forward.
“Just getting the wake-up elixir, don’t panic,” he said to them.
He took a small brown bottle from his pocket and waved it under Raphael’s nose. The boy stirred to life. His eyes sprang open and he scowled when he saw the Alchemist hovering over him. Then he saw Ari and the guards, and relief flooded his face.
“I knew you’d come to save me, Ari! Where’s Jazz?”
“She’s not far,” said Ari. “She’s in the apothecary, making true love’s kiss. She thought that’s what was needed to wake you up. We thought…”
“It wasn’t the plague he gave me,” said Raphael. “It was something else.”
Ari nodded. “I figured that out eventually. I just haven’t had a chance to get back to Jasmine.”
The Alchemist stepped toward Ari. “You mean that pathetic girl already knew what was in the elixir? You fooled me into waking up this useless child! I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
Ari felt his rage boil up inside him. Was this really what his sister had become? It wasn’t her choosing to live as a man that bothered him. It was… the darkness in her heart. Where had such evil come from?
“She doesn’t know exactly what’s in the elixir,” said Ari. “Jasmine is making as much of it as she can. We need Raphael to help us with the two final ingredients.”
“Then hurry up and help her!” the Alchemist said, clenching his fists and fighting back tears. “There’s a boy down the hall who needs the cure. If you give him this elixir that I just gave Raphael, it will extend his life until you can produce the cure. Give it to him now! He’s overdue for his dose.”
So, the Alchemist may not have the exact cure but he could have been helping people with what he knew. Giving them more time to spend with their families before they let go. But he’d chosen not to. He also seemed to have no idea that his son had died while he’d been busy with Raphael. A son he seemed to care about a great deal.
Ari drew in a breath. It wasn’t easy to tell someone news like this of their child. Even someone as evil as the Alchemist.
“I’m sorry,” he said, searching for his sister in this strange man’s face as he tried to make a conn
ection. “Your son didn’t make it.”
The Alchemist raised his eyebrows, his eyes wide with fear. “What do you mean?”
“The boy,” said Ari. “The one in the other room. He’s… dead.”
The Alchemist screamed. Not the scream of a man, but the scream of his sister. The scream of a mother who’d lost her child. It seemed this evil human who’d caused so much death and misery had the capacity to feel something for someone other than himself.
The guards stood, ready to take hold of the Alchemist if he tried to escape, but there was no need. Ari’s words had imprisoned him in grief.
Raphael looked up at Ari, confused. “He had a son?”
Ari nodded.
“You killed so many sons in Wintergreen,” said Raphael. “And this whole time you were protecting a son of your own. How could you?”
The Alchemist knelt on the floor, tears spilling down his face as he moaned for the son he’d lost. He reached into his pocket once more and removed a small green bottle.
“Seize him!” cried Ari.
It was too late. In the few seconds it took the guards to reach the Alchemist, he’d removed the lid and inhaled the elixir so deeply that he had droplets of it running down the lower half of his face.
“Stop!” called Ari, urging the guards back. “Don’t touch him.”
They all paused, eyes glued to the Alchemist waiting to see the effect of what he’d just done to himself.
Ari’s father appeared at the doorway demanding to know what the commotion was about at the very same time that the Alchemist slumped to the floor, all color draining rapidly from his face. A strange gurgle sounded from his throat before he fell silent.
“Ana!” his father cried. “My daughter!”
“She’s dead,” said Ari, finding himself unable to feel anything close to the emotion his father was experiencing. “And this time, it’s for real.”
JASMINE
THE NOW
Jasmine had slipped into the apothecary unnoticed and set herself up in the Alchemist’s workshop, knowing there was no chance of him interrupting, given he was being held by guards. She could hear the cheerful singing of the women as they worked and it irritated her rather than soothed her. They weren’t happy. They were asleep! But she was going to change all of that.
The Kingdoms of Evernow Box Set Page 41