Jonas Griffin’s raspy voice was music to my ears.
I heard quick steps on the boards of the first floor. Jonas entered the room where I was hiding, followed by his son Earle. I’d wished both brothers would be upstairs, but one would suffice.
Jonas walked to the table. He looked at it for a long second.
“Where is it?”
“Where is what, father?”
“Where is it?” Jonas hissed, slapping his son with the back of his hand. “Where did you put it, you greedy boy? You thought I wouldn’t notice?”
Earle tried to protect himself from his father’s furious attack, but the swings came one after the next.
“Stop! I didn’t take anything! Please, father, I beg you!”
My stomach turned to see a grown man so diminished, particularly by someone as hellish as Jonas Griffin.
A deep, guttural scream came from the second floor. Jonas and Earle turned to the doorway as Sam entered the room. His hands were melded to his forehead like two golden horns.
Jonas gasped and back away. “Don’t touch him!”
The potion streaked gold down Sam Griffin’s face. It reached his left eye, which promptly became a solid gold orb. The gold then traveled through his sinus cavity, turning his right eye gold as well.
Sam wailed in anguish, the gold finally reaching his tongue, his lips, and his vocal chords. Blind and helpless, Sam tripped and fell on top of Earle, spreading the deathly liquid on his brother’s chest.
I watched their demise with the utmost delight.
The two brothers struggled and rolled on the floor, scratching their skin furiously in a fatal attempt to stop the gold running up their limbs and across their faces.
Jonas retreated to the back of the room, saving himself from the potion, but rejecting his sons’ last call for help.
They rolled in a puddle of blood and gold. Earle shrieked and bellowed, trying to breath as the potion entered his nostrils, blocking his lungs as it had his brother’s.
Their silence was more horrifying than their screams. They railed against one another, their limbs bound by that infernal potion until finally they became completely inert. Their corpses would be forever joined in a monstrous, golden statue.
I tore back the curtain, my gun pointed at Jonas Griffin’s chest. It took him a moment to recognize my face, but as he did, his eyes widened.
“You! What have you done?”
“I lost everything I had, you beast. I buried my dearest friend in that awful place. No suffering is punishment enough for you.”
Jonas held my gaze. “From the moment I saw you at the docks, I knew you were nothing but another greedy fool. I took you to that creek, yes. I planted a golden nugget in your pan. But the rest was all your doing. You bought the land. And how long did you stay? Months? Any sane man would’ve seen that wasteland carried nothing but dust and sickness in a week.”
Tears ran down my cheeks. “Shut up!”
“What’s worse, you’re an idiot!” Jonas stepped forward. “You wasted a potion that might have made you the richest man in the world. And to what end?”
“Stop.” I waved my gun.
“I embraced my darkness long ago,” Jonas said. “I did everything my art required. I stole, and tricked and killed. I doomed my own children. I’d do it all again just to savor the moment of my success. Greed made me who I am: a survivor. And make no mistake, Barton Saunders, greed made you who you are as well.”
I shot. The golden bullet pierced Jonas’ left eye, and he fell to the floor, dead. The last thing Jonas Griffin ever saw was gold.
I left the old man bleeding in his nightmarish laboratory, and dragged the horrendous, golden corpse of Sam and Earl Griffin outside. Then I set the house on fire and watched the flames devour that secret alchemical lab.
I sold the golden statue in the marketplace the next morning.
“Don’t mind the shape,” I told the merchant.
“Gold has no shape, friend. It can melt.”
With the money I made, I traveled to San Francisco and bought passage on the next boat departing California.
If only you could see the sea, Clara. How beautiful it glows. How magnificent the sun gleams on the surface of my black stone as the boat sets sail. Gold, it whispers. Gold. Can you hear it, my love?
-Barton
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Oliver Altair's Silver & Bone is the first installment in American Alchemy: Wild West. The series offers a new twist on the American epic. From a graveyard under the moonlight, through the forests of the San Juan mountains, to the tunnels of an abandoned mine, Silver & Bone will take you on a ride you'll never forget.
If you're a fan of dark, historical fantasy and enjoy Weird Westerns like Stephen King's The Dark Tower , HBO's Westworld or DC Comics' Jonah Hex, you'll love Silver & Bone.
Get your copy of Silver & Bone here!
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Now on pre-order! Get your copy of Ice & Blood here!
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Jonathan Tucker is desperate to leave his town before snow blocks the roads. His hard work at the silver mine is paying off and he just needs one last push to achieve his goals.
When Jonathan volunteers to explore a haunted cavern deep inside the tunnels, he'll step into the domains of a magical beast made of priceless, liquid mercury. If only he could take some of the rare metal with him back to the surface, all of his problems would be solved...
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About the author
Oliver Altair dives into the beauty of the bizarre.
Highly influenced by classic science fiction and fantasy, and the stories in the golden era of Pulp magazi
nes, Oliver loves exploring all sorts of uncanny possibilities.
Oliver lives between the United States and Europe and loves to travel.
Connect with Oliver
oliveraltair.com
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