“So this is…real?” Leon said, a haunting expression on his face.
Yet, he smiled. It was small, and it seemed that just that one little movement caused him pain, but he smiled nonetheless. “You’re really…
real?”
Hot tears threatened to spill. “I’m real.”
He laughed. It was raw and sounded like sandpaper was lodged in his mouth, but he laughed, and I let out a choked laugh, too.
Leon was right here.
I didn’t let go of his hand, but I didn’t press to touch anything else. Instead, my eyes raked over his arms, littered in cuts, and I felt a lump the size of a grapefruit form in my throat. “What happened to you, Leon?”
He shook his head, gazing off as if I wasn’t right in front of him.
“Lots of days just…blank. How long has it been since…?”
“J-Just a couple of weeks,” I murmured, “Three…or four?”
Has it really been that long?
Leon suddenly shuttered, biting his lip so hard that blood leaked out of the corner. I gasped, called his name, but in a flash there was a rusty knife in his hands. Before I could so much as blink, or cry out in horror, Leon ran the blade across his upper arm, a low hiss whistling from his lips.
“Leon!”
“It’s the only…way,” he panted, shaking his head as if he could shake away his demons. “He doesn’t…do well…with the pain. I can stay in control for a little longer, anyway.”
I tugged at his hand, feeling my heart swell in pain. “Come with me! Let me get you help.” What, how…I didn’t know. But maybe the
Black Crown could help. Julio was an amazing healer—he could do something!
“No, no,” he shook his head, “I have to fight this myself. But I think I’m getting it…Emery.” Him saying my name felt as if the broken pieces of my heart were slowly being melded back together. “Little by little….even though so many days have passed…I think I’m getting the hang of it. I just need more time…more strength.”
“If that’s the case, then just come back home with me!” I tried.
“We can—”
“I have to do this alone!” he said. “I won’t risk you—ending up like….”
I gripped his free hand even more tightly, despite the fact that blood was getting on my own skin, soaking my jacket. “Dove’s alright, Leon! She’s better!”
“What?” he shook his head, blinking uncertainly. “No, not possible. I…I almost ki—”
“You didn’t do it, Leon!” I shouted. “It was him. He was the one controlling your body! He’s the one who hurt Dove!” I didn’t even want to utter that bastard’s name: Ivan Novak, in case his slimy soul was listening in, waiting to pounce at another point of weakness. “But it’s alright now, Leon. I…kind of saved her. She’s fully awake. She’s not in a coma anymore…and guess what? Her alchemy is back!”
“What?” Leon repeated, blinking slowly as if the information wasn’t sinking in. “Dove is…okay?”
I nodded. “Yes. She is. She’s in perfect health.” Close enough.
“And…she misses you, Leon. She wants you to come home.”
“I don’t understand,” Leon murmured, ducking his head down.
“I…she shouldn’t be awake. He did something to her…”
“I know,” I replied, holding his hand tighter. “I know. But she’s out of it now. I promise you. I found an…alchemist…who had something that could save her. Lots of it. It was a hard road, but I saved Dove’s life, by using the Elixir, and—”
I gasped, realizing my mistake. But it was too late. At that one word—“Elixir”—Leon jerked from my grasp and cried out, his whole body shaking in uncontrollable spasms.
“Leon!” I cried out, gasping when Leon pushed me away with his hands and I fell flat on my bum onto the soaked wooden floor. “Leon!”
“Don’t!” He screamed, trying to cover his face. But one of his eyes peered out from his arms, and I saw his calming green eyes begin to morph, to change. They were growing hazier, darker. All light vanished, as if snuffed out like a candle. “Stay away! STAY AWAY FROM ME!”
I saw a flash of something evil glinting in his eyes. Leon jerked once more, like a puppet on a string, before he took his rusty blade and jammed it into his arm. He let out another howl of pain that matched
my own as I saw dark blood pool out of his wound and fall to the floor.
Without another word, he leapt over the gazebo’s barrier.
I scrambled up after him, swinging over the fence and landed on the ground so badly I felt my ankle give out—the very same ankle that Ivan had broken months ago. But I ignored the blooming pain and ran after him. But now the rain was falling so heavily, in gray sheets, that I could barely make out his shadowy form disappearing.
Suddenly, my foot caught something—a tree root? A stone?—and I fell to the ground with a wail. Something sharp pierced the side of my head and everything began to blur and melt into darkness…
He was disappearing again, right before my eyes. The last thing I remember was stretching my hand out, willing Leon to come back to me, to tell me that the last few months had all been a nasty dream, and he was here to wake me up. Everything would be alright. We’d all go back to school, Dove would be dazzling and full of life, and we’d all stay together. Forever.
But this wasn’t a dream. This was reality. And it made it so much more harder to wake up.
CHAPTER 13
I woke up to the smell of spices…cinnamon, I think. And I was warm.
Super warm, wrapped up in the softest blanket. I struggled to get out from the cocoon, blinking slowly. A grunt to my right startled me and with wide eyes I exclaimed, “Ru!”
He was sitting on a hard stool, looking stiffer than usual. But when he saw me his eyes got softer. “You alright?”
I managed to nod, even though I didn’t feel alright at all. And then I remembered the Rogue Alchemist who caught us at the bus stop and I felt like I wanted to crawl back into the covers and never wake up again.
Clutching the white sheets tightly, all I could do was tremble, suppressing the nausea growing in my stomach. “What happened?”
“Before or after you ran off?” Ru said nonchalantly. “If it’s after, I can’t answer.”
“Okay, what happened before I ran off?” Leave it to Ru to give no sympathy. Not that I could blame him after…
“I called the Black Crown from the payphone,” he explained. “I couldn’t chance them recognizing my number so I left an anonymous tip
that there was a homeless rogue pestering some civilians. They’ve probably already arrived and picked him up.”
“Oh, god…” I murmured, pressing a hand to my mouth. “What…
where are they going to take him?”
“To headquarters, of course?” Ru asked uncertain.
“Did you tell them about what…I did?”
“That you defended yourself? No. I left it anonymous, remember?”
“But I killed him!” I blurted. “All I remember is he was on top of me, then I pushed him off, then…there was my alchemy and I—”
“Did not kill him,” Ru interrupted, giving me an irritating look.
“It’s possible that he stopped breathing for a couple of seconds, but he was alive the last I checked him. Did you just overreact and panic? Is that why you ran away?”
“I—I—”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Ru snorted, leaning back on his chair.
“Honestly. Well, I guess I couldn’t blame you. That was an out-of-the-blue attack. Who knows what he would have done?”
“You’re exactly right,” a voice from the other side of the room said. “You acted as best as you could in the situation. Well done.”
My jaw dropped when I realized we weren’t at home at all—we were inside of a small house so freakishly tiny that the living room and
the kitchen were all one room. I was laying on a sofa covered in blankets and my clothes had
been removed, replaced by a granny-style nightgown. Ru, however, wore the same clothes but he had a towel over his shoulders. Before I could panic, a slender woman appeared at the doorway, smiling.
She had beautiful blonde hair, almost like gold, except it was cut so short, hidden behind a wrapped handkerchief, that I wouldn’t have recognized the woman if I hadn’t seen her in Dove’s dream.
Guinevere de Blanc.
I could only blink, opening and closing my mouth like a gaping fish. Guinevere let out a soft chuckle, running a hand through her boyish style locks. “Surprising, isn’t it? I have to change my physical appearance every so often, but it’s been a very long time since I’ve cut my hair. Well, that is the price of immortality—sacrifices must be made!”
Even still words failed me. And then my eyes caught the small wrapped bundle in her hands, and my eyes went as wide as plates. “Hey!
That’s—”
“The Elixir, I know.” Guinevere’s smile widened as she tossed the bag in the air, catching it with ease like a cat cornering a mouse. “Quite a prize for you, isn’t it? Emery Miller.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know a lot more than you think,” Guinevere said. “But I admit I was very surprised to see you and your friend…Rudolph Chima, wasn’t it? I knew your mother. Wonderful person.” She gave Ru a soft smile, and he actually blushed so badly that small crackles of light erupted from his earrings. I shot him a smile and he gave me an electrifying glare. “I was surprised to see two children such as yourselves out here all alone in this weather.”
“How…?”
She lifted a hand, pointing to the window. I got up, a little unsteady on my feet, and walked over, surprised to see that the very gazebo I had taken shelter under was in her backyard! And that means…
“You saw everything!” I blurted, whirling on her. “You saw me and you saw Leon! ”
The immortal alchemist nodded. “I did.”
“Then why didn’t you stop him?”
“And expose my hiding place?” Guinevere shot back. “At first, I believed that Leon had solved my clues…but it only took one look to realize that boy isn’t himself anymore. He’s been taken over. How long?”
My tongue was thick in my mouth, and I had to choke out,
“Almost a month.” I felt the weight of Leon’s pain press into me, threatening to crush me. “We fought against him. Ivan. Last December.
And he had done some sort of strange ritual on Leon, but I thought I had
stopped it just in time, but I was…”
“Too late,” Guinevere finished for me. Then she clicked her tongue, walking over to the small kitchen table and sat down. “It seems that, although Ivan continues to grow weaker with every host, this time he’s managed to sneak into one of my precious students. But he can’t fight forever. Sooner or later, one of them is going to lose. And of no side will come out victorious.”
“What do you mean?” My knees felt weak and I had to grip the kitchen counters with white knuckled hands.
Guinevere spoke up loud and clear. “Ivan has been on my heels since the very beginning. It did not matter where I was, or which body he possessed. Ivan is as relentless as a madman, eager to step over anyone to obtain his true desire. He’s only gotten this far because of his followers.” I swallowed, remembering Marjorie Snowe—or Headmistress Margaret—St. Mary’s previous headmaster. “But this is the first that he has ever possessed a living body, and I imagine that the consequences on his own soul will be much more severe. Leon’s body will soon crush under the pressure of having two souls reside within, and only one soul will come out on top—but by then, it may be too late. If Ivan succeeds in ridding Leon of his own soul, the body will be useless.”
“That may be a good thing, but what about Leon?” I asked.
“Leon’s trying his best to fight Ivan’s control! There has to be a way to
eradicate Ivan’s soul, isn’t there? There has to be a way to save Leon!
He’s your student!”
Guinevere met my stare head on, and I shivered. “What has been done is done. There is no way to save Leon now—the only thing would be to put him out of his misery.”
I was floored .Even Ru looked uncomfortable, staring intently at the floor. “You mean to kill him? Put him down like some sort of animal?” Was this really Guinevere? Was this the Guinevere that Dove and Leon spoke of so passionately? The kind hearted alchemist who had taken them under her wing? The immortal alchemist who was bent on fulfilling Flamel’s last wish?
Who was this person?
“Emery Miller,” Guinevere’s eyes flashed as she spoke, and I felt as if I were being scolded like a little child. “I have lived centuries longer than you have even lived. And I have seen many good hearted alchemists fall prey to people like Ivan, or even to their own greed. And without fail, many more will fall. It is not my place to act in this world when I am not even supposed to exist. I am not a god. And you may see me as a coldhearted person, but I am only doing what is best for Leon’s sake.”
“And what’s that?” I said haughtily. “To let him die?”
“Precisely.” Guinevere replied coldly. “If the time comes when I am confronted by Ivan, than I will do what is necessary to end his life,
even if I have to take Leon’s life with it. That’s what he would have wanted, but even now he is fighting. A losing battle, yes, but fighting nonetheless.”
“He’s fighting because he has people worth fighting for!” I screamed. “He’s fighting for Dove, and for you! And if you hadn’t disappeared on them like that then he wouldn’t even be in that situation in the first place! So how can you just sit there and think ‘Oh well, that’s it then.’ Without even trying?”
“Because it is not my place!” Guinevere’s voice boomed in the tiny home, sending shockwaves down my bones until I found myself sitting on the floor in shock. Even Ru looked dazzled, clutching his chair with an iron grip. “Would you rather him keep fighting for his life, or would you rather I have ended it back there in that gazebo? I saw the way he looked at you, Emery Miller. Leon is still fighting, and I will not get in his way. Even if we must lose him. And yes, I have made a mistake. I have made many mistakes in my lifetime, many that I am not proud of.
But there comes a time where one life must be sacrificed for the well being of a hundred more. There is something even larger going on in this world, Emery Miller, and it cannot be centered on a boy that we have both failed.”
CHAPTER 14
I was numb all over; from my eyes to the tips of my toes. I didn’t even realize I was sitting on the floor, completely dumbstruck. Guinevere gave me a look, acting as if she hadn’t completely shattered my world, and spoke on.
“Did you know what White’s plan is?”
I didn’t even move, but she must have known. She knows everything.
“He’s planning to gather an army of alchemists,” she continued, her voice barely a whisper. “White approached me nearly a year ago with his plan; how he discovered a possible way to turn humans into alchemists. Except, of course, you cannot gain something without sacrificing something of equal value. White was determined that the Elixir of Life held the key to create newly born alchemists without erasing any existing alchemists already. Of course, I refused. If the world is destined for new alchemists, or if we are a dying race, then so be it.
“However, I couldn’t stand by and just watch him hatch his new plan. He would be murdering innocent people, alchemist or not. So I had
to act swiftly. Unfortunately, he is as slimy as Ivan—he cornered me at the Sun and Moon Library, a place I’m sure you are very familiar with, Emery.”
I nodded dumbly.
“And once I discovered the true meaning of his plan, I needed him off my trail. I needed to make it seem like I had vanished; a skill I’m actually quite good at.” A small chuckle here. “After he ran with his tail between his legs, I knew it was only a matter of time before he would return.”<
br />
“So you changed Dove and Leon’s memories.” I spat out. “But…to protect them.”
Guinevere bobbed her head. “Indeed I did. I knew White was a man of his word, but I had to ensure that my students be protected, even if I couldn’t be there to act as their shield. So yes, I did alter their memories in case White managed to corner them. But I left them clues: the pieces of my notebook, leading to this very spot.” Here, her smile turned so tender I wanted to cry. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you have to be her blood, aren’t you? Kathleen’s…”
The lump in my throat expanded twice its size. “My great-grandmother…” The little sickly girl that Guinevere had come to befriend and love. “You saved her life.”
Guinevere closed her blue eyes, as if lost in the memory. “Oddly
enough, it had taken me a very long time to muster up the courage to journey to the New World. A hundred years ago, roughly, I came back, and came across the Hearst family, who was eager to take me in, though I lied to them. Kathleen was such a doll; so small yet so sweet, and full of life. To see that she was going to be taken by the Angels much too soon…I couldn’t bear it. Even though it wasn’t my place to meddle.”
I saw a glimpse of the Guinevere I had read about in her journey; the Guinevere that was spoken so fondly of, almost like a mother.
Though I hated her for her decision to abandon Leon…I couldn’t help but want to love her, too.
“But it was thanks to you that I’m alive today,” I said, feeling my heart swell.
“That may be so, and do not misunderstand, Emery. It was a mistake I made, but one that I do not regret. However…I have made far too many mistakes in my old life, some that I am not proud of. Some I wish I could change…”
“Then what about Leon?” I pried. “Why could you just leave him like this?”
A dry laugh escaped her throat. “Would you honestly believe me if I said I was scared?”
“Scared? You?” I asked, rising to my feet. “You’re the most powerful alchemist in the world! How can this scare you?”
“Because I once loved him,” Guinevere said, her eyes flashing.
The Fake Mind (Time Alchemist) Page 7
