Forbidden Alchemy (Elemental Book 7)

by Rain Oxford

  “Yeah.”

  “Without getting too close, can you wrap them around the creature’s legs to make it trip?”

  “It would never hold rock… normally. Our magic is uncontrollably amplified, so it might work.”

  “Try it. Henry, get back!”

  He did, instantly. Remy raised her hands at the creature and silvery mist emerged from her. In midair, it braided itself into a tight, iridescent rope that vanished as it neared the creature. Although I couldn’t see it, I saw the effect of it as the creature’s legs snapped together and it tumbled to the ground.

  “I can’t hold it for more than a few seconds!” Remy warned.

  I wasted no time; I advanced on the creature and walked around its legs until I could stab it in the area I hoped was its heart. The energy in the sword exploded outward, and so did the creature. I was thrown off and landed hard on the ground. Before I could even contemplate getting up, I was showered with small pebbles and dirt.

  Once it stopped, I was hit with a wave of exhaustion and nausea. Remy called my name, but I couldn’t manage a response. Then Henry grabbed me by both arms and pulled me to my feet. He wasn’t taking no for an answer; if I didn’t move, he would carry me. He pulled me along and I used him to steady myself as best as I could with my legs moving. Remy was right behind me, pushing me as if Henry needed help.

  It felt like an hour before we reached the infirmary, but it was probably only a few minutes. Dr. Martin made a remark about us being dirty. I was half unconscious and couldn’t respond, let alone focus. My chest was killing me.

  Dr. Martin shoved a potion into my hand and ordered me to drink it. With someone’s help, I did. “Okay, you can sleep now.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice.

  * * *

  I woke with a migraine and a deep, throbbing pain in my chest. I wasn’t surprised; while a healing potion could patch me up, it couldn’t break a curse or reverse the damage done by one. However, I was still alive, so I knew it wasn’t too late to free the school.

  I sat up and found myself alone except for Kubota in the other bed and Dr. Martin, who was sleeping on the stone ground with his arms crossed over his chest. The doctor had no blankets or pillows whatsoever. If I didn’t see his chest rise and fall with his breath, I would have been seriously concerned.

  Instead, I was just mildly unnerved.

  I made a mental note to ask him if he remembered where his bedroom was. Since I was covered in dirt, I grabbed a cloth out of a drawer, wet it in the sink, and used it to scrub my face and neck clean. What I wanted was a shower and fresh clothes, but that was far too low on the priority list.

  Outside, I found everyone at work again. Darwin was sitting on a blanket in the grass, surrounded by books, and writing in his notebook. Henry was painting again. The damage from the rock creature had been cleaned up as well as it could be. Remy emerged from the Center with a bag of supplies, spotted me immediately, and waved. After returning the greeting, I went to Darwin. “You didn’t tell Remy about my heart, did you?”

  He scowled at me. “No, you didn’t worry the shit out of me or nothin’! No apologies needed, arse-hat.”

  I sighed. Although Darwin was often sarcastic and rude, this was different. He was afraid, yet he pushed through. He was working on the incantations so that they could free the curse because he knew I needed Rocky.

  I pulled his hoodie up over his head and pet him. “I’m sorry I worried you, but we get into dangerous situations all the time. Why is this one bothering you so badly?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m always worried when we get into danger. I hated every minute of your curse. Watching any of my pack members in danger kills me, but I know I can’t change you or Henry. That doesn’t mean I like it. I’m just usually better at hiding it. Right now, I feel like I’m disconnected from my pack. There is no way for me to contact them. The only ones I have left are you, Henry, and Amy.”

  “We’ll break this curse. You’re not losing anyone.”

  After a moment, he said, “It’s good to see you on your feet again. Now get your lazy arse to work.”

  At that point, Remy reached us, threw her arms around me, and kissed me. It was definitely my favorite response to me surviving. If this is the reaction I get from enduring a rock monster, I can’t wait until I survive breaking the curse. When she pulled away, I felt a bit playful. “Are we taking this public then?” I asked, and then I grabbed her ass.

  She laughed and smacked my hand away. “Save something for tonight.”

  Darwin rolled his eyes so hard I could hear it, as if he and Amelia weren’t doing the same thing.

  We got to work anyway.

  * * *

  An hour later, Remy and I were sitting with Darwin, trying to come up with a list of the best students and staff for each element. Remington used her knowledge of them while I dug around in their minds. I didn’t bother with any student younger than sixteen, and even then, it was only if Remington suggested them.

  Teachers were spreading colored silk ribbons around the appropriate sections. The entire campus looked a mess, but the more correspondences, the better. Scott was drawing pictures of creatures that represented certain elements, like dragons for fire, kappa for water, griffins for air, and golems for earth. They were more like correspondences than the elementals.

  “Why isn’t there an elemental for the soul?” I asked.

  “Because the soul isn’t created by elementals,” Darwin said.

  “I thought soul was the fifth element.”

  “All magic is created by the elementals, but the soul isn’t, and since the soul controls magic, it’s called that. However, that’s an interpretation, just like almost everything in magic. The Wu Xing includes wood and metal instead of air or spirit.”

  “Wu Xing?”

  “The Chinese version of the five elements.”

  “But metal and wood are part of earth.”

  “In our interpretation, yes, thanks to pre-Socratic Greece. Aristotle suggested that the fifth element was aether, referring to the stars. Space was often considered the fifth element as the ancient cultures hashed out the definitions of the five elements, and this had nothing to do with magic.”

  “If not for magic, why did people categorize the elements?”

  “For understanding. For knowledge. You also have to understand that the definition of magic itself changes. In the ancient days, displays of nature were considered acts of gods, because they couldn’t understand why lightning struck or that disease was spread by germs that were so tiny that they couldn’t be seen.”

  “Okay. Why didn’t they stick to the four or keep space?”

  “Because our magic and our understanding of magic is influenced by our culture and beliefs in science. In the Middle Ages, an Arab alchemist named Jābir ibn Hayyān dropped space and added sulfur and mercury, because his understanding of those two substances was consistent with his definition of the four primary elements. The Japanese godai has earth, air, fire, water, and void.”

  “Then how do we know we’re right?”

  He clenched his hair in his fists and groaned. “You’ve missed the entire point! Belief! We believe we’re right about the elements so we are right!”

  I looked at Remington, who nodded. “That’s exactly what my father told me. Quintessence was based on the Golden Dawn which was based on beliefs that were based on other beliefs. We base our knowledge of the elements on definitions we don’t fully understand, created by people we’ve never talked to, who had religious and philosophical beliefs that we’re guessing we believe in. It works for us, so we use it and teach it.”

  “I don’t like that.”

  “I know,” Remy agreed. “It crushed me for a month when I first learned that. I was so sure that we had some kind of proof, so when I learned the truth, I wasn’t able to do magic for weeks. I stopped believing in my own magic. I was thirteen. Rosin told me that if I couldn’t believe in myself, he couldn’t help me, so he left m
e. I got attacked by another student and realized that I didn’t care if I was right or not about magic. I refused to be a victim. I did magic, kicked his ass, and never doubted myself again. We are pretty confident that four of the elements are earth, air, fire, and water, though.”

  “But that might just be because of us,” Darwin added. “Your elemental sword uses those for elements, but if you believed sulfur or wood was one of the elements, the sword might turn into them. There could be mercury elementals out there or whatever, but we’ll absolutely never see or use one because we don’t believe in them.”

  “But mercury is metal, which is earth, and wood is earth.”

  “That makes perfect sense to us. And if we were told ‘D’ was pronounced ‘ah’ and ‘A’ was pronounced ‘dah,’ then ‘dad’ would be pronounced ‘adah,’ and that would make perfect sense.”

  “The more I learn about magic, the less sense it makes. I think everyone just makes up rules as they go and if those rules don’t fit, they get changed.”

  He smiled brightly. “Now you’re getting it!”

  I really, really hoped he was joking.

  * * *

  By three in the afternoon, we had pretty much depleted the school of correspondences, and Darwin was almost done with the last incantation, which was Dr. Martin’s. In addition to correspondences, we also had traditional “elemental weapons,” including a pantacle for earth, a sword for fire, a dagger for air, a chalice for water, and a lotus wand for spirit. Every wizard teacher had at least one set of these, so it wasn’t a problem getting them.

  Murphy approached us, pale as a sheet.

  “What happened?” Remington asked, standing. I got to my feet as well and put my notebook in my pocket.

  “The kids… they were…”

  “Where?” I asked. I had never seen the man even mildly shaken, and here he was about to fall apart.

  “William’s class.”

  Remington and I took off for Mr. Grant’s class. It took us a few minutes and Remington pulled ahead. The tightness in my chest grew with every step, but I managed not to wheeze in front of Remy. She was too worried about the students to notice that I was struggling to breathe, though. She threw open the door.

  A few students shouted with shock from the door being opened so suddenly, but aside from that, everyone was okay. “Did anything weird happen a few minutes ago?” Remington asked.

  “Yes,” Mr. Grant said with relief. “Mr. Murphy opened the door, screamed, and ran away without a word. That was extremely distressing.” Remington looked at me for answers, which I didn’t have.

  Murphy was gone when we got back outside. Henry was sitting next to Darwin, carving sigils into small candles for the fire section. Remington and I joined them. “Murphy had seen something that wasn’t there.” Henry looked dejected. “Did you see her again?”

  He nodded. “I went to my room and saw her standing over Scott. I made him leave for a while. He was supposed to be in class anyway, but I didn’t want him around others.”

  Even though Remington didn’t know what we were talking about, she stayed out of it.

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  “What I knew she would say if she learned what happened; I had failed her and our son. That’s how I knew it was a trick.” He raised his face and some of the shame faded from his eyes. “No matter the fact that I failed them, Zoe would never say such a thing to me. She was a good, loving, and forgiving person. She never held a grudge, either. She would be happy that I am taking care of him now.”

  I nodded. That was Henry; he saw reason through emotional bullshit.

  “Are we almost done?” I asked.

  “We should be breaking the curse in half an hour,” Darwin said.

  * * *

  It was time to do this. Murphy, Ms. Greening, and I were in the fire section. Although I knew the undine better than salamanders, I was definitely better at manipulating fire. Mr. Yuun, Ms. Holland, and Ms. Davis were in the water section. Cy, Ms. Bounds, and Mr. Grant were in the air section. Mrs. Konwerski, Kelsi, and Autumn were on the earth section.

  “Where is Dr. Martin?” Darwin asked.

  “He’s getting healing potions ready,” I said. “I’ll go get him.”

  “I’ll help,” Remington said, following me. Once we were in the East, she asked, “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine,” I lied, ignoring the stab of pain in my chest.

  “That rock monster knocked the shit out of you. You shouldn’t be doing this; you should be resting.”

  “I’ll rest when I’m dead.” Which may be an hour from now. I stopped when she did, though, and turned back to her. “I’m not going to screw this up,” I said, intentionally misinterpreting her worry. This made her realize that if she were in my position, she would take it the wrong way. No one got away with telling her to rest and sit out a major spell.

  She took my hand. “I know you won’t; that wasn’t what I meant.”

  I was about to kiss her to show her there were no hard feelings until my intuition fired. “Shit. Hold that thought.” I followed my intuition to the infirmary. Urgency drove me as fast as the pain in my chest would let me, but I knew it was too late.

  When we reached the infirmary, Dr. Martin was on the ground on his stomach. There was blood on the back of his head. “Get a cloth,” I said. Remy did and I pressed it to his head. He was breathing, fortunately. “Hand me one of those potions.”

  She grabbed one of the dozen bottles on the counter and uncapped it. I gently lifted Dr. Martin up so that she could make him drink it. Healing potions were wonderful for wounds like this, but they took time to work. He wouldn’t wake until late in the night at the earliest. I picked him up, worried about his complete lack of response even in sleep, and set him on the bed.

  “We don’t have time to help him,” I said, gathering the bottles into a leather sack he had set aside.

  “Someone attacked him; we can’t just leave him.”

  “Someone attacked him to stop him from helping us break the curse.”

  “Why would anyone do that? Maybe it was an elemental.”

  “Maybe it was, but either way, the result is the same.”

  Darwin recognized the look on my face as soon as we stepped outside and met us halfway. “What’s wrong?”

  “Dr. Martin was attacked. He’ll live, but we have to go on. I’ll take his place, and someone can fill in for me on fire.”

  His expression was carefully neutral when I felt him trying to force open a connection between us. I let him in. “The reason I chose Dr. Martin is that it’s somewhat safe for him,” he explained immediately in my mind. “His magic isn’t built on elementals and balance. You’re a wizard. Any wizard who does this is liable to get killed.”

  “I don’t really have anything to lose, do I? If I do it and fail, I die. If I don’t do it, I die.”

  It was on the tip of his mental tongue to suggest that someone else did it, but he knew better. I couldn’t ask someone else to do it and risk their lives. I was already cursed. I would fight harder than anyone else because my life was on the line.

  “Is that safe?” Remy asked. “It doesn’t sound safe.”

  “It’s perfectly safe,” Darwin lied. He didn’t agree with my decision, but he would support me. “In fact, Dev might be the only one of us who can, since he had the key.”

  Remy breathed easier; she didn’t realize how good a liar he was.

  “Thank you,” I said in his mind.

  He shrugged. “If you were my girlfriend lying about your curse, I would kill you so dead.”

  “With luck, Remy won’t find out.”

  “Famous last words. I’ll make sure that’s on your tombstone.”

  * * *

  Instead of using the lotus wand, Darwin told me to summon my staff. He explained that the bond I had with it made the spell stronger.

  Darwin also translated the incantation from German to Latin. When I reminded him that I didn’t know Latin, he
said, “Yeah, that’s the point. If you understood the words, you wouldn’t be willing to speak them. Even if you did, you wouldn’t mean them and the magic wouldn’t work.”

  “Then why not leave it in German?”

  “You can’t pronounce German worth shit.”

  Fortunately, it only set us back a few minutes, until he wanted me to practice it ahead of time. “Repeat after me. ‘I, Devon Rebecca Sandals’---”

  “My middle name is not Rebecca! Would you be serious for a minute?”

  “Only if you’ll be Peter.”

  Cy, Kelsi, Autumn, and Braiden (who replaced me on fire) laughed while none of the teachers got his joke. Nevertheless, he accomplished his goal of breaking some of the tension.

  We chose to do the spell in broad daylight because it was less likely to go wrong. Plus, my heart was growing weaker by the hour.

  We all gathered at our sections and the three people at each element took hands to form triangles. Henry, Darwin, and Remy stood in front of me. Darwin was there to direct while Henry’s job was to protect Remy from elemental attacks so that she could focus on the ward. “Is everyone ready?” Darwin asked.

  Everyone nodded reluctantly. The tension was palpable.

  Thus, Darwin did as Darwin does. He clasped his hands in front of him and lowered his head. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of Fred, Boromir, Eddard, and Khal, the brave rabbits who had to die so that fresh blood could flow from our faucets.”

  “Cut that out,” Remy scolded him.

  “Then get to it already,” he retorted. “What are you waiting for a green light? Everyone go!” He made the motion of waving a flag.

  I tuned out what everyone else was doing and focused on my part. While the others concentrated on drawing the elementals to their section, I had to draw much more sinister energy into myself. When I opened myself to the magic around me, I felt it instantly.