The Alchemist and an Amaretto: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Five

by Marie, Annette

  Aaron, Kai, and Ezra were all absent. Leaving my amaretto on the table—after our discussion of the poisonous and addictive properties of bitter almonds, I wasn’t so keen to drink it—I hastened out of the room, across the entry hall, and up the stairs to the third level.

  The double doors to Aaron’s suite were closed. I rapped my knuckles on the wood, waited a moment, then entered. Aaron wasn’t a big stickler for privacy. He wouldn’t mind.

  The room was too dark to see much, but the feeling of a large space was unmistakable. Past the shadow of a huge four-poster bed, I turned to the sitting area dimly illuminated by a large window. Aaron sat on the built-in bench nested into the window well, watching me.

  “This is your hiding spot?” I asked dryly. “Wouldn’t your parents think to check your room?”

  He leaned back against the window. He’d shed his jacket, removed his bow tie, and undone the top few buttons of his shirt. “They already checked in here. I hid in the closet like a five-year-old.”

  On another day, he would’ve delivered that line with a jaunty smirk, his eyes bright and laughing. Tonight, it came out bitter and exhausted, the words edged in anger.

  Skirt swishing around my legs, I sat beside him. Sin’s epiphany could wait a minute.

  Aaron gazed around the dark room, his restless stare reflecting his conflicted emotions. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” he admitted in a low voice. “I know I should’ve stayed to the end and talked to everyone who wanted to see me, but I just …”

  As he trailed off, I found his hand and twined our fingers together.

  “Is it just me?” he burst out. “Am I upset over nothing? Do all parents constantly push their kids to accomplish more?”

  My parents hadn’t, but my family situation had been far from ideal.

  “I think so, but not the way your parents do.” I hesitated, wondering whether I should say more. “These job and guild offers they keep pushing on you … they seem like things you’d like.”

  “They seem that way, don’t they?” He sat silently for a long minute, his jaw flexing. “You’ve been here long enough to notice it, haven’t you?”

  “Notice what?”

  “What these people are like. How shallow and elitist they are.” He turned pained blue eyes to me. “How shallow and elitist I become when I’m around them.”

  I squeezed his hand. “You aren’t—”

  “When I’m here, I have to check myself constantly. I never visit without Kai. He keeps me sane.” He raked his free hand through his hair. “All those guilds and jobs and opportunities—they’re all the same deal. Wealthy, privileged, special. I’d be surrounded by people just like the ones here.

  “Kai could join guilds like that and never change. He’s always done things his way. But me?” He shook his head. “They would turn me into the worst version of myself.”

  And Aaron wanted to be the best version of himself he could be.

  “My parents don’t understand,” he added miserably. “They have no idea why I chose a guild no one outside Vancouver has ever heard of. Every year I pass on all the offers they arrange for me, I disappoint them more.”

  As his shoulders bowed, I realized something. Back when I’d met him, he’d told me he’d chosen the Crow and Hammer to tick off his parents, like a petty teen rebellion he’d carried into his twenties.

  But his choices had never been about his parents. They’d been about himself. His guild, the bounty-hunting jobs he preferred, and even his “only dates girls his parents won’t like” reputation were all about discovering who he was—and who he wanted to be.

  Disappointing his parents wasn’t a source of pride. It hurt him. He wanted them to be proud of him, but all they saw was his “wasted potential.”

  “Your parents haven’t realized it yet,” I said, holding his hand tightly, “but eventually, they’ll see how much you’ve accomplished. Everything you’ve done and will ever do, you’ve earned by being smart and passionate and caring and principled.”

  He smiled weakly. “Thanks Tori, but I don’t think they’ll ever see me that way.”

  “Then they’re idiots.” I wished I could grab Tobias and Valerie and shake them until they got their stupid elitist eyeballs realigned. “You’re a better person, and a better mage, than any of the snooty jerks here. And you might not become the ‘voice for young mages everywhere’ at our guild, but you’re out there every day saving lives.”

  “I am?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Half or more of the jobs you do involve getting dangerous rogues off the streets. You told me way, way back that you chose the Crow and Hammer so you could catch bad guys.”

  His grin finally appeared. “I don’t remember that.”

  “You definitely did.” I bumped his shoulder with mine. “You’re the Crow and Hammer’s rock-star mage and someday, Darius will ask you to be the next guild master. When he does, you can decide for yourself if that’s what you want—not your parents or anyone else.”

  Emotion flashed across his face, then he pulled me against his side in a tight hug. I got my arms around his broad shoulders and squeezed. He didn’t need a famous guild or a prestigious job to be the finest mage the Sinclair academy had produced.

  His arms relaxed and we straightened on the seat. Leaning against the window, he stretched his legs out. “What time is it? I’ve completely lost track.”

  “Not sure.” I squinted out the window, trying to gauge how late it was. “The druidess should be here soon to set up Sin’s exorcism, plus Sin had an epiphany and ran off to find Kelvin.”

  “Ran off where? Kelvin is here—in the guest room at the end of the east wing. Mom said he wasn’t feeling well.”

  I was about to explain my and Sin’s realizations, but my attention caught on the grounds below. Apprehension tingled along my nerves. “Aaron? Do you see that?”

  He turned to peer through the glass. Three stories below, the lawn swept toward the dark lagoon, the surrounding trees bathed in the moon’s pale glow.

  A shape drifted into view. Moving on four legs, it slunk toward the manor.

  Behind it, a second low shape prowled out of the darkness. Two more appeared from the trees on the other side. Another darting silhouette trotted into sight. Some were monstrously large, while others were small and agile.

  Werewolves. Werewolves were emerging from the forest and circling the manor, their pale eyes glowing in the full moon’s silver light.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Aaron burst out of his room, shouting for his father, Kai, and Ezra. I followed him, but as he charged down the stairs, I wheeled into the east corridor.

  I raced to the door at the end and hammered it with my fist. “Kelvin? Sin?”

  No answer. I grabbed the handle and jiggled it. Locked. “Kelvin!”

  “Tori?” Kai jogged up to me, his suit jacket over one arm. “What’s going on? Why is Aaron shouting?”

  “Can you break this door open?” I demanded.

  His surprise only lasted a moment before he nodded. I jumped back as he sized up the door, then unleashed a powerful side kick. His heel slammed into the spot beside the handle. Wood splintered.

  I shoved the door open and ran inside. A suitcase sat open on the floor and the bedcovers were heaped over a large body. Light bloomed as Kai hit the switch.

  “Kelvin?” I asked sharply, striding to his bedside. “Are you …”

  My voice died. Kelvin lay on his back, his open eyes staring blankly at the bed’s frilly canopy.

  Kai swore. As he leaned over the man, checking for a pulse, I backed away, my stomach twisting. The alpha shifter had entered the castle last night on a mission. He’d been on the third floor. Had this been his assignment? To take out the master alchemist who’d been unraveling the mad alchemist’s work?

  “He’s alive,” Kai said tersely. “He’s been incapacitated, probably by a poison.”

  I jolted at the word “poison,” then remembered that in mythic lingo, any poti
on with harmful effects was called a poison. “Where is Sin? She was looking for Kelvin. She—”

  I froze. On the dresser beside the bed sat a vial of pink liquid. It was the same luridly-colored concoction Kelvin had given Sin yesterday. But Sin had told me she’d taken her last dose earlier tonight. Brian had given it to her.

  Brian …

  Brian, standing at the apothecary counter, warning me that the almonds in the large jar beside him were poisonous. Brian, offering me candies that tasted like nuts. Brian, a transmutation expert’s apprentice. Brian, a genius alchemist to rival his master—or so Sin had claimed.

  A transmutation apprentice, living and working at the edge of the academy grounds, with the knowledge, skill, and expertise to alter shifters with an addictive potion. Was he the one behind all this? Is that what Sin had realized, and why she’d run to find Kelvin?

  Since Kelvin had survived the poison this long, he could hang on a little longer. I grabbed the pink vial off the dresser, rushed past Kai, and sprinted down the hall with the skirt of my gown hiked up above my knees. I took the stairs two at a time, hurtled into the entrance hall—and came up short with a shocked scream.

  A pair of monstrous, mutant shifters spun to face me, their jowls dripping white foam on the carpet. Bulky muscles swelled over their humped shoulders, their split skin oozing reddish miasma.

  Kai ran into my back. His arm clamped around me, heaving me off the floor, and his other hand shot toward the ceiling. The air sizzled.

  Electricity erupted from every lightbulb and outlet in the entrance hall. Crackling white power leaped into his body, and I went rigid as the current flowed through me, all the hair on my body standing on end.

  The wolves leaped at us.

  Kai swept his arm down. A twisting bolt as thick as his wrist exploded from his hand and struck the two wolves in midair. They went rigid, every muscle locked, then crashed to the floor, twitching and smoking.

  As the flow of electricity ceased, darkness fell over us. Most of the lightbulbs had shattered, showering the floor with broken glass. A few flickering bulbs cast weak light over the scorched wainscoting.

  “Holy crap, Kai,” I gasped. “That was some Thor-level shit.”

  “Kai!” Aaron ran into the entrance hall. His parents and several staff members followed him, their faces white.

  Kai set my feet back on the floor. “Why are there werewolves in the manor?”

  “They’re circling the manor,” Aaron replied. “I don’t know how many are out there, but it won’t be long until more force their way in.”

  Kai nodded, calm and cool as always. “Who’s still here to help us fight the—”

  “No one,” Tobias cut in, stepping past Aaron into the center of the entrance hall. “They all left. I can call them back, but they’ll be at least fifteen minutes.”

  The mutant wolves would swarm the manor long before help arrived.

  “There are ten non-combat house staff here,” Tobias continued, his jaw tight, “plus a dozen students who are staying over Christmas break. There’s only one staff member on duty in the dorm. If the wolves attack there, they’ll be slaughtered.” He hesitated as though he were calculating how to safeguard everyone. “If we can get the students to the house—or go to the dorm—”

  Aaron unceremoniously pushed his father out of the way and spoke to Kai. “We’ll be too exposed outside. With so few fighters protecting so many, we need to focus on defense. The tower can only be accessed by one staircase.”

  “I’ll take the house staff up there,” Kai said. “I can hold off the shifters for a while.”

  Aaron turned to Valerie. “Mom, help Kai protect the tower.”

  She nodded, her face slack with surprise at Aaron’s sudden transformation to a decisive team leader.

  “You want to leave the two of them here—” Tobias began.

  “The tower is defensible.” Aaron spoke over his father, his blue eyes blazing and no hesitation in his voice. “Taking non-combats outside will get them killed. The only ones leaving this house are you and me. Only we can survive the wolves while we make a run for the dorms.” Aaron looked around. “Where’s Ezra?”

  “Here!”

  The call came from above us. Ezra swung over the second-floor railing, and a gust of wind blew us back a step as he broke his fall. He straightened, his arms loaded with gear. He tossed a sheathed sword to Aaron, then a pair of katanas to Kai. My gear belt was slung over his shoulder, along with a tangle of clothing, and he held his pole-arm in one hand.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Took me a minute to grab everything.”

  Aaron flashed him a terse smile as he unsheathed his sword. “Ezra, I want you and Tori to—”

  “I need to find Sin,” I interrupted. “Has anyone seen her?”

  “I saw her with Brian shortly before the werewolves attacked,” Valerie answered. “He was leading Sin outside. She seemed inebriated.”

  Shit. Sin had seemed tipsy to me too, and I was betting Brian had slipped her something to make her pliant.

  “I think Brian is the alchemist who mutated the shifters,” I blurted. “And he may have kidnapped Sin, but I don’t know why.”

  A moment of silence followed my wild proclamation.

  “Brian?” Aaron repeated incredulously. He processed that information. “In that case, Tori and Ezra, your priority is Sin and Brian. Find them as quickly as you can. Dad, where’s that druidess?”

  “She texted me an hour ago that she was running behind.”

  “Warn her what she’s about to walk into. You and Mom need to get your switches, then we’ll move.”

  Tobias jerked his chin in a nod, then he and Valerie rushed up the stairs. As Kai tied his pair of katana to his belt, Ezra pulled leather pants and a hoodie off his shoulder and tossed them to me. Oh thank god, I didn’t have to battle werewolves in an evening gown.

  I turned my back on the guys and yanked down my dress’s short zipper. Slipping the straps off, I let it fall to the floor and pulled the hoodie on. I hoped they weren’t watching, because no bra had worked with my dress and, well, I hadn’t wanted underwear lines either. My nude thong covered basically nothing.

  I shimmied into my leather pants, then Ezra handed me my fully loaded gear belt, alchemy bombs clinking against each other. I buckled it on and slipped Sin’s potion vial into a pouch as Valerie and Tobias raced back down the stairs—the former carrying two long daggers already sparking with fire, while the latter had a sword as large as Aaron’s.

  “Ready?” Aaron barked.

  Kai and Valerie took up positions on either side of the front door. Tobias strode into the vestibule, but Aaron looked back. His burning gaze swept over me, then to the aeromage.

  “Bring them back safely, Ezra.”

  “I will.”

  My heart clogged my throat. Aaron joined his father, then threw the door open.

  Snarls erupted. Dark, furred shapes hurled themselves at the entrance as the two pyromages leaped outside. Their bodies erupted into white-hot flames, and the snarls turned to agonized yowls as the door slammed shut. Valerie bolted it, then spoke a short Arcana incantation, invoking magical protections on the lock.

  “The staff are upstairs,” she told Kai.

  “Get them into the tower,” he ordered. “I’ll do a final sweep to make sure we didn’t miss anyone, then join you. As soon as you’re up there, call your guild in. We won’t survive the night without help.”

  She nodded and zipped back to the second level.

  “Be careful,” he told me and Ezra. “They’re at their strongest tonight, and we don’t know what Brian is capable of. If he has Sin …”

  “Then we’ll take care of him too,” I said fiercely.

  Kai’s dark eyes flicked to Ezra. “Do whatever you have to.”

  With Ezra’s nod, Kai sprinted toward the kitchen to check for any staff left behind.

  I turned to Ezra. Whatever had happened between us under the mistletoe no longer mattered.
“I think Brian took Sin because he wants her for his experiments. He and Kelvin talked about how the mutation passed to the spirit before it infected her. Brian must want to see what will happen when she turns into a full-blown werewolf.”

  “Then we have to get to her before that. Where did he take her?”

  Anywhere. All Brian needed to do was keep Sin out of sight until the full moon, which meant he could’ve walked into the woods to hide her, but my instincts suggested otherwise.

  “To his evil laboratory,” I decided. “The apothecary where he has access to his supplies and conducts all his experiments.”

  “That’s outside the grounds.”

  I nodded as muted howls rang through the night. “And that means we’re going out there.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  As Ezra led me down the hall at a fast jog, glass shattered behind us. Thudding paws were followed by low, ferocious snarls. The werewolves were inside the manor.

  I shoved down my fear. The new arrivals were Kai and Valerie’s job. Ezra and I couldn’t stop.

  We darted across the narrow hall where, an hour ago, we had kissed under the mistletoe, then he stopped at the door that opened into the grounds. Passing me his pole-arm to hold, he shook out his heavy-duty bad-guy-smasher gloves. He tugged at the cuff of his dress shirt, then grabbed it and yanked down. The sleeve tore off at the shoulder seam. He ripped off his other sleeve and slid on the gloves—thick material that covered his arms up to his biceps, the elbows and knuckles reinforced with metal.

  He reclaimed his pole-arm. “There’s a path heading east. The garage is out of sight behind some trees. Run and don’t stop.” He reached for the small of his back and pulled a sleek pistol out of his belt. “This is your Christmas present from us. It’s already loaded with sleep potion.”

  Accepting it, I weighed it in my hand. It might be a paintball gun, but it was a solid, dangerous weapon.

  “It’s higher powered than regular ones,” Ezra said, confirming my suspicions. He passed me an extra clip. “Shoots faster and farther. You have seven shots per magazine. It’ll probably take two or three to down a werewolf.”