Alchemist Academy: Book 2 (15 page)

Mom reached for the door handle and placed a stone on it. “And this is where we keep the wicked ones.” The door opened and she walked inside.

The place looked much like the room I had woken in, with an old bed and a makeshift kitchen in the corner. She walked to one of the cabinets and pulled out a stone. It wasn’t the one I had made; this one was blue with black streaks. My mom placed it on the back wall of the kitchen, right below a picture of a beach with one palm tree sagging into the water.

The stone dissolved and the wall creaked open, splitting right through the middle of the picture and all the way to the floor.

“Come on,” Mom said.

Niles held tight to his gun and I searched my pockets for a stone that wasn’t there. Mark moved close to me. The muscles in his arms flexed as we walked through the magical door. The cells beyond it were much the same as the other ones, with thick rebar floors, wire mesh on the walls and the metal funnel underneath.

The initial shock didn’t last as long the second time around, and I felt lesser for it. Getting used to this, even in the smallest way, made me feel less human. I glanced at my mom, who was walking with authority down the center of the hallway.

A man wearing nothing but his soiled underwear was leaning against the wire mesh barrier. His grimy fingers reached out for me and I felt I owed it to him to look at his face. But he looked vacant, as if the tenants had left the lights on even though they’d gone on vacation. A line of drool fell from the corner of his mouth and slid onto the metal below.

Most of the other cages were empty. A couple of the empty ones had dark streaks down the metal funnel but no bodies.

My mom stopped at one with a woman in the fetal position in the corner of the room. She didn’t look like the others; she looked cleaner, and the funnel below her didn’t have a single mark. Mom tapped the metal cage with her hand. It rattled, sending vibrations all the way to the floor and through my feet.

The woman, who had bright blonde hair, rose up, showing us her face.

“Verity?” I searched for answers as I stared at my mom.

“She got a bit ambitious on the search for you. We snagged her just outside of L.A.”

Jackie laughed and fist-pumped the air. Mark took slow, long breaths.

“How long have you had her?” I asked.

“Two days, and she hasn’t spoken one word, even with our stones. She seems to be resistant.” Mom tapped on the cage again.

Verity locked in on me and for a second her eyes widened, but then her expression turned to a sneer. She stood, continuing her glare. Even with her in the cage and me on the outside, safe, I felt the same way as when I’d seen her for the first time. Her narrowed eyes and sharp nose, all pointed at me. Even her pulled-back hair tightened her hairline into a V pointing at me.

“What did you do to them?” Jackie asked. “To Carly and Bridget?”

Mom shook her head. “She won’t speak—”

“I had them killed the second you left in that elevator. You think I would let someone live who tried to escape?” Verity said.

“She’s lying,” Mom said, and shook her head.

Jackie paced and yelled at Verity, “Don’t you mean
retire
?”

Verity laughed. “You think you have it all figured out, but you don’t know anything. And these people with you? They don’t know a damned thing either.”

Mom pulled the stone I had made out of her pocket and held it high. “You see this?”

Verity didn’t move. She appeared transfixed by the stone in Mom’s hand.

“Good. Then you know what it does.”

Fear crept onto Verity’s face. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen it in her, but this was a deeper fear, one that made her eyes twitch from me to my mom. She regained some of her composure. “Cathy, your daughter was most helpful in the Academy, making some very key stones for us.” She laughed.

“Shut up,” I said.

“Just think, how close was your stone to killing your own mother?” She laughed and kicked at the floor, sending shockwaves across it.

“What is she talking about?” Mom asked, rubbing her necklace. I saw in her eyes a pleading.

“I only made stones for you because you were going to kill Mark!” I screamed at Verity, gripping the edge of her cage.

“Really? Because that blue stone was only going to change his skin tone for maybe an hour. It was never going to kill him.”

“Shut up.” I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to see her stupid, smug face smiling back at me.

“And from the look on your face, Cathy, you had no idea she’d made that cinder stone. Tell me, how many Intrepid were killed by your daughter’s hand that day?” She had the widest grin and I wanted to smack it off her face.

She had threatened to kill Mark, and that was the only reason I had made the stone. If I could go back, I’d change it all. I’d have hid my ability from the beginning.

“Is this true, Allie?” Mom’s mouth hung open and her eyes were set on me. She clasped the necklace in her fist and waited for the answer I didn’t want to give.

“Yes.”

Her chin quivered and she turned away. Niles stood back and held his gun, not pointed at me but in a direction from which it wouldn’t be hard to hit me if he needed to.

“I’m so sorry, Mom. You have to believe me. I didn’t even know what alchemy
was
until they picked me up. She made me make those stones. I didn’t even know what they were for.”

My mom held up her hand for me to stop. “It doesn’t matter.”

I stared at the side of her head, hoping she’d give me a glance or any sign of forgiveness.

Mark’s hand touched my shoulder and he pulled me in closer. “Hey,” he said, getting my mom’s attention. “Allie didn’t kill those people. She did.” He pointed at Verity. “Allie has more courage than all of us combined. She’s the one who stood up and said ‘no more’ to that Academy, and she’s the one who got us out.” He paused. “She also saved my life, more than once. Don’t you dare put any blame on her for what that woman did.”

My mom looked at the floor and the stone in her hand. “I don’t. You killed them.” She paused and glared at Verity. “Bring your hand over here and take this stone. If you don’t comply, we’ll use some dastardly stones and then force the stone on you.” Her delivery was stoic and without emotion.

“Please. I could have never made that stone without a special like her. She’s the only reason they’re dead,” Verity put her hands on her hips and found a way to look as if we were the ones in a cage. “And, furthermore, once my brother finds out where I am, he’s going to kill you all.”

“Niles,” Mom said.

“Yup.” He stepped closer to the door and pulled it open.

Verity jumped to the side, but her foot got stuck on the metal bars and she fell forward.

Nile raised his gun and fired. The barrel moved and shot out a stone. At least I figured it was a stone. It shot so fast, I couldn’t see it. When it missed Verity, she reached into her pocket and produced a brown stone.

My heart leapt and I screamed, but Niles was a step ahead.

He fired three shots in rapid succession, two of them striking her. One of the stones broke open and a white cloud puffed around her. The other struck her neck. I wasn’t sure which one did the damage, but she fell onto the rebar on the floor. The brown stone fell from her hand and clanked down the metal funnel.

“Just drag her to the room.” Mom glanced at the other prisoner near the door.

Niles hung his gun on his belt and pulled Verity by her hands. Her feet dragged over the rebar and made a rhythmic clunking sound. The other prisoners watched her body being dragged down the hall.

I stayed a ways back, walking next to Mark and trying to process all that had happened. Niles waited for each of us to enter the next room before closing the door. The door clicked inside the wall, locking it and forming back into the picture of the palm tree.

“Put her on the chair,” Mom said, and pointed to a burgundy-colored recliner. It might have been some guy’s favorite chair in some other life. It didn’t feel real watching Niles dump Verity’s body onto the dusty chair. I felt as if I was floating and watching this through the eyes of another person.

“If she wakes, we’re going to have a handful,” Jackie said. “We should tie her up or something.”

“She won’t be giving us any trouble,” Mom said, walking close to Verity and holding out the stone I had made. My mom lightly touched the stone to the back of Verity’s bare hand and stood back.

Verity’s eyes shot open, but she didn’t make any other movements and her eyes looked different. Normally she’d be assessing the situation with her keen eyes. Now, they looked dull and she didn’t look away, staring blankly at the wall across the room. What kind of stone had I created?

“Verity, can you hear me?” my mom asked. She licked her lips and paced near the chair.

“Yes,” Verity said.

My mom turned to me. “That stone you made makes her like this for a short time. I don’t know how the woman did it, but she was able to withstand every persuasive stone we threw at her.” She turned back to Verity. “Where is the book,
A Practical Guide to Herbal Stones
?”

Verity’s face trembled and then went back to its blank look. “Room five, third cabinet over from the right, second shelf up.”

“Very good. And did you read this book?”

“Yes.”

“Can you recall the details about Shulman’s metal?”

“Not exactly, but it’s a stone that might be able to be added to another stone to bind the two together.”

“Yes.” My mom moved closer to Verity. Her hand shook and she licked her lips again as she neared Verity’s face.

“Can you tell me the pattern?”

Verity’s face twitched. “I cannot.”

Mom stepped back and glanced at Niles. “Where is your academy?”

“Since I’m the only one who can move it, it should still be in L.A.”

“Is your brother guarding it?”

“Yes.”

“Others? How many?”

“Around fifty.”

“Did you really kill Carly?” Jackie burst out.

“No. She was alive, the last I saw her.”

“And Bridget?” I added.

“She’s alive, as far as I know.”

The weight lifted from my chest. Ever since I’d heard about them being killed, I hadn’t been able to breathe all the way in. If something actually had happened, I wasn’t sure how well I could handle it. They’d risked their lives to protect us from the woman sitting in the recliner. I shared a look of joy with Mark and Jackie. I should have guessed the people at the Academy would keep Bridget.

“How many stones have you made Bridget make since I left?” I blurted out, and my mom gave me a stern look.

“Two stones that I’m aware of.”

Mom turned to us. “We don’t have much time with her like this.” She went back to Verity. “How can we get in?”

“There’s an elevator.”

Mom sighed. “I know there’s an elevator, but if you were to sneak into the Academy, how would you go about it?”

“The guards are above the Academy, so I would portal into the warehouse. It’s rarely used and would provide access to much of the school. The main danger would be if you landed intertwined inside the many objects inside the warehouse.”

Mom nodded and looked at Niles and then back to Verity. “How close are you to making the philosopher’s stone?”

Verity’s eyelids twitched and her neck shook. Sparks of defiance twinkled in her eyes.

“Tell me,” Mom said.

“We’re close,” she struggled to say.

“We’re losing her,” Niles said, and raised his gun at Verity.

“How close? Tell me the pattern!” Mom’s voice rose to a screech.

“Axiom and Quinn had a breakthrough. He was going to use Allie, but he might try Bridget now.”

“What breakthrough?”

Verity shook in the chair. The veins in her neck bulged and through a clenched jaw she said, “The key was booster stones….” She fell off the chair, face first onto the floor.

“Tell me!” Mom demanded, but Verity didn’t say another word. “Dammit. Allie, you need to make another stone. We’re so close! If you guys hadn’t asked those silly questions in the beginning—”

“So sorry our friends’ lives are a waste of time for you,” Jackie said.

“You just don’t get the bigger picture here. If they make the stone before we do, there won’t be any chance of getting your friends back. We’ll all be slaves to them.” Mom pulled on her necklace.

Niles kept an eye on Verity’s limp body. “We should tell the others.”

“The Intrepid will have to wait.” I heard Mom whispering about booster stones under her breath. “Take her back to her cage.”

“Mom, I think I can get us into that warehouse. I know of a spot that was cleared out.” Right in front of a dad who was probably sitting in the same position we’d left him in.

“Good. And you can get me to this room five?”

“How about getting those hundred students out of there first? And where should we take them?”