Alchemist Academy: Book 2 (23 page)

“You need help?” I asked.

“Nah, we got it,” Bridget said.

“Angela, right?” I tried to get her attention. “What room did they keep you in?”

She frowned and gave Dave a shove. “Room twenty-eight.”

No wonder she kept staring at me. I’d given her that victory. I wish I could remember how far she’d taken her victory celebration.

“Well, we can put that place behind us now,” I said.

“It’s never going to be behind us. It’s only going to get worse.” She gripped the edge of the chair and looked down.

I wanted to ask her what she meant. “What’s up with her?” I whispered to Jackie.

“Orphan, like us. Wait, you got yours back,” she said. “I wonder how the conversation’s going between your two moms.” Jackie laughed.

I chuckled. I couldn’t imagine Janet’s face, seeing my mom and Niles at her door. Surely she knew my mom from pictures; my dad had kept a few around. I cringed and clenched my jaw. I was doing it again—talking about my dad in the present tense, like he’d still be coming home any day now.

“You okay?” Mark said as he shoved the cart next to me.

“Yeah.”

“Hey,” Leo said. “I think the first thing we should all do is go out on the town. I can’t wait to eat some real processed, partially reconstituted, good old American fast food.”

“You’re reconstituted,” Jackie said.

“Oh, really?” Leo played along. “I’m going to take you out on a real date. Dinner, movies, and maybe something fun like miniature golf.”

Jackie gasped. “I love miniature golf, and we have so many freaking movies to catch up on.”

Leo smiled, moved closer to Jackie, and took her hand in his. “We have a lot of things to catch up on. So, how did you get out of that nice academy again?”

“This girl Kylie made a stone that melted the shield around it.”

“Out of what?” Leo asked with glee, as if he didn’t care what the answer was. He just wanted Jackie to keep talking and holding his hand.

I couldn’t stop smiling, seeing her happy. I beamed at Mark. “You’re going to take me out too, right?”

He pushed the cart closer to me. “Just me and you? Sounds like an impossible fantasy we could get lost in.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll make it a reality,” he said. “I want to sit down with you at a table over dinner, walk through a park, or even go on a road trip. I’d do anything for it to be just me and you.”

The idea sent heat through my whole body. Alone with Mark sounded like a wonderland I
could
get lost in. I stared at the books as they shook around on the cart. I knew what he was hinting at, yet not saying. His eyes told me exactly what he meant and they were pleading with me right now to go with him, to leave my mother, leave the whole alchemy world. Just me and him. Could it really be over like that? Was it possible to pack up the whole world and put it behind us? Damn right it was, and the longer I went without seeing my mother, the more running away seemed like the better option.

With our skills in stones, we could make do anywhere. I closed my eyes for a second to picture us traveling, laughing, being alone for once. Away from it all. Did I really want to see Blane again? Did I really want to bring that man into the world?

“Your street.” Mark pointed ahead.

Bridget pulled on the hem of her shirt. Looking down at it, she sighed. “Maybe I can go to my house real quick and grab some clothes.”

“Nah,” Leo said. “We’d better stick together for now. Do you think your mom would let you walk in and then just leave again?”

Bridget crunched up her brow and pulled on her dirty shirt. Her hair still looked perfect and she was so beautiful, even all the dirt she was wearing somehow worked on her.

The clattering from the carts lessened as the boys pushed them onto the asphalt road. Leo and Mark seemed to be happy about not juggling the falling books, and we sped up down the street. We passed a few houses, finally arriving at my driveway.

My heart thumped in my chest. I hadn’t realized how nervous I’d be, staring at my old house. I saw my bedroom window, the front door Janet had painted red for some reason, and the perfectly maintained grass Nico always aerated over the summer.

“You ready?” Mark asked.

I nodded. Even with the nerves, I knew I was ready. I felt I had grown more in the two academies than I had in my entire life before. It was time to have those words with Janet, and even with Spencer.

Jackie stood next to me, arms crossed over her chest. “You have cable?”

I laughed. “Yes.”

“Good.”

I thought I heard a few words, like snippets of conversations coming from the house. My mom had taken the initial brunt for me and I was grateful. Janet was probably being nasty to her, but my mom would soften the transition for me. Maybe I could get the words out that I needed to say.

“Well, what are we waiting for, buttercup?” Jackie asked.

We gathered at the front porch, leaving the carts sitting in the driveway. Mark stayed at one side of me and Jackie at the other. It was the nudge I needed. I walked to the front door and wondered if I should knock. I raised my hand and then just turned the knob.

The family room looked much the same, but no one was there.

“Hello?” I said.

“In the kitchen,” Janet called.

Odd. She sounded so calm. I smiled and thought my mom had probably slipped her a stone or two. Or maybe she was just happy to finally be rid of me. She and Spencer could spend their days in the perfection of each other.

I glanced back. Leo and Brett had stayed behind us and were looking around the house with curiosity. Angela had stayed near the door and was glaring at Leo and Brett. The Red in her wouldn’t allow her to trust them. I knew the feeling well, but after all I’d seen and done, I didn’t feel any resentment toward Leo or any Blue, for that matter. They’d been trapped in a situation and fed a way of doing things that wasn’t right.

Mark rubbed my back. “You’ve got this.”

With Mark, Bridget, and Jackie next to me, I felt the strength to push open the kitchen door.

Janet was standing on the far side of the island. She was shaking, with tears flowing from her eyes, and I knew what I’d needed to tell her all along. I didn’t have hate for her anymore and I realized what she had actually done for me.

I needed to thank her.

For taking care of me, giving me a home to live in and space enough to deal with my Dad and Mom issues, keeping me with her even after all connections had been severed. She had a viper’s tongue, but her actions now showed me her true heart. She cared for me but hadn’t known how to show it. Seeing her crying over me made me want to cry.

Why was she still standing there, not moving?

I stepped farther into the kitchen and saw behind Janet a pair of fierce-looking people glaring at me.  Verity, and a man who had to be Axiom. Panic hit me when I saw Niles and my mom lying on the floor.

Mark fell to the floor like a plank of wood. Jackie and Bridget both were frozen with open mouths near the door. Leo looked stunned and was holding a stone in his hand.

“What did you do?” I asked Leo, but he just stood there, staring at Jackie.

“Thanks, son,” Verity said.

“No!” I dove to the floor and pulled at my pockets looking for stones. Mark’s frozen face stared at me and I wished I had listened to him. We should have run away from it all. I reached for his face, but a hand grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me to my feet.

Axiom faced me with pure disgust.

“You destroyed the Academy. Our Academy.”

He slapped me hard, and I fell against the island. The granite felt cold against my hot face. I whimpered and my eyes watered from the pain. I felt Axiom behind me, grabbing me by the waist. I struggled to get away, but he thrust me against the island, pinning me down.

“That’s enough,” Verity said.

He let go us my waist and backed away. I glanced at the front door, but it seemed so far away. I spotted Brett and Angela in the family room. Angela paced behind Brett and seemed to be having an argument with herself, while Brett stood there, watching. Bridget was lying on the floor.

Axiom grabbed Leo by the shirt, pulled him past me, and shoved him behind Verity.

Getting to a standing position, I tried to find some dignity. I sneered at Axiom as I straightened my shirt. I watched Janet shaking next to me. She looked frozen as well, but her eyes moved. I knew stones sometimes didn’t work the same on rubes; maybe the effects were less. It didn’t matter. All she needed to do was hear me if what I was about to do was the last thing I ever did.

I walked around the island and wrapped my arms around Janet, hugging her. Having her bony body next to mine felt foreign. I didn’t think we’d ever hugged before, but I knew she could hear me. “I love you,” I whispered in her ear, and let go.

Axiom and Verity stayed close together, next to the kitchen table. They were watching me eagle-eyed and I knew it’d be foolish to attempt anything. They had me outnumbered, surrounded, and worst of all, they had shaken my will to fight. They had taken out all of my friends, and worst of all, Leo had manipulated and used Jackie. Just as she’d gotten close to being happy, Leo had done this. I knew that in her frozen state, she was bleeding out in agony and I felt for her. I felt for all of them.

If we all died, at least it would be together.

“Go ahead. Get it over with,” I said.

Verity looked to Axiom, and he shrugged.

“Your mother used this same stone on me.” Verity snickered. “You probably made it for her, didn’t you?”

I didn’t respond.

“We’ve kept this stone locked up for a very long time, and now we finally get to use it.” Verity knelt down next to my mom and rolled her onto her side. “I want her to watch as we pluck every feather of information from that brain.”

Axiom grabbed me and I screamed. I struggled against his grip and tried to push him back but he held tight and squeezed hard. After I settled down, he petted the side of my face with his bare hand. “Now, now, my dearie, we get to see what’s in that pretty head of yours.”

Verity waved the stone neat my face.

“No!” I screamed until I felt the stone touch my neck. Then the fight left me and I felt blank, like a computer waiting to receive input.

The world felt like I was floating in it, able to see but not participate. I heard the questions and felt my mouth giving the responses, but I had no control over any of it. Questions about the other academy, questions about my mom, but most of the questions were about the philosopher’s stone. I spilled out all the information like a machine even as I screamed at myself to stop. I knew once I’d spilled all the information out for them, it’d be over, over for all of us. Even Janet would probably find her end.

I wanted to scream the air out of my lungs and pull my arms free, but nothing worked. Even as I struggled I heard myself telling them basic information about Blane and what he was to my mom. It wouldn’t be long before they asked the right question.

The struggle to get my body back left me weary and despondent. I closed my eyes and wondered if my body had closed its eyes as well. I took a deep breath and softened my thoughts. I had a chance. It had worked on Blane as he tried to take over my mind, and maybe it would work on my own mind. If I didn’t do something, we were all going to be dead soon.

“Does Blane know how to make the philosopher’s stone?” Verity asked.

My mouth responded and I knew they were getting close to
the
question.

“Brett?”

I thought I heard a yell from behind me, but the inferno I had started couldn’t be slowed, couldn’t be stopped, and as it filled me it felt as if it might burn me to ashes.

“Hurry,” Axiom said.

Something clattered in the room behind me.

“Where is this Blane, exactly?” Verity asked.

That was
the
question. I knew from being in Blane’s mind that he didn’t care who helped him get the stone; it only mattered that someone got to him. Verity and Axiom would be suitors as good as anyone else for him.

I went deep into my body and sparked the fire. It was a mixture I’d never thought to use and the second it filled me, I realized I had a power greater than I’d ever known. My anger and love for those around me swelled. I let both consume me.

Opening my eyes, I knew I was in my own head but hadn’t yet gotten total control. My mouth moved and formed the word
Ashwood
before I clamped it shut.

Verity looked past me to the ruckus in the other room. “Tell me!” She shook me, and her touch was what sent me over the edge.

“No!” I screamed. It erupted from my mouth and blasted Verity in the face. I sent all the energy I had left down my arms and into Verity’s hands. I wanted to break her. She screamed and shook with me. But my screams were of power and control. She was screaming from pain, and I felt all of my emotion traveling down my arms, breaking her.

Verity found a way to break free and fell backwards against the table.