Page 111 of Alchemy of Souls

He rubs the back of his neck. “You’re right.”

I can’t help but smile. “Can you repeat that? I’m not sure I heard you.”

He flashes me that confident smile again, moving closer. “I waswrong, Claws, and you were right,” he says, his eyes sweeping down my face to my lips.

“Must feel good to get that off your chest,” I say.

“The best.”

“You ready?” he asks.

I lift my chin. “I shouldn’t be, but I really am.”

Grayson extends his hand, palm up. And my betrayer of a stomach bottoms out. Touching Grayson after what he just said feels intimate. My pulse pounds, my breath catches, and every inch of me becomes aware of every inch of him.

A ghost of a smile flits across his lips, and as I slip my fingers into his, I feel that contact everywhere. On my neck and down my back, on my lips where his gaze keeps flitting.

His smile widens, probably because he’s scenting me, and I don’t break eye contact.

In reply, he calls his magic—he creates a thin vine with a single rose over one finger and a water droplet over his next. I feel a zing from where our hands meet each time he casts, almost like I was casting with him.

He creates a miniature of the wooden box I called for my entrance exam over his ring finger and I smile. And last, he casts an illusion of a lion paw with sharp claws.

I swear I experience the way he feels about me as he does. It’s as if I stepped into his heart for a brief moment and felt the tenderness there.

“Your turn,” he says in a whisper that skates across my skin.

I take a deep breath and call my magic, pulling from the nearby wood. I can feel his heartbeat through his palm. And by the way his eyes sparkle with mischief, I know he can feel it, too—our connection, something beyond our touch or magic, something that pulls at the very depths of us and winds us together.

Above my hand I form a tiny wooden dragon, no bigger than a quarter. While it’s the symbol of the Alchemy Guild, it’s also the animal Grayson formed for his entrance exam, a symbol of the many things that bind us. I pour how I feel about him into it, his humor and his confidence, his attractive mischief and the way I can’t stop watching him.

“Claws,” he says, breathless, and I can feel his surprise, but I also feel his attraction. And it’s so heady that I look at his lips.

Which is when the impossible happens—the Key appears in the air next to us.

Its iridescent wood gleams in the moonlight and the flowering vines on its handle flutter with an energy akin to excitement. Only this time, when I reach for it, it doesn’t disappear. The Key falls right onto my palm.

Before I can voice my astonishment, Sage bursts through the door.

She immediately spots the Key and her relief is visible. “Damien and a troop of Guardians were spotted in the woods about an hour’s trek from here. The Chancellor isn’t waiting until morning like we assumed. Mom’s headed back and I’ve been given orders for an emergency evacuation.”

The excitement I just felt is instantly replaced with dread. “Where will you go? What will you do?”

“We’ll figure it out. I only hope we can move everyone fast enough,” she says, and my fear for her and the others swells. All those children, all those families.

“I was planning on coming with you, but given the situation—” Sage says.

“Understood,” Grayson replies.

They share a long look, something I imagine means they’re both wishing each other luck and hoping the other doesn’t die. But neither of them says it. Grayson just nods and Sage lifts her chin before she turns and runs.

CHAPTER 53Eloise

By the time we arrive at the edge of campus, things are unusually quiet, which is both good for us and bad for Sage. It means most of the Guardians were probably deployed to the woods.

Grayson uses his wind spell to get us across the campus green in mere seconds. And when we ease open the door to the University, the pathway is clear. Most of the lights are extinguished since it’s well after curfew. And I wish more than anything I could check on Maggie. But I don’t know where she is for one, and if the Chancellor gets ahold of us before we reach the Archive Room, we’re done for.

We sprint through the hall, and peer around the corner. But as luck would not have it, we find our first Guardian—standing right in front of the training room door.