Page 77 of Alchemy of Souls

“Grayson?” Eloise says, her eyebrows knit in confusion.

There is a glint of steel by the tree in the front yard and my gaze whips past the railing. Sure enough, there’s Damien. The prick has the nerve to grin.

“Eloise!” I hear Maggie yell from across the deck and I know we have seconds before she reaches us.

“We gotta gonow,” I say.

“Wait,” Eloise says as I reach for her hand. “I promised Maggie—”

“Damien is in the yard. We have no time.”

Eloise looks at her friend, currently pushing through the crowd to get to her, and hesitates.

“We just called the Key in public. You don’t want Maggie involved in this, believe me. Definitely not in front of Damien,” I say, and even though I can smell her deep conflict, she trusts me enough to follow.

We race down the steps of the deck and I spellwork a rough illusion behind us to camouflage our exit with the lawn. It’s not done with finesse, but it’ll work in the dark.

The moment we cross Adrien’s yard a deep male voice says, “Headed to campus?”

Eloise frowns. “You’re the Guardian who came to my house.”

Damien gives her a crooked smile. “And now I’m the Guardian escorting you to the Chancellor.”

Yup. There it is. We’re screwed.

The walk back to University is silent. And I spend the whole of it trying to come up with a plan. That kiss threw me off my game and we somehow accidentally called the Key.

We follow Damien to the Chancellor’s Wing, and he raps his knuckles on my uncle’s office door.

“Give me a minute alone with my uncle,” I say to Eloise.

“Excuse me?” she replies with a slight edge to her voice.

But as the office door swings open I can’t take a chance, so I walk in and cast a locking spell just as she says, “Wait—”

I can scent her frustration through the wood. But I have no choice, I can’t have her revealing the things I’ve purposefully omitted—like the fact that I have to be touching her to call the Key.

My uncle sits behind his desk with a stony facade.

“I know you know,” I say without sitting down. I don’t plan on staying long.

“You have no idea what I know,” he says calmly.

“You have eyes everywhere,” I say, repeating back his favorite threat.

I can scent his satisfaction—either Damien had been following us without me noticing, which is unlikely, or someone at that party told him about the Key.

“You called the Keyin public, Grayson,” he says. “Sloppy. Very sloppy.”

“Eloise’s emotions are unpredictable,” I reply like a statement of fact.

“And?” he says.

“And I’m working on it.”

His eyes narrow slightly. “How did you call it? I want details. Facts, Grayson.”

What he wants is something he can replicate. So, I tell him the one thing he can’t. “I did what you said. I seduced her,” I say, hating every word. “I just didn’t expect it to work that quickly.”