Page 105 of Alchemy of Souls

“Whittling,” Eloise replies like a challenge.

“Whittlinganimals,” Sage corrects her, and Eloise’s eyes widen. “Favorite knife?”

“The one with the bear handle,” Eloise answers, her eyebrows pushing together.

But instead of asking a third question, Sage removes her hand from her blade. “Shit,” she says more to herself than to us, and turns around, scrubbing her hands down her face.

“What the hell did I miss?” I ask the room, but no one answers me.

Sage crosses the tent and Eloise watches her every move. She stops in front of a folding table that has an old duffel bag on it.

“Charles was a good man,” Sage says plainly, bracing her hands on the wood with her back to us. “He was… a friend.”

“You want to try that again?” Eloise says. “Grandad wasnotfriends with the Lawless. I’d have known.”

“He made nearly half of the weapons in our American outpost,” Sage replies, and my eyebrows shoot up my forehead.

Well, that certainly took a turn.

“Bull,” Eloise says, her chest rising and falling quickly.

Sage unzips the duffel bag and shoves her hand in. Then she whips around and holds up a small hand-carved lion.

Eloise gasps.

“What—” I start.

But they both say, “Not now, Grayson,” and I’m wondering how I became the third wheel in this situation.

“Where did you get that?” Eloise demands, immediately moving toward Sage, the very person who was threatening to pull a blade on her.

“I grew up in the American outpost,” Sage says with a sigh. “I’d known Charles since I was three. I thought of him as a surrogate grandfather. He carved this for me.” Sage turns it over in her hand. “Charles always told me that this little lion had a friend,” she says, and Eloise goes very still. “One that lived far away but had the same heart. One she might—”

“Meet some day if the wind blew just right and magic was willing,” Eloise finishes, her eyes glistening.

Sage sniffles and crosses the room, zipping it safely back into her bag. She swipes a cup off the table, downs the drink in one go, and clinks it onto the wood.

“I’ll give you a few minutes to talk,” Sage says, walking toward the door. But I suspect it’s as much for her as it is for us. “We don’t have much time, though. The sun is setting and by morning we’ll need to be packed and ready to move in case the Chancellor finds us. So, say your piece and meet me outside.” She leaves the tent without a backward glance.

For a long moment Eloise and I stare at each other, neither of us knowing what to say.

But I settle on, “I found Maggie.”

Her eyes widen and that reality seems to crash over her. “Maggie,” she breathes, her gaze moving to the door.

“I carried her to the healers’ hut,” I tell her. “They were working on her when I left and she was insulting me, which I take as a good sign.” I offer her a small smile. “Also, she said to tell you…nothing less.”

Eloise’s eyes fill and she nods, like it’s the exact thing she needed to hear. “Thank you for helping Maggie. And thank you for finding me.”

Only now I’m even more confused. “Hang on. Aren’t you going to yell at me for getting you into this mess? I deserve it.”

“Actually, as messed up as everything is right now, I’m glad I’m in this mess. Because I just learned that Grandad helped the Lawless, that he believed in them.” She lifts her chin. “And if he did, then I do, too.”

“Even after what Sage just did?” I ask.

“She kept calling me Mage. She thought I might have had something to do with his death. She was defending him.”

I nod, not knowing if I could be as forgiving.