Page 67 of Alchemy of Souls

She looks startled by the question, but then she smiles. “Cozy,” she says, taking a seat at the small table. She kicks off her boots and tucks one foot under her. “We live in a small stone cottage with two tiny bedrooms that Gran, Mom, my little sister, and I share. Webasically live on top of each other. And my family is loud. Gran and my sister in particular. You should see game night. Maggie usually sleeps over and I swear they can hear us taunting each other two blocks away.” She laughs, pouring tea into the porcelain cups. “But my favorite part about my house is the porch.”

“Why’s that?” I ask, enjoying hearing her talk.

“When I was a little girl,” she says, picking up a cookie, “I used to sit on it with my gran and grandad for hours. Gran would tell stories and Grandad would carve me little animals made of wood. He’d use magic to polish them, but he did the carving with a knife. And what’s funny about you calling me Claws is that there was this little lion that was always my favorite. He used to tell me stories about it.” She sighs like her heart is still heavy from missing him.

“You said you live by the edge of the wards?” I ask, trying to understand.

“We’re on the bordering block,” she says, lifting her tea to blow on it. “Strict curfew rules. It used to bum me out when I was younger that my mom would call me in before sunset. I don’t want that for my little sister. I just wish we didn’t have to always be so on guard for the Lawless. That I could go to Maggie’s house after dinner and not worry about it, or go see a movie. It’s actually why I got so mad at you last night.” She looks up at me.

“I’m listening,” I say, and it must be the right thing to say because she gives me a small nod.

“I was mad that you lied to me,” she says. “But in truth, I get it. Who wants to admit to having a phone when they’re forbidden on campus. Only it was more than that. I was mad that you and your friends have cell phones that your uncleallows. Something I wish more than anything I might have had to talk to Maggie on all those nights I couldn’t leave my house. I didn’t even know a closed-circuitspell existed for tech, not that I’d be able to afford it if I did.” She pauses. “I know it probably sounds dumb to you. But it’s why I want to be a Mage so badly. I don’t want my family to be scared all the time. And well, I just want a little bit of freedom.”

Her words hit me like a baseball bat to the head. Suddenly her disappointment about the party takes on a whole new light. “The party at Adrien’s—”

She looks down at her cookie. “I know we can’t go,” she says, cutting me off. “I just wish…”

“We could?” I say for her.

She nods.

“Then we’re going,” I say definitively, because now I’m mad, too. Pissed on her behalf and feeling like a total idiot for not considering how flippantly I spoke about my cell phone or any of my freedoms. I’m frankly floored that she has room for wonder over my stupid house. If I were her, I’d be setting this place on fire.

Her eyes flit up to mine. “We don’t have time.”

“So?” I say, not caring. I want her to have this small victory.

“How can we justify it?” she asks.

“The same way we justify sleeping. Because there’s only so much you can do in a day. The mind can only absorb so much, and magic isn’t bottomless. We’ll read poetry. We’ll go to the party. Andafter, we’ll experiment with spells,” I say, and almost believe it’s logical. Almost.

“Yes,” she says, brightening. “I mean, that makes sense. We should do that.” She glances at the bookshelf enthusiastically. “Let’s get reading.”

CHAPTER 34Grayson

Books are spread around us in the library and there are remnants of our dinner and the homemade ice cream that followed, which Eloise gasped over and insisted on thanking the chef for. The old man scratched his bald head and blushed the shade of an apple while she went on about how talented he is and how much her little sister would love him.

I stretch my arms above my head on the couch. “That’s it for me, Claws. I need to jump in the shower. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a headache from this shit.”

She rolls her eyes at me like I’m ridiculous, but the corners of her mouth lift. “Brachan’s poetry is beautiful. I don’t mind reading it at all.”

“You’ll have to explain it to me, then, because I’m clearly missing it,” I say. “But not now, because I have to go shower if we’re going to make this party. Do you need to—”

“Nope, I showered this morning,” she says, from where she sits on the window seat with a pile of books.

“I’ll be down shortly,” I tell her, and she nods without looking up.

I take the stairs two at a time, looking at my watch as I go. It’s 9:28. I’m right on schedule.

I swing open my bedroom door, and it automatically locksbehind me and enables a soundproofing spell. I move swiftly to the window I left open, peering out at the dark forest beyond the edge of the yard. Nothing moves in the distance, there is no sound other than the wind in the trees, but all of a sudden, I scent amusement.

I whip around, tensing, only to find Sage sitting on my bed. She’s dressed in her usual cargo pants and fingerless gloves for climbing.

I hate being taken by surprise and she knows that.

“You should see your face,” she says with a laugh. I swear she’s the girl version of me in every way—the daughter of the head of the Lawless, gifted in that she can not only do all four magics but do them exceptionally well, and confident to a questionable degree.

I run my hand over my face. “Hilarious.”