Page 68 of Alchemy of Souls

“Well, I certainly thought so,” she says, crossing her legs and leaning back on her hands. “After you didn’t show at the meeting point in America, I figured I owed you a jump scare. I think I went too easy, actually.”

“You know why I couldn’t meet you after the raid. My uncle literally knocked me out with a spell. Also, we need to make this quick,” I tell her. “Eloise is downstairs.”

“She’shere?” she says, standing up, her light eyes looking even brighter in contrast with her warm brown complexion. “The girl who called the Key.”

I push my hair back, scenting her intense curiosity.

“Is it true? Can she call the Key, Gray?” she asks quickly, and I don’t love how eager she is. Sage gravitates toward a challenge as much as I do.

“It’s true,” I say. “But not on command. I’m working on it.”

“And?” she says.

“And nothing yet,” I say. “I need time.”

“We don’t have time,” she replies, and I get a whiff of her frustration. “The Chancellor took out one of our transport trucks two nights ago. Half our food supply was in there and four of our people. We need that Key to tear down the wards.”

I rub my forehead. “I’m moving as fast as I possibly can. But we don’t even know if the Key is capable of that. All we know for sure is that it opens the Archive Room.”

“And how do you think that tear in the wards got there in the first place?” she demands, and I go completely still.

“Sage,” I say slowly like a warning.

“Liam and I didn’t create that tear, if that’s what you’re thinking. But we managed to widen it a little with the Key,” she says, and it feels like I’m falling even though I’m standing still.

“And you never thought to tell me that?” I say too quickly.

“I made a promise to Liam—” she says stubbornly, but I cut her off.

“Liam isdead,” I say with way more emotion than I intend, and we both still. “How many times did Liam call the Key, Sage?”

She stares at me. “It only happened when we were together. Five times by my count. But when you said it happened that night you were with him and I wasn’t—”

“It only happened when you were together?” I repeat, that piece of information snagging my attention.

“Like I said, that’s what I thought,” she says, glancing toward the window.

We don’t often talk about Liam, and neither of us is good at it.

Still looking out the dark window, she says, “Flora wants her.”

My thoughts of Liam and the Key are suddenly cut short. “What did you just say?”

“The girl—”

“Eloise,” I correct her.

“Bring her to us,” she says flatly. “I know from experience the Key’s unstable. It could disappear the moment it’s away from her. We don’t just need the Key, we need the person who can call it.”

“Eloise hates the Lawless. She won’t call the Key for you,” I say.

Sage gives me an unwavering look and I can scent her determination. “Yeah well, she doesn’t have to like us. She’ll see reason. Everyone has people and things they care about and she’s no exception.”

I suddenly see everything she’s saying in a new light. This is why my uncle sent Eloise to University. This is why he’s pretending to give us space. He not only plans on taking possession of the Key, but of her—indefinitely.

“You hate my uncle, and yet you’re acting like him,” I challenge.

“First of all,” she fires back, “this is my mom’s order. But if you’re asking me if I agree? Then yeah, I do. I wager I’m just as capable or more of getting her to call the Key than you are. You know what it’s like out there for us. You know how much we’ve lost and how many people we’re responsible for. While you sit pretty in your castle, my people suffer. This girl could change that.”