Page 98 of Alchemy of Souls

“She’s okay. My mom is alive,” she says into my shirt, and I smile. I’d told her it was a trick, and while I’d hoped that it was, I honestly wasn’t sure. My uncle has certainly done worse.

She sniffles and pulls away, wiping her eyes.

“You could have talked to her if you wanted,” I say.

She shakes her head. “If your uncle is monitoring their phones, it could have put them and you at risk. I don’t know what you use this phone for, but I’m assuming you don’t want him to know about it.”

Her words hit hard. No one has really considered me or cared what happened to me that way since Liam.

“I don’t know what it took for you to do this for me, but I know it was a lot,” she says, her voice calmer than it’s been all day, but what I scent on her nearly knocks me right out of the tree—affection. “You had to tell me things that were hard to say and you’re trusting me with a very, very big secret. I just need you to know it means everything to me that I got to check on my family.”

I look at my boots, not sure what to say. The only thing I know for certain is that she deserves a hell of a lot more than my half truths. “Why didn’t you tell my uncle about last night? About the spells and the shimmers.”

“Honestly?” she says, turning around to climb down. I follow her. “I just didn’t love him knowing it happens when we touch. It felt…” She hesitates as her boots drop to the forest floor. “Too personal.”

I land beside her and lean my shoulder against the tree.

“What are you doing?” she asks when I make no attempt to walk back.

“Talking,” I say.

“About?”

“About truth,” I say, and her eyes widen slightly. “Ask me a question, anything you want.”

“Anything?” she confirms like she can’t quite believe it. “Okay, who’s Mrs. Kelly and why are you so close with her?”

I smile. She’s going easy on me. “She used to be my family’s chef when I was a kid.”

“That’s it?”

“My mom fired her and Liam gave her the money to start that café,” I continue.

She smiles. “Liam sounds like he was an amazing person. How did he discover the ward tear in the first place?”

“He never told me,” I say, but my pulse kicks up as she inches closer to my secrets.

“Did you ever think about telling someone?” she asks, and I know what she’s going to say next. “What if the Lawless find it?”

Here we go. “I can’t tell anyone, Eloise,” I say plainly, leaning into her question instead of running from it. “Because not every magic user lives inside the wards. And they suffer from shortages. Like your gran, they need medicines and supplies. Access to magical plants that won’t grow outside the wards. Food.”

“And you use the tear to what? Give them these things?” she asks, half horrified and half in awe.

“As much as I can without my uncle noticing,” I say.

“Why don’t they just come back? Why don’t they return to the safety of the wards?” she asks.

“Because my uncle won’t let them,” I say.

She gasps. “Are they Laborers? I mean, people who refused to go into the Labor Guild?”

“Some of them,” I tell her. “Some were born outside the wards.”

“Oh, Gray, that’s horrible. How do you even know them? I mean, how did you discover that they existed?”

“I know them because my brother used to date a girl on the other side,” I say, my pulse now in a full sprint. But I’m not backing down from this.

“And he sent you to that tree to what? Meet her after he died?” she guesses.