Alchemist Academy: Book 1 (8 page)

“A life stone. The president of the Academy, whoever that may be at the moment, will either have one, or will have access to the ingredients to make one. You need to get this stone if we have any chance of saving Mark.”

My mouth hung open. Her eyes twitched as she watched the doorway and me.

“Is it that serious? He seems fine. I mean, I’ve seen him reaching for his stomach a few times but nothing concerning looking.”

“It won’t be long before he starts feeling the stomach pain again. It will come in quick bursts and then leave. But those burst will increase in frequency and it won’t be too much longer after that when we have no hope.” Tears held in her eyes. “I’m afraid there isn’t anything I can do to stop it this time. What used to work doesn’t have the same lasting effect now because he’s grown resistant to it.” She glanced back at the doorway. “The life stone is the only thing that can cure him completely. You have to get it.” She shook me.

My heart lumped up in my throat as her words soaked in.

“And you can’t tell Mark. He has no idea how bad it is. If he knew….” She looked panicked and pleading with me. “I can’t believe he has the gift.”

“It’s been more than a minute,” Darius called from the dining room.

“Get the stone and get out of there.” She must have seen the total panic on my face. “Listen, I’ve met many young men and women around the world, so I can say with total certainty, you’re something special and they’ll notice you very quickly.” She chuckled. “You’re going to move up very fast and get access to the president.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Darius stood at the doorway. “We need to get going.”

Ms. Duval pulled me closer to her and whispered in my ear, “Please help me with this. Help
him
.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded in agreement. If I could find something to save Mark, I’d find it. Ms. Duval let go of my shirt and motioned for me to go.

Darius waved me over and I followed him back to the dining room. Mark looked at the floor before looking up and locking eyes with his mom.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to become an experiment to you. I wanted to be your son,” he said.

Ms. Duval took in a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

I stared at Mark, looking at his body and trying to figure out the illness his mom had mentioned. He glanced at me a couple of times. My blank stare did little to keep his gaze on me, but it gave me a chance to look him over, to study this new person standing in front of me. He had the same gift I did, but he’d kept it hidden from all of us until now. Why come out now?

“I want to go with her,” Mark demanded.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Darius said.

This couldn’t get any better. Not only was I getting away from this hell, I had Mark coming with me. I bounced next to him with excitement.

“So, do you have a bus? Oh, are we flying? I need to pack.” I blurted the words out and realized how much I hated traveling. I hadn’t been on a plane since I was a little girl.

“Where we’re going, you can only reach by portal stone.”

Ms. Duval jerked from her stupor and rounded the table. “Why a portal stone? When I was there, it was a simple trip by car.”

“Things have changed greatly over the last few years, Ms. Duval. We take great precautions now with our locations.”

“Dark alchemists?”

He nodded.

She turned to Mark with tears in her eyes, studying him with a quivering chin. She moved forward and hugged him. “I forgive you, my boy. I’m so proud of you.”

I watched the exchange and thought of my dad. He might not be so understanding about me going to a mysterious academy almost no one knew even existed, but I hoped I could be back by the time he got home in a few months. I’d have to get a note to him or call him after I got to the Academy. I thought of Spencer and Janet for a second, and it was a second more than they deserved. The only reason they would ever know I was missing was that they wouldn’t be able to fill their daily quota of hatred. I wouldn’t miss them at all, but someone might notice I was gone.

“Darius, what about my stepfamily?”

“We will notify them that you have been accepted to a private academy for the rest of the year.”

I laughed. “Well, that will piss them off real good. If they think I’m enjoying myself, they’ll do everything they can to stop it.”

Darius rubbed his chin. “I will visit them personally to make sure they don’t take notice of your absence.” He paused. “Are you two ready to go?”

“Yes,” I said.

Mark nodded and stood next to me. Ms. Duval held his hand and kissed it. “You be safe.”

“I will.”

Darius rummaged through his sack and plucked out a purple stone with black streaks. “I wasn’t expecting three, but the stone will still work. We just all need to touch it at the same moment.” He took one glove off and held out his hand, flat and palm up. “Place your hand on the edge of mine.”

I put my hand, sideways, next to his. Mark did the same. I watched Darius’s gloved hand drop the purple ball into our formed hands. I yelped as I felt as if I was falling through the floor. My hair wisped around my face. All three of us crashed together on a hard floor.

“Get up. We’re here,” Darius said.

My head swayed and I stumbled. Mark grabbed my arm and helped me stay on my feet. I looked around the small room. The ceiling felt low. I could touch it if I wanted, and there was only a small wooden door on one of the four walls in the square room.

“Expecting something with more grandeur?” Darius said, seeing my confusion.

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t some tiny room with a door.

“Seems about right,” Mark said as he scraped the ceiling with his hand.

He and I had different expectations of the Academy. I guess I’d thought of a university campus or something similar. I wanted to get out of this room. There had to be more.

“Let me explain a few things to you.” Darius’ tone had changed from the softly spoken words back in Mark’s dining room to this stern tone on the verge of demanding. “You are here for one reason and that is to make stones. We will teach you everything you need to know and provide you with all the materials. You will not be coddled. Nor will you be treated nicely. You will need the hate, the anger, to create these stones. Priscilla will decide which side you’ll be on. Once your side has been determined, you are to do everything in your power to anger the other side. You will be doing them a disservice if they don’t hate your guts. Do you understand?”

I breathed in deep and felt my heart in my throat. I’d thought about grand halls and camaraderie with my fellow gifted people. What he had just described sounded like one side torturing another for the sole purpose of creating stones. He had to be exaggerating. It couldn’t be that cruel.

Mark held me with one arm and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I won’t let you out of my sight.”

It actually made me feel better and I was glad to have Mark next to me … a familiar face. “Thanks,” I said.

“You have to stay here until Priscilla can make her rounds.” Darius opened the door.

“Wait. We have to stay in here? What if we have to go to the bathroom?”

“I don’t care. Hold it, piss yourself, whatever. Oh and welcome to the Academy.” Darius slammed the door on the way out.

Mark rushed to the door and pulled on the black steel handle, shaking the door.

“Great,” he said, pacing next to the door. “I knew I had a bad feeling about this place. The way the guy looked at you back home, as if you were a thing.”

I hadn’t caught that look, but I hadn’t been looking for it. “I’m willing to give this place a chance, Mark. It can’t be that much worse than home.”

He laughed. “I told you that you were going down a dark road with this stuff. I’ve seen how it controls every action my mom makes. It consumes her.”

“Me? What about you? You lied to your mom, and you lied to me. You have the gift just like I do.”

Mark sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Everything I did was to protect her, to protect myself. I’ve watched her use up people in the past. I didn’t want her using me up. I think the only reason she even had me was to have an alchemist in her grasp.”

“How did you hide it?”

“It’s not easy. Oh, and Darius is lying about something.”

“What?”

“He talks about anger and hatred as if they’re the only way to make these things. It may be the easiest way, but there’s another way. Any emotion … happiness, jealousy, love, compassion … is just as powerful, but harder to control and push into the mix.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I’ll be summoning love into my mix.”

“You’d be surprised. I think about my dad sometimes.”

I thought about my mom. All I had left were whispers from another life. I’d thought I was happy then. I was sure my dad was, but I didn’t have an overwhelming sensation of love. There were hints of anger and questions.
Why did she leave me when I was just a young girl? How could she do that to me?
I needed her.

Breathing heavily through my nose, I put my hand over my mouth. I took in the small room and even gave a go at the door. There didn’t appear to be any way out. How long would they keep us in here?

“For what it’s worth, I’m glad we came together,” Mark said.

“Yeah, me too. I’m a bit claustrophobic and if you weren’t here, I think I’d be freaking out.”

“You can lean on me anytime.” He smiled.

I looked at the floor and felt the heat in my stomach again. Being alone with Mark, in this strange place, made me look to him even more for support. It was just me and him. I wanted to hug him right then, to wrap my arms around his waist and place my face against his chest. I’d let him hold me, and then we could face the Academy together. But I didn’t hug him. I just stood on the other side of the room and looked at his profile, waiting for this Priscilla person.

A knock on the door interrupted my staring. I straightened up and tried to look proper, not knowing who was going to be on the other side.

The door opened, revealing a small woman. Her black, straight hair brushed her shoulders, while her firm look landed on each of us. I swallowed and looked away from her gaze.

“I’m Priscilla. Come closer, young man.” She twisted her finger at Mark.

He raised both eyebrows and walked closer to the petite woman.

She grabbed his hand and rubbed one of her fingers over his palm. “You haven’t worked a day in your life, have you?”

“I like to think I keep soft hands for the ladies.” He winked at her.

She smiled and curled his hand into a fist before pushing it back to him. Her attention turned to me as I backed into a corner of the room, holding my hands behind my back. She motioned for me to come closer. I looked to Mark, and he shrugged. Moving forward, Priscilla took my hand and rubbed the line creasing across my palm. She spent much more time inspecting mine than she had Mark’s.

“This is difficult,” Priscilla said. “Darius said this one”—she pointed at me—“rated a nine on the test.” She faced Mark. “While you rated a one.” She tapped her finger on her chin. “We rarely have pairs, and if we do, we split them up. But I think the two of you in the same house would be most prudent, most prudent indeed.” She shoved my hand back to me and I rubbed it, holding it close to my body.

“I’m not going anywhere without her,” Mark declared.

“I agree. I think you should be with her. It may increase the productivity of both of you here. You will be in the house of Red.”

“Okay, great. What does that mean?” Mark said.

“Your house leads with explain everything to you, or they will just mess with you. I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“That seems to be a theme here,” I remarked.

Priscilla smiled. “Good. That kind of thing is exactly what gets the other side going. You may do well here.”

“When can we meet the president of the Academy?” I glanced at Mark’s stomach.

Priscilla laughed and then bunched her face up in a question. “A student has never asked that before we’ve even left the portal room. She will see you, if you’re worth seeing, and that is all there is to it.”

I nodded and watched the woman leave the room.

“You coming?” she said from the adjacent hall.

“Come on,” Mark said, and I followed him out of the door.

I thought maybe outside the room would be a grand hall of sorts, or at least something besides a tight hallway. The ceiling seemed a bit higher, but the space felt even more closed in with it being so narrow. I couldn’t even stretch my arms out if I wanted. Cracks ran down the rock walls and I tripped over a raised paver in the floor.

Mark turned while still walking behind Priscilla. “Not exactly the Taj Mahal.”

I gave a small smile and tried not to think about the ceiling crashing in on us. Lamps hung on the walls and lit the hallway. I kept my eyes on Mark’s back and knew we’d eventually have to get somewhere that wasn’t a freaking coffin.

I felt a breeze before seeing the doorway. Behind it looked like open space and I wanted to push Mark and Priscilla out of the way to get to it. I nudged Mark and he tripped forward, narrowly recovering before crashing into Priscilla. He looked back at me and walked sideways. He took my hand and held it in his.

“A tad claustrophobic?” he asked.

I shook his hand from mine, not wanting to feel more restricted in any way. “No, I just don’t like small spaces.” I looked past him to the opening at the end of the hall.

Mark stopped and allowed me to rush past him through the doorway. I took a deep breath. The room was huge, and the ceiling was lined with beige tile work. A street ran down the middle of the long space, divided by a wooden fence. On each side, three stories of windows with doors lined the walls in even increments. Houses were built into the walls and touched the curved ceiling above. Each house connected to the next, and the only difference from one side of the street to the other was the color of the doors. On one side, the doors were painted red, and on the other, blue.

A few people were loitering around the fronts of the houses, but steered clear of the fence, choosing to hug the wall on their side. As soon as people noticed us, they walked closer, forming a small crowd. I eyed the Red side, studying the people who were about my age. They were wearing regular clothes, but each had a piece of red cloth somewhere on their bodies. Many were wearing it on their wrists, while others were wearing it around their necks. The group on the other side had the same thing, but were wearing blue cloth.

Priscilla stood still, looking from one side to the other, trying to create drama. I’d seen Bridget pull this same kind of stuff when she walked into class and stood at the front, like she wasn’t sure where her desk was, while really she was presenting herself. The thought of never dealing with the Dolls again made me euphoric.

“We have a nine,” she said as she gestured to me, “and a one.”

Chatter filled both houses and most eyes were on me and then Priscilla.

Priscilla raised both hands and stared at the Blue houses. “They will both be going to the house of Red.” Priscilla marched toward the Red side.

The Blues hissed and booed while the Reds cheered on our arrival. A young woman bounced over with excitement. Her gaze lingered on Mark for a while. She’d probably be swooning over him next. I rolled my eyes, thinking it was hard to get away from high school crap. But I was wrong. She ran toward me, brushing past Mark to grab my hands.

“The second I saw you exiting the hall, I
knew
you were Red all the way. I’m so excited to have you in our house!” She jumped up and down and squealed.

Mark looked at us with a big smile, shaking his head.

“Hi, I’m Allie and this is Mark.”

“Oh, how rude of me. I’m Jackie, house leader, and it’s so nice to meet you, Allie.” She walked past me a couple of steps, toward the Blues.

“See what we’ve got here, Blues? A true Red. You can all suck it!” She gestured to her crotch and screamed so loud my ears crackled. Then she gave the Blues double middle fingers.

Adjusting her hair, Jackie came back to me. “Follow me.” She nodded toward the Red houses.

“She’s got issues,” Mark whispered to me as we followed her.

“Don’t use any hate on another house member, Mark. That’s one of the big rules here.” Priscilla glanced back at him.

“Yeah, Mark,” I teased. “Don’t be so hateful.”

“There you go, Allie. That’s right, you save all hate for the Blues or the stones, never another Red. You are brothers and sisters on this side of the fence,” Jackie said.

Priscilla walked next to us. “Well, I’m sure Jackie will take care of you now. Good luck, you two.” She left and walked down the fence line.

“Thanks?” Mark said to her back.

“She’s a strange one.” Jackie pointed at Priscilla. “Don’t worry, her kind go to the Black house. The lifers, as we call them.”

“The professors?” Mark said.

Jackie laughed. “Some of them call themselves that.”

I saw Mark taking in everything around him and I tried to match his curiosity. Each floor of the buildings had similar windows, but many had different blinds or decorations on them. I followed the line all the way to the end, about the length of a football field. At the end, it appeared to open up into a larger space.