The Catalyst of Corruption (The Final Formula Series, Book 4) (29 page)

“
You
told Ian to leave? Why?”

“This is part of it.” I picked up the old journal from his workbench and walked over to her. “Read this.” I shoved the journal into her hands.

She opened the front cover. “It's Ian's journal. The one we found in the catacombs.”

“Yes. That's what your ghost friend led us to.”

“Why?”

“Blake said this ghost was a hospital patient. I think she was a patient at the insane asylum that once sat where Music Hall now stands.” I held her gaze. “I think Ian took her from the asylum.”

“What?”

“Read the journal. Then you'll understand.” I walked to the coatrack and took down my jacket.

“Where are you going?”

“I've got an errand to run.”

“I'm worried about you.”

“Just read that. You'll see.”

I pulled on my jacket and hurried from the lab before she could stop me. Twenty minutes later, Bart the lich was letting me in the back door of Neil's lab.

Ignoring him, I walked to the room Neil used as a lab and got busy making one of the former autopsy tables my own. A portal shimmered open a few minutes later and I tensed, but only Neil stepped through. Great, the bastard knew how to travel.

“Just make yourself at home.” Neil smiled.

“I did.” I turned back to my work. “Where are these ashes you claimed to have?”

He studied me.

“Well?” I demanded.

“What's gotten into you?” He straightened. “Did you take the Formula?”

I frowned. “No.”

“Then… what?”

“There are answers here. Answers I want. And if I have to use you to get them, so be it. You're using me, so we're even.”

“Glad we got that straight.” He still looked amused.

“So, are you going to help me, or are you just going to stand there and piss me off?”

Neil grinned. “Welcome back, Amelia.”

Chapter 25

T
he blaring of my alarm
clock jerked me from a dreamless sleep, and I slapped the nightstand until I found the offending appliance and silenced it. I rolled onto my back and lay there staring at the ceiling, trying to get my bearings. A slow smile spread across my face as I remembered the night before. I had worked at Neil's lab until almost three in the morning, and we were making incredible progress. And with each advancement, I was getting closer to curing Rowan.

Neil had lied about the samples he had. The only ashes suitable to our purposes had been a few grams of a fifty-year-old sample. We ran out of ashes after a couple of failed attempts to purify them. Neil had been able to sense the necromancy even after purification, so we decided to approach it from the other direction. We would capture the prima materia in its pure form. I had a formula developed and ready to implement. But I wasn't so sure I was ready for the step that followed.

I rubbed both hands over my face. Had I really run Ian off? I still believed that I had done the right thing. I couldn't trust him. But that didn't ease the ache in my heart.

I sat up and glanced down at myself. I hadn't bothered to change into my pajamas before falling into bed, but at least I had removed my shoes. A slim pink line marked my wrist where Henry's knife had struck. I flexed my fingers. No pain accompanied the movement. The Final Formula to the rescue again.

I shuffled off to the bathroom, and after liberally splashing my face with cold water, I considered myself awake enough to venture to the kitchen. As I stepped into the hall, I noticed that the front room was dark. It was only 7:00 a.m., but Elysia was usually up by now, and most mornings, hard at work getting the rest of us breakfast.

Concerned that the journal might have hit her harder than I expected, I tapped on her bedroom door. It wasn't latched and swung inward at my light knock.

“Ely?” I called softly.

“Shh.” The voice was soft—and male.

I nudged the door open and was shocked to find James curled up beside Elysia in her bed. He lay on top of the covers still clothed in his typical sweats and T-shirt, his alert green eyes on me.

Carefully, so as not to wake her, he slid from the bed then moved to the door, shooing me back so he could exit. He pulled the door closed until it touched, but didn't latch, then waved me toward the living room.

“Where were you?” he demanded before I could ask why he was here.

“Working. Why? What happened?”

“You chase Ian off, then leave her here alone?”

“I—”

“You could have at least called me. And to top it off, you gave her that journal?”

“She deserved to know what he did to her.”

“Maybe, but you left her alone to read it?”

I frowned. “It hit her that hard?”

He raked a hand through his already tousled hair. “How did you think it would affect her? Ian might annoy the crap out of her, but the fact remains that he seemed to care about her personally. Now she thinks that he was just doing it to atone for his sins.”

“James—”

“What are you working on that's so damn important?”

“A cure.”

A knob rattled and Elysia's door opened. “Addie?” She stepped into the hall.

James sighed, and I could hear the longing in it. Even rumpled from sleep, Elysia still looked good.

“I'm sorry,” I said as soon as she joined us. “I shouldn't have left you alone.”

“I'm a big girl.” She looked me over. “Where did you go?”

“I was working on something.” I glanced at James. “I would prefer to keep the particulars to myself until I get it figured out.”

“You're doing something you shouldn't.”

“Aren't I always?” I winked to make it a joke. I felt guilty about keeping her—and James—in the dark, but I knew it would start a fight if I told the truth. They hated Neil—with good reason.

“Well, I guess I should get breakfast going so you can fuel up for your next nefarious adventure,” Elysia said to me.

“I've said this before, but you don't have to cook for me.”

Elysia shrugged. “I like to cook. It's… relaxing.” She reached out and briefly touched James's stomach. “Are you staying?”

“I—” he began.

“Of course he's staying,” I said. “Rowan's in the hospital, so I'm sure no one will be at the Elemental Offices today. Besides, James would be a moron to miss your cooking.” I looked up at him. “Are you a moron?”

The corner of his mouth curled. “Sometimes.”

“But not this morning, right?” I asked.

“Not this morning,” he agreed.

Elysia gave us a smile. “Let me comb my hair, and I'll get started.” She hurried off to the bathroom.

“Addie,” James said.

“She needs you. I'm glad to see you've stopped being a moron.”

He took a deep breath and suddenly straightened. “You smell of death.”

“What?”

He inhaled again, leaning closer. “A corpse long dead. Dried decay and… ashes?”

He had just described Neil's lich servant and our experiments. Dear God, how good was James's sense of smell? Maybe I should have taken a shower.

“Where
were
you last night?”

“I told you. I'm working on a cure for Elysia and Rowan.”

“Elysia
and
Rowan?” James asked.
“
Their ailments are two completely different things.”

“No, they're not. Both of them are being killed by their respective magics.” I reached out and gripped his arm. “This is big, James. I really think I'm on the verge of a major breakthrough. Something that will change the way we look at alchemy… and magic.”

“Yet you refuse to tell me anything about it.”

“Trust me?”

He held my gaze. “Always.”

The honest agreement made me uneasy. I prayed I wouldn't let him down.

“But that doesn't mean I'm not worried about you. And I don't know why you feel you need to hide it from me. I could help you. I want to help you.”

“And you will, just not now. I have a feeling you're going to be the key to this.”

“You're protecting me, again.”

“I guess so.” I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I need to go check on my supplies. I may need to make an ingredient run.” I figured I might as well lay the footer for my next excuse. I had promised to meet Neil at his lab this afternoon. We were getting so close, I wouldn't be able to stay away now.

“Ely said you ran Ian off.”

I had started to turn away and stopped. “Yes.”

“Are you sure that was wise? If he goes to his brother, we'll have two extremely powerful necromancers to contend with.”

“I'm sure that won't happen.” I had been of the opposite opinion yesterday, but now, having slept on it, I wasn't so sure.

“Without you, Livie, and Ely to watch over, what does he have?”

I frowned. I hadn't thought of it like that. “He lied to me, to us,” I said.

“He did that frequently.”

“He took the journal from Ely's pocket when you guys first returned from the catacombs.”

“Are you saying he had it all along?”

“He's the one who hid it in that basement.” I took a breath. “He's also the one who found your brothers and locked them up there—after killing those three thugs at his mausoleum.”

James's brows climbed his forehead. “Ian was behind all that?”

“Yes. And he never said a word while we were trying to figure it out.”

James frowned. “Why would he keep my brothers?”

“He didn't say.”

“Just when I was starting to think the guy was all right…” James shook his head.

“I guess you and Rowan were right about him all along.”

James continued to frown, thinking it over.

I left him to his thoughts and walked downstairs to check on my supplies. There was a whole list of things I wanted to take over to Neil's today. Reaching the lab, I stopped on the threshold and eyed the room. The lights were off, but enough natural light filtered through the high windows along the back wall to allow me to see. It was so still and quiet.

I flipped the switch and the florescent bulbs flickered to life overhead. The journal Ian had been writing in still lay open on his workbench. I walked over and eyed the page filled with his beautiful handwriting. It was a formula, the ingredient list contained lich king blood.

Flipping back a page, I read over the theory preceding the formula. It appeared to be some kind of ghost banishment. Apparently, Ian had been working on his own way to help Elysia.

I fear that Livie's gift will not manifest soon enough to help her cousin. Plus, I may be wrong, and she will prove to be something other than a lich king. If so, I must find a way to take Neil's blood. But I hesitate. I made a promise to Addie.

“You remain true to me about that, yet lie about everything else,” I said.

Blinking the dampness from my eyes, I turned back a few more pages. Ian's style of note taking hadn't changed much in the last few centuries. It was in essence a lab journal, listing his experiments in detail along with his observations. But he also incorporated stream-of-consciousness writing during the planning process and those were the most interesting to read.

Addie will not let her obsession with ash alchemy go. I am tempted to give her my old journal and let her see where that road leads. But it is the greatest shame of my life
.

“But it was never my intent to do what you did,” I said. My voice sounded so loud in the silence.

I flipped back through the pages until I found another chunk of writing.

I met Lex face to face today. The face before the decay. I could see it in his eyes that the meeting hit him the same way. It shames me to admit, but I miss him. I miss the boys we were, the unconditional love, and the bone-deep understanding. To be reminded of that after walking the darkness for so long is almost too much. To have that again…

I closed the journal with a snap. I was right. He did want to be with Lex. That was probably where he was now. I pulled open the drawer beneath the counter and dropped the journal inside.

“You did the right thing,” I told myself. The words echoed in the quiet, doing little to ease the ache in my chest. “Of course it hurts,” I whispered. “It's called betrayal. He chose Lex, not you.”

Angrily, I scrubbed at the dampness on my cheeks and walked to my ingredient rack. I had a job to do, and I shouldn't let my melancholy distract me.

I picked up my bag from its place on a lower shelf and opened it. The foam-lined case containing the vials of my Fire Hazard potion was still inside from our visit to Greenwood Cemetery the night Livie summoned Ian. I removed the case from the bag to make room. I didn't realize the case was unsnapped until it fell open—upside down.

I jumped back with a gasp, expecting the vials to shatter against the floor and release the Elemental Fire contained inside. But no crash came.

Righting the case, I stared at the twin holes in the foam. Both vials were gone.

“What the hell?” Had Ian taken them? Had he been back?

I walked to the room he shared with Doug and knocked at the door. Doug wasn't usually a late sleeper, but yesterday had been an intense day and he had probably gotten in late.

“Doug?” I called through the door.

When he didn't answer, I turned the knob and cautiously opened the door. Perhaps he was in the bathroom, though I didn't hear the shower.

That assumption proved false. The bathroom door stood open, the lights off. Doug's bed was made. Had he left early or had he never come home last night?

My heart beat a quicker beat as I hurried back into the lab. Doug's jacket wasn't on the rack by the door. I tried to remember if it had been there when I got home this morning.

“Addie.” Elysia's voice carried down from upstairs. “Get up here, quickly. Alexander is on the news again.”

Shit. I ran from the room, taking the stairs two at a time. James and Elysia stood before the TV, looking pissed—though not as angry as Alexander looked on the screen. That was unusual. Typically, he was all smiles and charm.

“…would warrant the burning of my home,” he finished. The camera panned out showing Xander's grand house. Flames flickered along the roofline of the wing on the right, though the fire department was already hosing it down.

“And you caught his accomplice?” Natalie held the microphone out to Alexander, taking a step closer. The snug burgundy sweater she wore was the exact same shade as the trim on his black bathrobe. I frowned at the robe. Was he trying to give the impression that he'd just gotten out of bed?

“Yes, and I wrested him into submission.” Alexander snugged the belt of his robe, though he made no effort to close it over his bare chest. If a person didn't know he was dead, the glimpse of his well-made torso would be appealing. Natalie clearly thought so.

“He has supposedly accused you of taking the title of Deacon from him.”

“What?” I whispered, dread clenching my stomach.

Alexander chuckled. “So I hear.”

The coverage switched to what appeared to be a prerecorded segment. A group of men in PIA SWAT gear were loading a familiar figure into the back of a van. It was Doug.

“Damn,” I muttered.

The scene switched back to Natalie's interview.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to find his accomplice,” Alexander said.

“You really think His Grace was involved?”

“The fire burned
through
stone.”

“Ah, hell,” I said. “I just discovered that my two vials of Fire Hazard potion are gone.”

James frowned.

“The bottled Elemental Fire?” Elysia asked.