“I wasn’t lying,” I said, averting my eyes.
“You just didn’t tell me,” he said. “When was the last time you ate?”
I was spared an answer when Eddie came out with another Alchemist at gunpoint. This time, Eddie definitely had a real gun, so I assumed he’d disarmed the guy in the room.
“Zip-tie this guy,” Eddie told Adrian, “and go release the girl in there since you’re a pro at those tables. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.”
I gave an encouraging nod to Adrian, who looked reluctant to leave me. After binding the second Alchemist, Adrian disappeared into the room. I glanced at Eddie. “Are you sure there’s not a fire? The alarms are still going off.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Eddie, “there’s definitely a fire. We’re just counting on it not reaching us since it’s a few floors up. At least, it was.”
I turned his words over in my head, making sure I truly understood them and wasn’t just mishearing things in my bedraggled state. I was actually pretty sure I could smell smoke but wasn’t certain if that was just my imagination. A minute or so later, Adrian came out of the room supporting a girl a little older than me, dressed in the same tan scrubs. My first thought when I saw her was: Do I look that bad? No, I decided, there was no way. I looked pretty bad, I knew, but something about her told me she’d been there much, much longer than I had. Her face was gaunt and pale beneath what looked like normally tanned skin. Her scrubs were a size too big, suggesting she’d lost considerable weight since first getting them, and her black hair was limp and in bad need of a thorough scrubbing and a haircut. She reminded me of how I’d looked coming out of solitary, only ten times worse. I hadn’t been on this level for long and had enjoyed the benefit of food and sleep for the last few weeks.
Compassion flashed over Eddie’s face, and then his hardened nature took over. “Let’s go. Can you help both of them?”
I straightened up from the wall and waved Adrian off. “Help her. I can walk, just slowly.”
Adrian looked uncertain, but it was clear this other girl needed him more than me. I walked beside her as our strange party moved down the hall and found myself trying to reassure her about a situation I knew nothing about. “It’s okay,” I said. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to get you out of here. What’s your name?”
Her dark eyes stared blankly ahead, and I wondered if she even heard me. Maybe she’d survived being in torture for so long by tuning out human voices. “Ch-chantal,” she said. Her voice was barely a whisper, and I wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the alarm if I hadn’t been leaning close to her.
“Chantal …” I gasped. “I think I know you. I mean, I know of you. I know Duncan. He’s my friend.”
A tiny, barely perceptible spark of life appeared in her eyes. “Duncan? Duncan’s here?”
“Yeah, he’s waiting for us.” I glanced questioningly at Adrian as I spoke, and he nodded in confirmation, emboldening me. “You’ll see him soon. He’s going to be so happy to see you. He’s missed you a lot. He had no idea you’ve been here this whole time.”
A chill ran through me at my own words. This whole time. Duncan had said the Alchemists had taken her away a year ago. Had she been in the “persuasion” area that long? It was horrifying. No wonder she looked like she did. And yet, the fact that she’d survived that and was apparently still enough of a threat to stay locked up spoke legions about her character. Maybe she and I should’ve been flattered to be in that exclusive club.
Eddie led us to the stairwell, and everything seemed clear until we opened the door and stepped out on the solitary floor. A wall of smoke hit us, thick and noxious, blocking the way between us and the control center that held the exit. He scowled. “I didn’t expect it to spread down here so fast—especially if it’s not in the stairwell.”
None of us spoke right away, uncertain of what to do. It was a surprise when Chantal was the first to comment.
“It’s the way the vents are set up,” she murmured. “Where is the fire?”
“The living floor,” said Adrian.
She frowned in thought and seemed to be coming more and more to life with each passing second. “Then this is probably just smoke. Of course … I shouldn’t say ‘just.’ People often erroneously think only the fire itself is dangerous, when smoke proves just as lethal.”
“You really are an Alchemist,” said Adrian, with a wry smile. It was cut short as the smoke drifted closer and he began to cough.
I stepped forward, still unsteady on my feet but unwilling to do any less than what my friends had done for me today. Not so long ago, I’d worked invisibility and elemental charm spells … but that had been after a few weeks of moderate rest and acceptable diet. Could I do what I wanted to do now, after being in such a physically damaged state? Once again, I had no spell components to help me with the magic. It was all my will and words. Thinking back on my work summoning air for the salt ink, I called to that element now and lifted my hand. A very, very faint breeze came forth and slowly began to push the smoke away from us. It was a painstaking process since I didn’t dare summon anything stronger, lest it feed an unseen fire on this floor. It was also much more exhausting than I’d expected. Even before I was halfway through, my legs began to shake, and I had to use my other hand to support me against the wall. The two Alchemists watched me in disgust and probably would’ve made the sign against evil if their hands weren’t bound.
At last, the smoke was pushed back, opening our path to the control room. Adrian ignored my pleas that I was fine and caught hold of me with one arm, while he continued supporting Chantal with the other. Eddie looked like he wanted to help but didn’t dare drop his guard on the two bound Alchemists. He ordered them into the room and then to the mysterious doorway I’d glimpsed in my nighttime investigation. Another stairwell took us up …
… and I saw sunlight for the first time in four months.
I was so stunned that I stopped walking, causing poor Adrian to stumble. On his other side, Chantal’s eyes were equally wide as she too stared at the sunlight coming through the room’s one small window. Gold and orange hues suggested it was nearing sunset.
“Beautiful,” I murmured.
“I agree,” Adrian said, and I saw his eyes were on me.
I gave him a smile, wishing I could say more, but the room was too full of other concerns. Like the entire Alchemist re-education staff huddled into a corner, with Marcus, Trey, and another guy standing over them.
“Where is everyone?” asked Eddie.
“Where’s Duncan?” asked Chantal.
“I had Sheila take them to the safe house,” said Marcus. “Thought it best to get them out of here.” He flashed me his movie star smile. “Nice to see you in real life, Sydney.” Despite his sunny grin, I’d caught a fleeting glint of anger in his eyes. Like Adrian, he too had noticed my bedraggled appearance.
“Safe house?” hissed Sheridan. I hadn’t noticed her right away. “Do you really think there’s any safe place you can go where we won’t—”
Her threats were interrupted when a shrieking Chantal suddenly pulled away from Adrian and tried to attack Sheridan. “You!” screamed Chantal. “You did this to me! It was always you, no matter who was doing it. You giving the orders!” There was a desperate, animalistic nature to her, and I felt a pang in my chest as I wondered if I might have become the same way if I’d been locked away that long.
Her attack didn’t get very far, as other Alchemists closed rank around Sheridan. I hurried forward, still weak, and tried to pull Chantal back as gently as I could. “It’s over,” I said. “Let it go.”
“You know what she did!” The hate and pain in Chantal’s face was a mirror to some of my own dark emotion I too had locked inside me but had yet to release. “You know what a monster she is!”
“We aren’t the monsters in this world,” hissed Sheridan. “We’re fighting them, and you betrayed your own kind.”
Chantal lunged again, and this time, Adrian helped me over. “It’s done,” I insisted. “She can’t hurt you anymore.”
“Is that what you think, Sydney?” A sneer marred Sheridan’s lovely features. “Do you really think you can walk away from all of this? There’s no place you can go. There’s no place any of you can go, but you especially, Sydney. This is your fault, and no Alchemist will rest until we’ve hunted you down and—”
Once again, her dramatic moment was interrupted, this time by the fire alarms silencing and the sprinkler system coming on. “Well, well,” said Marcus, as water drenched us all. “I guess Grif got it to work.”
“We should get out of here,” said the ex-Alchemist I didn’t know. “Even if their reinforcements are miles away, odds are good someone got a cell phone call out.”
Marcus nodded in agreement. “Let’s just make sure this lot’s contained.”
“Here,” said Adrian. He emptied out his jacket pocket of a couple dozen zip-ties. “I thought some extras might come in handy.”
Trey and Marcus’s associate bound up all the Alchemists, and Marcus himself collected all the weapons he could find. “No way am I leaving these here. We’ll take them and destroy them.” He surveyed his team’s handiwork and nodded in satisfaction. “Let’s hit the road.”
I turned to follow, but Sheridan’s voice gave me pause. “There’s nowhere you can go!” she called. “You can’t just walk away from this!”
I glanced back, but before I could answer, something small caught my eye. In the tussle with Chantal, the top two buttons of Sheridan’s shirt had come undone. I strode forward and reached my hand out toward her, making her recoil. No doubt she thought I was going to cast a spell on her. Instead, I ripped Adrian’s necklace from her neck.
“This,” I said, “is mine.”
“You don’t deserve it,” she hissed. “Don’t think this is over. You’ve just replaced Marcus Finch as the Alchemist’s most wanted.”
I made no response and simply fastened the cross around my own neck. With that, I turned and followed my friends out without a backward glance.