The Fake Eye (Time Alchemist) Read online

  better.

  “Yes, I’m sure it’s nothing,” Chrys said, but she didn’t look convincing.

  “I think we made him pretty angry today but…just be careful around him, okay?”

  I nodded, though I didn’t agree with her assessment. She faded away, as did the scene and I shot up in my bed as if my soul had been slammed back into my body. As I lay back on the pillows, listening to Dove’s soft breathing, I couldn’t really forget Chrys’s look when she mentioned Leon.

  Was he really hiding something from me?

  CHAPTER 16

  The rest of April passed in a blur of homework, studying, and that whole

  “constantly watching my back for anything bad” kind of thing, gradually shifting to May until it was finals weeks. Maybe it was thanks to the new Emery-Must-Not-Be-Stupid-And-Get-In-Trouble-Rules, there haven’t been any attacks lately, for which I was super grateful. And thanks to the whole I-won’t-get-roasted-to-a-crisp worry, I could concentrate on acing my finals!

  With only two weeks of the semester left, St. Mary’s decided to reward the students by giving them a free, fun day in the downtown heart of Savannah to celebrate! I was itching to go; I hadn’t really stepped foot in Savannah at all, and I was excited to tour the old historical town. Because most of the students were Savannah born, it wasn’t really mandatory for everyone to go, but you could choose any day of the week to take the bus to town.

  So you could say I was super disappointed that Dove didn’t want to go.

  Chrys wasn’t feeling well, and if she wasn’t going than Ru wouldn’t be tagging along either (which I guess was fine with Leon since he still didn’t trust them too much). Dove said there was just some things she wanted to do by herself, insisting that Leon and I go and have fun.

  “But what if…I don’t know, isn’t it dangerous?” I expected her to maybe ask me not to go because of my safety. But the past month nothing has happened, leading her, Leon, and me (mostly them) to believe that the two fires were either started by a normal student or Chrys and Ru to gain our trust.

  “I doubt it, as long as you two stick to a group. Besides, it’s a beautiful city, Emery. You should see it before you have to go back home for the summer.”

  “I—are you sure?”

  “Of course. Leon will protect you. I trust him on that.”

  I didn’t tell Dove or Leon about the night Chrys came to my dreams. It seemed private. Chrys had exhausted her alchemy to reach me, telling me her secrets, hoping to gain my trust. And it was true: a good part of me did trust her, but I still had to keep an open mind, even if I didn’t like it.

  What I didn’t know was how much it really drained Chry’s energy. I hadn’t seen her in person since that dream for almost a week, and it was usually at a glance across the courtyards or stumbling through the halls. Of course, she was always shadowed by Ru, but the rare times I saw him alone, he was always surrounded by girls or slunk off into the shadows before I could reach him.

  They both seemed to keep their distance, probably in hopes of easing the fire between the groups. So I wasn’t really surprised when I overheard that they (or more specifically Ru wasn’t, from a couple of weepy freshman) weren’t going.

  Just be careful around him, okay?

  I paused. Where on earth did that thought pop out of? True, it seemed Leon had been even tighter on the edge, like a lion fuming over his territory.

  But any casual mention of a problem or a “weird dream”, he just brushed my questions off. Typical. He was the type that thought he should take care of everything himself. Heck, that’s what almost got him killed last semester (though I’m no better). I had thought he was starting to open up more after…

  that incident, but it felt like he just ducked right back under his bullet proof shell.

  I could literally feel how tense he was on the bus (I called it a bus but it felt more like a fancy limousine with plush seats and dark windows.). The

  occasionally knee brushing sent my heart racing, and once when the bus took a sharp left and I nearly stumbled onto his lap he barely glanced my way, instead, training his gaze out the window as if he could burn a hole into the glass.

  “Wow, am I that bad of company?” I attempted to joke, jabbing him lightly in the ribs. He seemed to jump two inches, as if realizing he wasn’t alone. He blinked a few times, slowly, like his brain was still processing my words before he gave me a very lazy half-grin and just shrugged his shoulders before turning away. I heard him mumble something that sounded like sorry under his breath, but by then I was a little too irritated to try again.

  After what felt like days, the bus finally pulled up near the Civic Center.

  We were all basically on our own (though heavily advised to travel in pairs at least) and even given tourist maps to check out some of the hotspots. We had to be back at the Civic Center by four, so that gave us at least five hours to have fun!

  I didn’t even know where to start! I could walk only two blocks away and get on a trolley tour bus, I could go visit the Telfair Museum, or if I wanted some exercise I could go parade down River Street. It was all too exciting—but I had no one to share it with.

  When I found out Dove didn’t want to come, I asked Dad. But he said he was pretty behind on his work, and with some of the students gone for just a little while…

  Eh. I understood, but I hardly got to see him except for breakfast, and even those felt rushed, you know? I did send a quick text to Samantha, wishing her well. But besides Leon, I knew nobody here—and if I did, they certainly didn’t want to get stuck in the group of “That girl who sets fire everywhere she goes.”

  It didn’t help that Leon was acting like a grump. But I had to swallow my own bitter feelings. Clearly something was bothering him, or he wouldn’t

  be acting like this. I gripped the plastic map in my hands, scanning the rows and rows of streets and squares. “So, do you wanna get an early lunch?” I had plenty of allowance money for food and souvenirs, but if there was one thing I learned over years of being the only female in a male dominating household is that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

  Leon didn’t answer, so I grabbed the sleeve of his light sweater and started pulling him away from the crowds. “Let’s see, there’s a breakfast place a little far away, but if we want something fast there’s a McDonald’s, or a sub shop—oh, there’s even Mexican, or—”

  “Emery?”

  “And I really want to go on one of those horse carriage tours, too.”

  “Emery—”

  “And don’t let me forget to get something for my dad. And Dove. We really have to pick out something extra nice since she isn’t here.”

  Leon slipped away from my grasp, only to grab my own wrist, twirling me around. I stared him right in the eyes, not intimidated or angry at all. “Yes, Grumpy-pants?”

  His eyes flashed, but not out of anger. Again, they were thick with guilt; consuming. His shoulders hunched as if carrying that weight around, refusing to shake it because he believed he deserved it. “I’m—”

  “‘I’m sorry for acting like such a jerk towards you lately, Emery. It’s just that there are things on my mind and I just don’t know how to work them out.’” I said for him, grinning a little at his slack jawed appearance. “‘And I’m sorry for not telling you what the problem is. Can you help me, great, wise Emery?’”

  He blinked a few times, and I had to suppress a giggle before he managed to smile back—a real smile, though it was faint. “I really am acting

  like a jerk, huh?”

  “Well…”

  “No, it’s true. You were spot on, but do I really sound that whiney? Of course I do.” He narrowed his eyes at me in fake annoyance, and I couldn’t help but smile as I attempted to twist my hand out of his gentle grip, but he reached out and held on again, just enough so that our palms were pressed together. The warmth was amazing; the occasional brush of his metal bands swaying against my skin, and I felt his calloused thumb
rub slowly over the top of my hand, sending blooms of energy up my arm and settling into the thudding of my heart.

  “Leon?” I asked, though my throat felt dry as I locked eyes with his. I knew he was a head taller than my five foot, six inch frame, but standing there in the middle of the parking lot, him towering over me made me feel so lightheaded. It felt as if nothing existed beyond our tiny bubble. Just me and him and the touch of our hands…

  “I want to tell you something. Something really important to me. Will you listen, Emery?”

  “Would it help you?”

  He chuckled. I was so close to him that I could feel the rumbling deep in his chest; every deep breath he inhaled and the familiar smell of his cologne was intoxicating. He tightened the grip on my hand, and I knew that without words, I had done more than enough.

  “What do you want to tell me?”

  His gaze dropped a little, but it came back up a little stronger. From the light, the specks of brown seemed to glow even brighter, mixed in with the green depths of his eyes. “I want to finally tell you about my family.”

  ○○○

  Leon’s proclamation had made every single fiber in my being stop dead cold.

  Everything that I wanted to know about Leon and Dove was finally going to be revealed—but did I deserve to know? Was Leon only telling me out of guilt?

  But the truth was, I was curious and hungry for information like a cat prowling inside a seafood market, so I swallowed the lump in my throat and prepared myself for the story.

  “For the longest time, since I could remember, it was just me and my Mom. I knew who my Father was but he was never around for us, so it was just the two of us. Side by side. We could do anything, you know?”

  I did. That’s exactly how my relationship was with my dad. He was my left hand; I was his right.

  “Mom wasn’t an alchemist. She was as normal as normal could get. But she must have understood something about our world, because when I was a kid I discovered I could do all of these cool tricks.” Here, he paused to let out a laugh. “To be honest, I thought I was turning into the next Spiderman. I suddenly discovered that if I tried hard enough, I could break open the iron gates that surrounded our property. If some kid at school was being mean, I could break the chain on his swing just by brushing it. And for fun I would bend all the spoons in the kitchen drawers. It really was fun! I thought I was a superhero. Even Mom had a good laugh. And when I was old enough, she explained what I was. An alchemist.

  “And that’s when Dove came into our lives, and I learned a pretty nasty secret that our ‘Father ’ had been keeping from us. I was only nine at the time when Dove came to live with us. I—at the time, I thought she wasn’t anything special. Just some girl with a weird name and cool tattoos on her arm. But when I found out she was my sister—my half sister—I couldn’t stand her. I

  couldn’t stand the fact that she was an alchemist too. A Blood Borne, no less.

  Father ’s favorite. He had taken her to Europe and taught her all he knew, but he left us behind like we weren’t even relevant to him.

  “I didn’t find out until later that Dove’s mother actually died when Dove was just a baby. I never even knew if our father really loved my mom or not, but regardless. He was never in our lives, never bothered to call for birthdays or send gifts on Mother ’s Day. Dove was his only child. His favorite. And I resented her for everything that I wasn’t.”

  Leon’s hands began to tremble, so I enveloped my free hand over his, squeezing it as gently as I could. I didn’t bother to press him. After a few shaky breathes, he regained his composure, and continued.

  “And then shortly after I turned eleven…everything went wrong.

  Horribly wrong. Our house was broken into during the night. It was just some stupid thief—we did live in a pretty big house, and I guess the only way we could afford it was through Father ’s money—but I remember just….I felt so scared when I saw him in the hall, towering over me like a monster. I kept thinking to myself ‘I’m a superhero! I can bend metal!’, until he shot me.

  “I don’t remember much after that, but I do remember waking up and seeing Dove. You know, her hair was much longer that it was now, past her shoulders. I remember that my Mom would try to brush Dove’s hair for her so it wouldn’t get tangled, but Dove never let her. She was always so distant in the house, and it took my years after the accident to understand the pain Dove was going through. Being forced because of your father ’s orders to go live with a woman who your father had an affair with, and finding out you had a little brother on top of all that. I don’t think Dove really had a mother figure…and mom…she was always so nice and gentle…she always tried to make Dove feel at home. I was just too jealous and angry to see it.

  “I remember opening my eyes, feeling numb all over and wet. Dove

  was cradling me, and her hair was so light and soft, I swear I thought she was an angel sent from heaven. Like a guardian angel. I remember her saying ‘It’s going to be alright, Leon. I’ll protect you. No matter what.’ Even though I hated her she was still prepared to save me, to protect me like a big sister should.

  “I woke up again in a hospital. The doctors had said the bullet barely grazed my heart, and I was lucky to have survived despite the blood loss. I may have been a stupid kid, but I knew what Dove’s alchemy was. And if you thought she was powerful enough today to save your life, Emery, you should have seen how strong she was back then. She managed to stop the bleeding in my chest using her alchemy. I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for her.”

  “She really is a guardian angel,” I whispered, feeling tears of pride swell. Leon too had tears in his eyes, but he scrubbed them away fiercely with the sleeve of his sweater, as if he couldn’t dare allow himself to cry.

  “My mom wasn’t so lucky,” he began again, his voice trembling so much I had to shift a little closer to hear. I squeezed his hand again, resting my head on his chest in an act of comfort. “She was shot by that same bastard. The doctors said she bled out slowly, painfully. I was enraged. It felt like it hadn’t sunk in that she was gone. All I could think of was, ‘Why didn’t Dove save her?’” He broke off, a heavy sob escaping his chest. “I honest to God thought that Dove didn’t bother to save Mom because she hated her so much. I even told her that, lying on the hospital bed. The look on her face was so horrifying—

  it’s a look I’ll never be able to get out of my head.”

  “What about…your dad? Where was he?” I attempted softly, trying anything to get Leon’s mind off his mother ’s last memory.

  “Nobody could find him. He just vanished without a trace.”

  “Then…what about…”

  He held my hand tighter, so much that his knuckles began turning bone

  white. He sat up a little straighter, coughed a little, before turning to me again.

  “That’s when she appeared.”

  “Who?”

  “Guinevere.”

  CHAPTER 17

  “That’s when she appeared at the hospital. Without a legal guardian, we were about to get shipped off to foster care, but she came in just before it happened.

  Guinevere claimed to be an old friend of Father ’s. We knew just by looking at her that she was...incredible. She was an alchemist neither of us had ever come across. You could see it in her eyes just how powerful and ancient she really was, but she was so kind, too. Like…a mother.

  “She gave us the choice to become her apprentices, and we eagerly came along. It wasn’t long before all three of us were traveling around the country, the alchemy she taught us and the dangers and thrills we went through.

  In fact, the first couple of weeks we traveled she came right out and told us she was immortal; she told us a bit about her past and how it came to be, and how she’s preparing herself to relocate the shards of the Elixir. Guinevere became the mother I had lost; the mentor Dove had craved. She was the rock that held us together, even though we were both on bad terms.”

/>   “But it couldn’t have ended like that,” I said, “You and Dove…I know you’ve got your differences, but did you really hate her all these years together?”

  Leon closed his eyes, leaning back against the wooden bench. “I think it was some stupid pride that wouldn’t allow me to make amends with her. After that night in the hospital, neither of us talked about it again. Even now, looking back, I haven’t grown much since that dumb nine year old kid jealous of his cooler big sister. I haven’t done a single good thing for her—and after Guinevere’s…disappearance—we both just hit rock bottom all over again. It was like that horrific incident times ten. I can’t do a single good thing right around her, because she’s just so…special. She’s strong and brave, even

  without her alchemy. She’s selfless. Smart. How could I compete with that?

  Why would she even want someone like me as a brother at all?”

  “That is not true and you know it!” I said, my voice raising an octave so loud that a couple of wandering tourists gave us strange looks. I flushed red before settling back down, tugging at the ends of my skirt like it was the warm weather ’s fault for my outburst. “You know, Leon, you two might not see eye to eye, but I don’t doubt for a second that Dove loves you like a brother. Maybe after so long, she just forgot how to say it. Maybe she’s just like you—at this very moment, she’s looking back on all of her past choices and mistakes, believing that it might be too late to patch things up. But she’s trying her best.

  “I know she loves you for who you are, mistakes and all. And if you want to prove it to her, you have to show her. And believe me when I say, one little effort can go a long way.” I leaned over before my brain could even think, and placed a small kiss on his cheek. He almost jumped in his seat; his flesh turning a peppermint red as he stared at me.