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“Time to wake up, love,” he said, shaking her shoulders not-so-gently before giving her a few slaps across the cheek to try to rouse her.

Saanvi stirred, grumbling complaints escaping her lips as she peeled her eyes open.

“Drink this.” Phineas’s voice brooked no argument as he tipped the test tube of pink liquid to her lips.

Saanvi coughed and sputtered, choking on the pink liquid as she made a face of disdain. She ran a hand across her lips, catching the droplets that had run down her chin. “That isawful.”

“Nothing that is going to save your life is going to taste good, I fear.” Phineas took a step back, his hands on his hips as he watched Saanvi.

“What was that?” I asked, moving to his side.

“A healing potion. Won’t be enough to close the wound itself, but it works by healing the wound from the inside out,” he replied. His eyes narrowed on Saanvi to watch for any changes in her condition.

I nodded in response.

I was relieved he was helping us, but make no mistake, Phineas Wolfe was a dangerous man. We couldn’t trust him. He had betrayed my mother and stolen the key spell from the Kotova grimoire, and he had insinuated it wasn’t the only spell he had stolen from my book of shadows.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” a gruff voice sounded from the stairwell.

My eyes floated up to watch as the older man descended the stairs, one hand on the railing and one hand clasped to his chest. The young man that had been stocking the shelves was right on his heels. How had Phineas known where to find him?

“I never thought I would see you here again,” he spoke to Phineas as he made his way to the wooden table. His wrinkled hand moved the tunic of Saanvi’s shirt aside to inspect the wound in her chest.

Phineas simply laughed. “It’s good to see you again, Alastir.”

Exactly the man we were searching for. How had Phineas led us right to him?

Alastir had descended the staircase and moved straight to Saanvi’s side, pushing us gently out of the way. He gradually laid her back down, procuring a translucent green stone from his pocket and placing it on Saanvi’s chest right above her wound. He got to work quickly, grabbing the mortar and pestle off the counter and filling it with all sorts of herbs and powders with a dash of liquid to form a salve.

He pulled the tunic away from Saanvi’s chest and it stuck to her skin, causing her to wince in pain. He liberally spread the salve across the wound as he muttered an incantation, the words unfamiliar to me.

“Didn’t you see us coming?” I asked, leaning my hip against the front counter as we watched him work.

“Don’t sass me, girl,” he replied, his gaze deadpan as his eyes quickly flickered up to me before returning to Saanvi. “You know very well I only see what the Mother deigns to show me, and she did not show me this.”

When he was finished applying the salve to Saanvi’s wound, he grabbed the quartzite stone and place it in her grasp, his hands encompassing hers. More spells flowed from his lips as we waited on bated breath to see if we had gotten here in time to save her. The knife had to have nicked something vital in her chest with the amount of blood that she had lost.

Saanvi’s head fell back as her muscles released, no longer able to hold her own head straight. The creases of pain that had marked her expression were gone. I moved forward in shock—my hand out—but Alastir stopped me.

“Needn’t fret—the girl lives. This is part of the spell. She will heal faster in slumber.”

I glanced at him, eyes wide, before nodding in response.

If there was anyone that could save Saanvi at this point, it would be Alastir. He was not only a powerful seer but a powerful Shade with abilities far beyond what we could comprehend. I moved back to the counter, resting against it and releasing the air I had been holding in my chest.

Saanvi would be ok.

Puck had begun rifling through the beakers and test tubes on the shelf and one crashed to the floor before him, spilling neon green liquid across the floor.

“Sorry, mate,” he cringed as he turned to Alastir, who was watching him with narrowed eyes.

“Petyr, step away from the shelf.” Alastir pushed away from the table to move towards him.

“If people don’t stop calling me that…” Puck mumbled as he stepped away from the shelf as Alastir had asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Thomas, you’ll grab the mop to clean this up?” Alastir asked, unclasping his cloak at the neck and draping it across one of the chairs that had been pushed away from the table. The young man nodded, disappearing into a back room to gather the supplies.

Alastir turned to Phineas with an unreadable expression in his gaze, and my eyes flitted between the two of them. How had Phineas knownexactlywhere Alastir was? And how did they know each other?