Page 27 of Alchemy of Secrets

Holland barely had time to glance out the front window before Gabe was dragging her from the room. “Wait—”

“We don’t have time to wait!”

“If you want me to run, I’ll be faster in shoes.” Holland’s pulse pounded as she tugged free of Gabe’s hand.

Car doors slammed outside.

Holland threw on January’s backpack first, imagining it still held answers to secrets. Then she shoved her feet into a pair of January’s sneakers. The right one hurt, as if there was something wedged underneath the sole.

“We need to go now.” Gabe grabbed her hand again, stopping her from taking off the shoe.

“Who is out there?” Holland asked. And then the world went black. The house. The streetlights. The car that had just blocked their exit. All were suddenly dark.

“Keep moving,” Gabe urged.

“But the lights.”

“That’s not what we need to worry about. We need to go out the back.”

He seemed unbothered by the darkness as he propelled her forward. And this time, he wouldn’t let go of her hand. She tripped more than once, but his grip stayed firm.

In the backyard, there was only a simple wooden gate between them and whoever was out there. Holland could hear their muffled voices and the sound of footsteps approaching the front of the house. “Who’s here?” she whispered.

Gabe ignored her, scanning the fences surrounding the yard. His movements were sharp, tense. “Any of your neighbors have dogs?”

“No.” As soon as she said the word, Gabe was helping her hop the back fence and muttering something about hoping the neighbors didn’t have a pool.

There was no pool. But there was a lot of rock.

It bit into the soles of Holland’s feet, and she became very aware of whatever it was January had shoved into her shoe.

But there wasn’t time to stop. Gabe still hadn’t said who he thought was chasing them, but Holland imagined it must have been someone else who was after the Alchemical Heart.

“Come on,” Gabe said. “We need a car.” He kept hold of her hand as they raced down the side of her neighbor’s house, until they reached a street just as black as hers.

It felt as if someone had switched off the whole world.

Although Holland swore she could hear a swarm of cars, just around the block.

“We have to keep moving.” Gabe pulled her farther down the street.

As Holland’s eyes adjusted, she could see just beyond the outlines of the houses. “There—” She pointed down the street, where someone had parked an old VW Bug.

Gabe gave her a look. It was difficult to fully see it in the dark. But she could tell there was definitely a look from the harsh way he turned his head and said, “I don’t know if you understand the concept of a getaway car.”

“I was trying to think of a car we could hot-wire.”

Gabe made a choking sound that might have been a laugh. “We’re not hot-wiring a car.”

A light flickered, two houses down. It was a single soft yellow light in front of a garage where someone had parked a sleek sports car.

“That’s the one,” Gabe said softly. His steps finally slowed as they approached it. His fingers reached toward it, not quite touching, but he looked as if he wanted to pet it.

Holland had never understood the fascination men had with cars.

In her ideal world, everyone would ride bicycles, beach cruisers preferably, with baskets and glossy coats of colorful paint.

Instead of honking horns, people would ring little bike bells, they’d wave hellos instead of flipping people off, and the world would be an all-around happier place. At least for her.

Holland couldn’t picture Gabe riding a bike. She also couldn’t picture him happy. Although he looked as if he was hovering near something like joy now.

“I don’t think you can steal this one,” said Holland. She might not have known much about cars, but she knew this model was new enough that you needed a key or—

Gabe opened the door with one simple touch of his fingers. In that same second, the engine purred to life. “You were saying?”

Holland gaped at him. “How did you do that?”

“Cars like me.” Gabe slipped into the driver’s seat.

The radio was already on, pouring out a rock ballad that was actually perfect for a getaway, and as Holland got into the car, she couldn’t help thinking the movie of her life had just turned into an action flick. An action flick with magic.

“Did you just use magic?” she asked.

She waited for his gravelly laugh, or for him to tell her she’d just imagined it. But she knew she wasn’t imagining it. Another person might have assumed that Gabe had some sort of advanced technology hidden in his pocket. But not Holland.

Holland had always believed in magic. As a child, she knew there was a difference between fantasy and reality.

But she had also always wondered if there was more fantasy in reality than people let on.

How could there be so many stories about magic if magic didn’t exist?

This was one of the other reasons she’d been drawn to the Professor’s class.

The Professor’s myths felt like a bridge between the ordinary world and a magical world where someone could snap his fingers and all the lights would wink out.

“What else can you do?” Holland asked. From the look on his face, she could already tell he didn’t like her asking questions, but she couldn’t contain her excitement. “Did you also use magic to make the neighborhood go dark? Do you even need your hands to drive this car?”

She watched Gabe press his foot on the gas pedal. But now she imagined it was probably because he enjoyed driving stolen cars like a maniac, not because he actually needed to.

“First, we don’t use the word magic ,” he said gruffly. “Second, it’s rude to ask people about their ability.”

“Why?”

“You just don’t. If you use the word magic , people will know that you’re not a part of this world.”

“And by world, you mean the world of the Professor’s myths?”

Gabe frowned. “The myths don’t belong to your Professor, but yes…” He trailed off as his eyes went to the rearview mirror. “Strange.”

“What’s strange?”

“No one is following us.”

Holland looked behind her. The streetlights had turned back on. The October night was glowing once again. Holland thought she saw a person in the driveway they’d just left. But whoever she saw wasn’t racing after them. They were standing there, watching them drive away.

Gabe took a sharp turn, and then it was only the two of them, the blast of the air conditioning, and the angry rock ballad pouring out of the speakers.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered.

“It’s almost as if they let us get away.

” He abruptly turned to Holland. His hands weren’t even on the wheel.

He’d given up the pretense of being a normal person like her.

Although now he was looking at her as if she was the one hiding a secret.

“What aren’t you telling me? I don’t know who that was, but anyone chasing after you thinking you have the Alchemical Heart wouldn’t just stop. ”

“Maybe they were chasing after you,” Holland said. Again, she waited for him to dismiss her with a laugh, or a one-liner ending in sweetheart .

But Gabe didn’t say another word for the rest of their drive.

Gabe remained quiet as he pulled the stolen car into a darkened driveway.

Holland could smell the ocean as she opened the door.

They must have been practically on the coast, although she wasn’t exactly sure where.

The night was foggy enough to curl her hair as she followed Gabe down a curved walkway that magically lit up after every step he took.

If she’d taken the time to imagine where Gabe might bring her, she probably would have pictured a sleek high-rise to match his expensive suit, but this was the furthest thing from it.

It was a small, picket-fenced beach house, with a rope swing hanging from an island oak tree that looked older than she was.

“Is this your place?” she asked.

“It is for tonight.”

The porch light flickered on, lighting up a doormat with waves and the words mi casa es su casa. Holland wondered if it had ever occurred to the owners that intruders might take the welcome literally.

The door had one of those electronic keypads, but Gabe didn’t bother with a combination.

The lock clicked open as soon as he touched the handle.

Holland made a note to herself that if she lived through the night, she was never getting one of those electric handles.

Although she had a feeling that even regular locks wouldn’t keep Gabe out.

“After you.” Gabe waved a magnanimous hand toward the entry. But he was once again looking at Holland as if she was holding on to a secret made of gunpowder. Something big and explosive, with the power to destroy them both.

The beach house was now flush with warm yellow light, illuminating a room Holland would have bet was advertised as perfect for social media pics.

The wall behind the couch was entirely covered in fake green foliage, except for a white neon sign in the center that read, in cursive, I love Los Angeles!

Gabe clearly didn’t care for the sign, because it was the only light he’d left off.

On the coffee table, a pink plastic record player sat next to a pile of neon coasters resembling old floppy disks.

The pillows on the orange velvet sofa were all embroidered with sayings that wouldn’t belong at a grandmother’s house.

And across from the windows that looked out onto the Pacific was an enormous picture of Dolly Parton, in the style of Andy Warhol.

It all made Holland think, once again, about her dreams of living inside a movie with a pop music soundtrack. She suddenly felt as if those dreams could have led her here, but under very different circumstances, and definitely not with Gabe.

He frowned at one of the sofa’s inappropriately embroidered pillows and tossed it aside, before deciding he didn’t actually want to take a seat. He looked exquisitely out of place, standing in this bright oversaturated room in his dark tailored suit and his blood-soaked shirt.

“You’re the one who picked this place,” Holland said.

“I should have looked at the pictures,” he grumbled.

“I like it,” Holland said.

“Good, because this could be where you’re going to die if we don’t find out what makes you so special.

” Gabe’s dark eyes started to look her over, as if trying to figure it out himself, but after only a second, he turned away.

“Before today, I’d never even heard your name.

I knew January had a twin, but she rarely talked about you.

Now, it seems as if everyone believes you’re the key to finding the Alchemical Heart, and I want to know why. What aren’t you telling me?”

Holland took a deep breath and finally confessed. “A lot.”