Page 51 of Alchemy of Secrets

Tom looked nearly as upset as Holland felt. They were standing in front of a dusty desk with nothing but a large rectangular mark in the center.

“What used to be here?” Holland asked.

A loud crash sounded in the distance, and Holland jumped.

Tom waved it off. “That sort of thing happens all the time. I’m always telling the tourists not to touch anything, but then they do, and crash! Bam! Bang!”

“I thought you said tour groups didn’t come past the front,” Adam said.

“They don’t, usually, but there’s a private tour going around today for some well-connected rich guy.” Tom shook his head as he looked back at the empty desk. “I still can’t believe it’s gone. This one rarely gets checked out.”

“What was here?” Holland repeated.

“It was a book. An old, medieval-looking thing. The last time Ben came in here, he was holding a set of chains, and he asked if he could put them on it.”

Holland shot a glance at Adam. His expression made her suspect he was thinking of the Professor’s Chained Library myth, too. Only he didn’t look excited. He probably thought a hiding place like this would be too obvious for the Alchemical Heart.

“Can you find who checked it out?” Holland asked. If someone had actually checked it out. If it had been taken or stolen, if someone else had found it first, then none of her father’s clues for the Alchemical Heart mattered at all.

Tom checked his watch. It was now nearly six.

Then he pulled out his phone and made a call.

“Hey Devon—real quick. Do you know who checked out the old chained-up book?” He murmured and nodded as Devon said something on the other end.

“Thanks, man. Have a good Halloween.” Tom hung up and smiled at Holland.

“I didn’t tell you this. But the book is on the set of Knife and Cross .

Stage 10. Sounds like they wanted it for the season finale. ”

“Thanks for all the help,” Adam said.

Tom startled. “Where did you come from?”

“He’s been here the entire time,” Holland said patiently, although she was feeling unnerved that this was the second time Tom had been surprised by Adam’s presence. Adam wasn’t exactly a forgettable person.

Tom scratched his head, further mussing his long gray hair. “I must be losing my mind. Of course, you’ve been here. I don’t know why I thought…” He trailed off as he pulled his hand from his hair.

His fingertips came back red.

Blood dripped from his nails.

“Your hands,” Holland said. But the poor man didn’t seem to see them. He just stood there, repeating the same motion. Running his fingers through his gray hair and then pulling them back out, staring as if he’d forgotten about more than just Adam.

“We need to get out of here,” Adam said.

“But—something is wrong with him.”

“I know,” Adam said. “But unless you know something I don’t, there’s nothing we can do for him.”

Holland tried a final time to get Tom’s attention, but it didn’t seem to help.

She told herself that he would be fine, the same way that the Professor and the Watch Man had both recovered.

But she still felt ter rible that it had happened at all, and she couldn’t help feeling it was somehow her fault.

Holland wished she could talk to the Professor. If anyone would know what was happening, it would be her. Holland felt as if she was turning into a story that could have been one of the Professor’s myths: Holland St. James: The Girl Who Broke the World .

But the Professor would undoubtedly want something in return for her help, and Holland knew exactly what that something would be.

Outside, the world was still oppressively hot. The sun should have been setting, but it appeared stuck in the sky, bright as the center of an egg. Round and glowing and wrong. And then… it was gone.

There was no sun. The sky went from blue and bright to shades of purple and fading light. Holland suddenly felt as if she was losing her mind.

“Hey, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s going to be okay.” Adam reached out and took her hand.

“No!” Holland felt suddenly panicked. She might not have understood what was happening to her or the people around her, but she felt that she was broken somehow. “You shouldn’t touch me.” She tried to pull away, but Adam held her fingers tight.

“You’re not going to hurt me, Holland.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Or maybe I just don’t care.” He took a step closer and put his other hand on her cheek, fingers cool against her flushed skin.

“You really shouldn’t touch me.”

“Then pull away.” His thumb slowly grazed her jaw.

Her heart raced and she wondered how the world would be different if time was kept by heartbeats instead of minutes. She imagined moments like this making the world spin faster, turning minutes into hours.

It made her feel as if she needed to pull away.

She was wasting time she didn’t have. And Adam was a dangerous person to waste time with.

He might have been charming and beautiful, but Holland had seen what he could do with his hands.

She didn’t think he was using his powers on her right now.

But she knew it was a bad idea to put herself in a position where he easily could.

“We should go.” She pulled away as the last bits of light began to fade from the sky.