Page 52 of Alchemy of Secrets

Adam opened the door and let her enter first.

Any other day, Holland would have wanted to explore every inch.

“I take it you’re a fan of the show?” Adam murmured.

“What makes you say that?” she asked.

“Everything,” he said, and he was smiling. “You look like you’re one heartbeat away from asking me to participate in some vampire role-play.”

Holland felt her cheeks go warm. That hadn’t been what she was thinking. At all. But as soon as Adam said it, she had a sudden image of Adam’s teeth sinking into a place that definitely wasn’t her neck. “I actually prefer the human on this series.”

“So you’re a Cross fan?” Adam said.

She turned to him, surprised. Since meeting him yesterday, Adam had told her a number of incredible things, yet she found this the hardest to believe. “You watch the show?”

“Of course I do.” He smirked. “Isabella is hot.”

Holland felt an irrational flare of jealousy.

Adam’s grin widened.

“You’re the worst,” she said. Then she suggested they split up.

Holland knew splitting up was generally considered a bad idea in situations like this. But Stage 10 was just too large, and she felt that getting some distance from Adam would be a good idea.

The vampire court was divided into two distinct sections. The upper court was all glamour and gold, with ballroom-like settings and beautiful cages. Adam took that portion, while Holland searched the lower court. This was full of deadly gardens, glittering black flowers, and velvet-lined coffins.

Holland’s steps echoed as she debated opening up one of the coffins in search of the book. She knew there weren’t actually vampires inside. But her skin was prickling, her blood humming.

There was magic here. She could feel it. How had nobody else sensed it? Or maybe they had, they’d just mistaken it for a different kind of magic. But Holland knew this wasn’t Hollywood stardust. This was the Alchemical Heart. It had to be close.

Holland quickly wove through a maze of standing coffins until she saw two chalk outlines on the ground, shaped like humans. Then, just beyond the chalk, sitting on top of an iron pedestal, she saw it: the book her father had wrapped in chains.

“Adam, come here—” Holland cried. “I found it.” And it did not look like a prop.

The leather was older than anything she’d ever seen. The pages peeking out were a color she didn’t have a name for. The book smelled like earth and must and metal. She touched the chains, and she could feel the magic pulsing from them like a heartbeat.

Adam cursed under his breath as he approached. “These are Bank chains.”

“What are Bank chains?”

“They can’t be picked or broken. These can only be unlocked with the proper key.”

“But—the screenplay didn’t say anything about a key.

” Did it? Holland was about to take out the pages and quickly see if she’d missed anything, when she remembered something else.

“What if—” Holland knew it was a long shot, but she pulled out her sister’s key, which had turned back into a plastic Motor Hotel key.

“That’s a key to the Regal,” said Adam.

“I know. But what if it also opens the book?”

“Why would it open the book?”

“I found it in my sister’s things, and I just had a thought—what if my father left two different sets of clues, in the hopes that my sister and I would come together to solve his mystery?”

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Adam said.

Holland put the key inside of the lock.

Sparks flew. The lock hissed.

“No!” Holland tried harder.

The chains on the book blazed red.

“I think you need to stop,” Adam said.

“But there has to be a way to open—”

A door groaned open. The door to Stage 10.

Holland and Adam both froze. They were surrounded by a maze of haphazard coffins and black rose trees, but there was enough space for them to see through the trees, for Holland to see who had entered.

One of them was a young woman dressed like a tour guide, but Holland didn’t pay much attention to her. She was too afraid of the man beside her. As soon as she saw him, she couldn’t think straight. She wanted to hope her mind might be playing tricks, but it seemed Adam could see him, too.

He grabbed her arm and mouthed, We need to hide .

Holland tried to take the chained book, but the volume was too heavy to lift.

We don’t have time , Adam mouthed.

Then both his arms went around her middle. He hauled her backward and tucked her inside a coffin with him.