Page 61 of Alchemy of Secrets

Holland tried not to crumple to the ground. A stab to the back wouldn’t kill her right away; she knew this from the research she’d done when writing Knife and Cross fanfic. But this didn’t feel like an ordinary wound. It felt toxic, poisoned.

She thought about Jake, how he’d died the same way. Now she knew for certain who had murdered him, but there was nothing she could do.

Holland coughed as the hotel started spinning.

A blur of memories resurfaced, including all the nights she’d spent here with her friends.

She saw flashes of Eileen and Chance and Cat, all buying drinks for people they thought could be the devil, like children playing with matches.

Then, in the corner of her vision, Holland saw another familiar figure. A man in a white dinner jacket. Mason .

As he stepped closer, more of the memories Adam had erased flooded back. She remembered their conversation in the library, the warning he gave before she left. It’s always my brother who murders you .

Mason had been right, but he didn’t look happy about it. He also looked more real than earlier, less ghostly. Holland wondered dimly if this was because she was dying.

“I’ve never come down here for this part.

But tonight felt different, and I hoped…

” He trailed off, as if putting words to feelings would make them more real than he wanted.

Up close, Mason’s expression was even more miserable.

But she could already see him wiping it away, replacing whatever he might have been feeling with acceptance of the inevitable.

“I still think you’re wrong,” Holland choked out. She could feel the blood running down her back and the seconds running out, but she refused to give up. If anything, Mason’s defeated expression made her more determined.

The Watch Man had said the only way to live past tomorrow was to find the Alchemical Heart. So, she shouldn’t have been dying. Unless she hadn’t actually found the Alchemical Heart.

She must have been wrong about the necklace. But she still believed her father was right about her being in possession of the Alchemical Heart. Which meant that having it wasn’t enough, she needed to actually find it, like the Watch Man had said.

Holland fumbled to open her sister’s backpack again, ripping out the clothes she’d shoved inside.

As soon as she touched the Professor’s journal, her fingers began tingling.

The journal was upside down as she pulled it out, revealing the Alchemical Heart symbol embossed on the back.

Now she could feel the tingling down to her toes.

Suddenly, it felt so obvious. The longer Holland held it, the more she could feel the magic—pulsing like a living thing, wanting to be used.

Gabe had repeatedly told her that no one knew what the Alchemical Heart looked like, and that some people suspected it could even change form.

Holland imagined he must have been right about it changing form.

She couldn’t imagine it always looked like this journal.

She wondered how her father had managed to send it to her. But she would have to puzzle that out later. The Alchemical Heart was now glowing in her hands.

The drunken skeleton perked up a little on the couch.

“Is that—” Mason stepped closer, his words cutting off as he took in the book.

Holland needed to move. She couldn’t risk drawing more attention, not when Adam was still nearby.

She was in so much pain, she didn’t think she could run again. But maybe she didn’t have to. Not far from her was a temporary wall for the party with a little arrow and two life-saving words etched into a sign: secret passage .

Holland pressed on the words, and suddenly she was in another room. Actually, she was just in a sequestered part of the Roosevelt’s lobby, but it had been made to look like a little sitting room, with two wingback chairs and a small table with a glowing Tiffany lamp on top.

Holland slumped into one of the leather chairs, unable to stand any longer. The Heart was still glowing, but it didn’t seem to be doing much of anything else, including healing her.

Then Mason was there, towering over her. “You need to use the Alchemical Heart now.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” she wheezed.

“Nobody told you how to use it? Of course they didn’t,” Mason muttered.

Then he started rapidly talking. “The Alchemical Heart was taken from another world where objects are sentient. It’s not simply an object.

It’s capable of thought and choice and action.

If you want to use its power, you need to ask for it, specifically. ”

“That’s a lot of words,” she said. Everything in the world hurt, and now her vision was going black around the corners. Aside from the glowing book, she couldn’t see much of anything. But she hoped she understood what Mason had just told her. “I need to live,” she said to the book in her hands.

“No,” Mason said sharply. “Tell the Alchemical Heart what you need it to do.”

“You don’t need to yell,” Holland murmured. She spoke to the book again. “I need you to heal me.”

“Be more specific. Tell it to keep your heart beating and stop the bleeding.”

Holland repeated Mason’s words. “And could you get rid of the poison, please?”

As soon as she spoke, the Alchemical Heart glowed more brightly and she started to gag. Her throat, her stomach, everything felt as if it was on fire, and then she was spitting the foulest thing she’d ever tasted onto the table.

Immediately, Holland’s pain vanished and her vision returned.

She could see the half-finished drinks on the table before her and every spill that had been made throughout the night.

The world was coming back into focus, except for Mason.

He was looking faded, more ghostly again. And he still looked miserable.

“Would it be too much to ask for a smile?”

“You’re still not safe.”

Holland looked down at her watch. She was seconds away from midnight. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

She half expected fireworks to explode or a great unseen clock to chime, celebrating her victory.

She wanted to cheer or cry or throw confetti.

But mostly she found she just wanted to sit there quietly, without anyone trying to kill her, or steal from her, or pull any types of weapons on her.

She was safe, and she just wanted to feel it.

Around her, the lobby had gone unnervingly quiet. Even the music had stopped, magnifying the sound of someone approaching on the other side of the wall.

Holland froze.

Mason disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later. “It’s just Gabe,” he said, a little disdainfully.

Clearly, Gabe didn’t have the best reputation in this world.

But Holland found she was relieved he was alive.

She still didn’t know whose side Gabriel Cabral was really on, but he had tried to warn her about Adam.

That counted for something. Still, she knew how desperately he wanted the Alchemical Heart, and she didn’t want him to find her here with it.

“You can relax,” Mason said. “He’s gone. He just frowned for a few seconds at the clothes you left behind, then he walked away.”

Holland checked her watch again. It was now two minutes past. “I think this means I’m officially safe.”

Mason shook his head. “Adam will come back for the actual Alchemical Heart when he realizes his mistake.”

Holland swore she had never met someone so pessimistic. “How do you know that if this has never happened?”

“Because I know Adam.” Mason met her gaze like a challenge. “Don’t underestimate him because he has a pretty face.”

Holland made a show of looking offended. “He just tried to kill me.” She no longer thought Adam was pretty. He looked like a poor imitation of his brother. In fact, looking at Mason now unnerved her a little because it was obvious they were related.

“I’m not my brother,” he said.

“I thought you couldn’t read minds?”

Mason cocked his head as if to say, You might not remember me, but I remember you .

“I know you still don’t want to hurt my brother, but if you have any sense of self-preservation, you need to do something about him now.”

Mason eyed her watch and Holland remembered what he’d said about time resetting at a quarter past midnight. It was only five past now. Ten minutes left until they would know if the loop was truly broken. And Holland feared he was right.

She knew he was at least right about her. Despite everything, she didn’t want to hurt Adam, but she knew he needed to be stopped. She just wasn’t quite sure how.

She wished she had more time. And that’s when she realized she still had the Alchemical Heart, the most magical object in the world.

Holland cleared her throat and looked down at the journal. “I need you to please pause time.”

Instantly, the journal transformed into an hourglass. It was similar to the one in the Professor’s office, except this one was gold with beads of green sand. From the amount of sand, Holland surmised she had only a few minutes.

Mason scoffed. “I told you, if you’re going to be successful at using magic, you need to be confident and decisive with your requests.”

“Just because I’m being polite doesn’t mean I’m not—wait,” said Holland. “Aren’t you supposed to be frozen?”

“Ghost,” he reminded her. “Time and magic don’t affect me the same.” His gaze shifted to the rapidly falling sand, his expression difficult to read. “There’s not much time in there. If you don’t want to kill my brother, ask the Alchemical Heart to have him take my place.”

Holland hesitated. Turning Adam into a ghost actually sounded like a good idea.

But she was less sure about making Mason human.

He might have known her, but she didn’t know him.

And while she no longer believed the stories Adam had told, she didn’t have any other information about Mason.

“If I do that, how do I know you won’t kill me for the Alchemical Heart? ”

“If I wanted the Alchemical Heart, I wouldn’t need to kill you.

” He said it almost casually, as if murder was so beneath him the idea wasn’t even worth entertaining.

“And I’m nothing like my brother. I’m a man of my word, and if you give me my life back, I will not take the Alchemical Heart.

I don’t even want it. I just want to be free of this place. ”

The last of the sand ran through the hourglass as he spoke.

Holland wondered if ticking clocks would now make her nervous for the rest of her life, because as soon as time started moving again, she felt it.

The Alchemical Heart was still shaped like an hourglass as Holland addressed it. “I don’t want Adam Bishop to hurt anyone ever again. I want Adam to take his brother Mason’s place. Turn Adam into a ghost that will forever haunt this hotel and never harm another living soul.”

The hourglass started to glow, and so did Mason.

Holland barely breathed as she watched him transform into something that was almost there, almost real, almost human, into someone who felt more human than anyone she had ever seen.

She remembered Adam saying Mason was the center of the universe wherever he went, and she could definitely feel that gravity now.

If Cat had been there, she would have said there was something about a guy in a white dinner jacket.

Eileen would have said it was because he was tall.

January would have said it was because Holland had tragic taste in men.

Holland would have said it wasn’t any of those things.

And yet it was all of those things, along with something else she couldn’t put a name to. She just knew it scared her a little.

She felt a little bit of relief as she saw in his eyes that Mason Bishop was just as eager to say goodbye to her as she was to him.

“I still think you should have killed my brother when you had the chance,” he said.

“That was a lovely thank you. You’re welcome.”

“I’m just trying to give you some advice. Adam won’t be able to do much now, but I became stronger over time and so will he. You need to be careful. And—” He took a step closer.

Holland put her hand protectively over the hourglass.

“Relax, St. James. I’m keeping my word. But others won’t hesitate to take this. You should get out of here while you can. That thing is just asking for people to come after you.”