Page 55 of Fate’s Sweetest Curse (Mirrors of Fate #2)

Alchemize

Noble

W hat if we tried water as a solvent instead of alcohol?” Hattie asked.

Noble glanced down at her, his thoughts fracturing.

They were standing side-by-side at the table in his metal workshop, giving him the perfect view of her delicate profile and the necklace that disappeared down the front of her dress.

A tiny purple bruise marked her neck from a biting kiss he’d given her that morning.

Distracting . She was altogether distracting.

“Noble?”

He cleared his throat. “Yes?”

Hattie cast a meaningful glance in the direction of the archway, through which they had a clear view of Phina and Kent discussing something with furrowed brows and questioning gestures.

“Court faces, remember?” Hattie whispered under her breath. “You can’t look at me like that. It makes me want to…” She trailed off, raised her eyebrows.

“Go on.”

She laughed throatily and poked his bicep. “Later.”

She was right, of course, but Fates , it felt incredible to flirt with her for real, to talk to her for real, with no veiled meanings or withheld truths. Beyond what he could see, it was how he felt when he was with her: strong, determined, optimistic for the first time in ages .

And in spite of the harrowing purpose of their research, it had been thrilling to see Hattie work up close.

She had a quick mind, easily pinpointing details that Noble would’ve missed, asking all the right questions about Gildium, referring back to patterns she’d observed in his notes.

Day after day, failed experiment after failed experiment, Noble was still amazed by her prowess with herbal alchemy.

Hattie rested her fists on her hips. “You didn’t even hear my suggestion, did you?”

“I am capable of admiring you and hearing your words,” Noble said. “You were talking about water.”

Hattie appeared unimpressed but continued her line of thinking. “Ever since Uriel told me about water and Arcane magic last week, I’ve been racking my mind as to how to incorporate it into our research.”

“Haven’t you been adding water to your experiments all week?”

“Yes, but I realized this morning that I’ve never tried a Hylder tincture with water as the base —I’ve been using my usual alcohol-based tinctures and incorporating water as an addition.

” Her blue eyes seemed to sparkle with possibility.

“But since Hylder and Gildium won’t bind to each other, perhaps they could be bound to water directly, then mixed?

Do you think Gildium could be alchemized that way? ”

Noble thought back to Richold’s teachings. “It could be even simpler than that,” he replied. “I might be able to dissolve Gildium powder in water, no alchemy required.”

“Can we try both?”

Noble smiled.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just fun to share alchemy with you.”

“It is.”

“Fun sharing other things, too.”

Her lips pressed into a curt little line as she stared up at him, clearly holding back from saying something flirtatious or familiar. Without another word, she turned, making to leave.

“Wait.” Phina and Kent had disappeared from view, and Noble took the opportunity to catch Hattie’s fingertips with his.

Her attention darted to the contact—then his face.

“How are your studies with the…?” He didn’t bother finishing the question.

Noble had been holding a thin rod of Gildium when Hattie came into the lab a week ago with Mariana’s delivery .

He’d bent the rod in half when he heard about how it’d been delivered.

While Mariana had served as an ally to Phina (and himself)—providing insight into the cursed creatures to propel their progress—her sneaking into Hattie’s dorm was third on his list of reasons to dislike her.

First and second on his list were making Hattie’s knees bleed and threatening her with a knife.

“I cross-referenced the sample with the notes you gave me on…” Hattie trailed off, eyes tracing his forearm where the scratch was now healed.

Your blood was what she left unsaid. “So far, the only discernible difference is that the cells in the new sample seem more…jagged? Almost like they’ve morphed over time. ”

“That makes sense.”

“Blood is mostly water,” Hattie went on, that familiar vertical line of concentration forming on her brow.

“But the water in both samples is different, somehow. It has its own open threads. I think that’s why the arcane adepts thought Phina could contain the curse—bind Hylder to it, maybe?

—but with Gildium and Hylder repelling each other, I just don’t know.

I’ve arranged a conversation with Viren to discuss it in more detail. ”

Noble nodded, feeling vaguely disappointed.

The more they learned, the farther he felt from real answers.

Meanwhile, the Black Lace Hylder tinctures Hattie had made in the lab were waning in effectiveness—not as much as the Common Hylder tinctures Phina had been giving him, but still worse than what Hattie had brought with her from Waldron.

And Noble couldn’t help with her experiments on the blood out of fear that seeing it would trigger the monster inside him, as his own blood had in the training ring.

The culmination of all those dead ends was hard to take.

Hattie squeezed his fingers. “We’ll get there.”

Noble grunted and let go of her hand.

From there, the day passed by in a blur that seemed both endless and immediate. Noble prepared a few mixtures for Hattie in that time, including Gildium alchemically bound to water, as well as tempered and untempered Gildium dissolved in water.

It was dusk when Noble found Hattie in the library.

She was standing on her toes, struggling to reach a book on a particularly high shelf.

Phina and the other apprentices had all left for the day, and without the threat of witnesses, Noble set his vials on the study table and walked up behind Hattie, caging her against the bookcase.

With his chest pressed into her back, he tucked a kiss behind her ear, then slid the book she needed off the high shelf.

With a soft laugh, she turned to face him. Their gazes locked as he handed her the book.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You’re welcome.”

She clutched the book against her chest. “I assume everyone else has gone?”

“ Mhmm ,” Noble hummed, cradling her jaw loosely in his palm.

Hattie pierced her smile with a canine. “Oh.”

He wanted to suck that lower lip into his mouth, but instead he asked, “Have you had a productive day, Hylder Queen?”

“Yes. You? ”

He pointed a thumb behind him. “Brought you Gildium, as requested.”

Her attention flicked to the vials on the table. “Excellent.” Her eyes glazed, becoming unfocused past his shoulder.

“Hattie?” Noble murmured, amused.

Her blue stare slid back to his face. “Noble?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she mused.

“A theory?”

“A…thought,” she answered cryptically. “Are you finished for today?”

He nodded. “I was going to suggest you put on your blindfold and let me lead you back to the Royal Inn”—they hadn’t entered or exited the lab together before, but the idea of Hattie blindfolded and entirely in his care made it seem worth the risk of being seen—“but I have a feeling you’re not quite ready to leave. ”

Her cheeks puckered. “No, I’m sorry.”

“Need help?”

Hattie slid her palm up Noble’s chest, blazing a path of heat that made his pec flex.

“I need quiet, I think,” she said regretfully. “How about I stay another hour, then bring my blindfold to the inn?”

Noble bent, brushing a few featherlight kisses across her soft lips. “Yes. Do that.”

Hattie giggled against his mouth, deepening the kiss to slide her tongue behind his teeth for three, four, five delicious seconds. He was gripping her hips, about to push her firmly against the bookcase, when she pulled back and tsked.

“You’re insatiable,” she said, but based on her dilated pupils, so was she.

“Making up for lost time, remember? ”

Hattie’s lustful expression faltered. “I’m afraid we’re losing time ahead of us, too.”

“I thought you were staying late to follow a thought?”

“I am,” Hattie said, sliding her fingertips up into his hair. She curled them against his nape, sending a shiver down his spine. “I just…” She rested her head back against the bookshelf behind her, staring up at him with love and pain and pleading. “I want to savor you.”

He thought back to how he’d savored her on their first night together. “I do know,” he purred.

A short, breathy chuckle. “I mean …I want to go swimming in the river together. Hold hands as we walk down the street. Be honest about who we were and who we are now, without fear, without secrecy, without…” The oceanic blue of her eyes took on a crystalline quality, shimmering like water.

Her voice was throaty when she spoke again.

“I don’t want to feel like all our moments have to be stolen. ”

Noble swallowed thickly and brushed a few frizzy hairs out of her face. “Me, too.”

Tears wobbled on her lower lashes. “Do you think we’ll ever get that?”

Her sorrow made him want to rage against the Fates for doing this to her.

Birthing her into a life of secrets and shame.

Letting her fall in love with a man whose own existence was a series of failures and hurtful mistakes—a man who perhaps couldn’t be cured of his wickedness.

Who would one day succumb to it, leaving Hattie all alone.

Noble knew she loved him with eyes wide open—and he respected her choice, he basked in it—but he wouldn’t have chosen any of this for Hattie. For her, he would’ve chosen sunshine, laughter, freedom, joy . The love of a normal man, not a monster.

Noble forced a deep breath. He couldn’t change their past, but with their Fates not yet fixed until next year, he was determined to create the future she desired .

“I don’t know what the Fates have in store for us,” he answered honestly. “But I’m going to do everything in my power to give you the life you deserve.”

Hattie nodded, shaking a tear loose. Noble bent to kiss it, and she laughed wetly, her voice throaty in his ear. “I know I seem weak right now, but—”

“I would never think of you as weak.”

“—but I’m determined, too,” she finished. Then, more firmly, “I’m determined.”