She laughed.“That sounds like a maxim you heard often growing up.”
“My mother’s favorite saying.”
“And your father’s?”
“Metals are…” He’d started it.Might as well finish it.Though it was the damned idea that had gotten the Grants in the mess they were in.“Metals are stronger together.”
“Literal or metaphorical?”
“Both.”
But she was already inspecting something else, creeping too close to the fire he never let die.“Who is that above the fire?”She reached out to touch the image carved into the stones above the large fireplace.
“Careful.”He pulled her back with an arm around her waist.
“I would venture to say Hephaestus.”
“Too Greek.It’s Vulcan.”
She glowered at him.“Same god, Temple.Different culture.”
“There are important differences.Some call him Gobannus, a Celtic god of smithing.But he was combined with the Roman Vulcan.Whatever you call him, though, he creates.”
“It makes sense he’s an important figure to alchemists.”
“Every alchemist’s forge has an image of Vulcan.Or Gobannus.WeareVulcan.The undesired making treasures for the gods.”
“You should stop.Make treasures for yourselves instead.”She kissed his cheek then pulled out of his arms.
“It’s not that simple.”If he gave up the king’s patronage, his family would have nothing.“There are alchemists who have done that, but they have… lost sight of many things that have long been important to us.”
“Such as?”
“Progress.They see only the progress of their bank accounts, and they no longer care how many people they maim, kill, or enslave to do it.”
“That, I’m afraid, is common everywhere and with most peoples.”
“Alchemists used to stand for something.We used to work to free people from their chains.”The chains transcendents had always wielded against them.
Diana ran her palm down the long worktable and traced her fingers over the tops of the scattered tools littering it.“What are you working on?”
“I told you the king wants a summoning stone that can communicate with the dead.”
“You said it was impossible.”
“But I must create something to show him I’m trying.”
“You cannot simply tell him the truth?”
“Do kings like truth?”Truth would certainly not keep the Grants in his majesty’s good graces.
Diana stopped at the summoning stone.It sat where he’d left it.No longer glowing.She circled a finger over the top of it, and with the other hand, she teased her lovely bottom lip, pinching it, pulling it.
Temple’s body tightened, and he moved behind her, so close he could feel her heat.
“My teeth can do that for you,” he said, bending to whisper near her ear.
She glanced over her shoulder at him.“Do what for me?”
