“Is it ready?” Lira asked in a low voice.
Iris nodded, parting the front of her cloak enough to reveal a small, bulbous bottle filled with a murky brown liquid.
Lira made a face but took it, keeping her hand low as she slipped it beneath her apron.
“How long will it take to make them?” the apothecary asked, hiding her now-empty hands under her cloak again.
“Not long,” Lira said, already backing away. “A few minutes to mix up the batter and no more than ten to bake them. The oven is already hot.”
Iris managed a smile and a nod as Lira ducked into the kitchen, leaving the half doors swinging in her wake.
Once she was gone, Vaskel eyed Iris. “Why did you ask that? It wasn’t idle curiosity.”
The woman’s smile became sad. “You know me a bit too well. I wanted to know because we might have less time than we thought.”
Fear slid cool talons around Vaskel’s heart. “Why do you say that?”
Iris’s gaze flitted to the kitchen doors then back to him. “Because I saw Cali. She stopped by the shop.”
He snatched a breath. “You saw her too?”
“She came by to return the books she’d borrowed from me, Vask. All of them.”
The talons pierced his heart. Cali would only do that if she were leaving, which meant he might have been wrong about the archer and her ability to resist Marina.
Forty
Lira stood backfrom the metal baking sheet after pouring hot glaze over the four large cookies. “There they are.”
Vaskel, Sass, and Iris stood on the other side of the wooden work table, eyeing the knobby, glossy cookies. Lira had packed them with dark chocolate, tart cherries, and a potion that would hopefully break a soul bind, before smothering them in a chocolate glaze.
Both Crumpet and Bramble were sitting on the sill of the open window, as if prepared to depart hastily if anything went wrong. The flutterstoat narrowed his eyes at the cookies, wagging a finger at his raccoon friend, presumably warning him not to steal bites of these baked treats.
Sass shoved up the sleeves of her puffy white blouse. “What now? Do we taste them?”
Lira arched a brow at the dwarf. “You didn’t get enough earlier?”
“You asked for a taste tester,” Sass grumbled. “I was trying to help.”
Iris tapped a finger on her chin. “I don’t suppose it would harm someone who doesn’t have a soul bind to ingest the potion, but I honestly don’t know enough about it to say for sure.”
“Isn’t this your uncle’s potion?” Sass asked. “Shouldn’t we ask him?”
Iris blew out a breath. “That’s a fine idea. Erindil didn’t mention the potential dangers of the potion or even how much should be taken.”
Sass spun on her heel and headed for the swinging doors. “On it.”
Lira frowned. “That would have been helpful to know before I put the potion in the batter.” She took a flat spatula and lifted one of the four cookies from the tray. “I used all the potion in the bottle and didn’t make a large batch.”
Vaskel picked up the cookie that Lira had placed on an earthenware plate. He raised it to his nose and sniffed it. It didn’t smell foul. The only aromas he could detect were the richness of the chocolate and the kick of the apple brandy. “They smell delicious.”
Lira nibbled the corner of her lower lip. “I hope that doesn’t mean they’re too weak. We can’t count on Marina eating more than one of these.”
“I think it’s a good sign,” Iris said. “If they had enough potion in them so you could smell it, I doubt we could get her to eat more than one.”
Suddenly, Vaskel was struck by something he hadn’t bothered to consider before. He braced his hands on the table as he droppedhis head between his arms and groaned. “How are we going to get her to eat any?”
“What?” Lira asked.
