“You don’t have to do that,” Felix said. “I’ve told you your drinks are covered.”
As usual, she ignored him.
“She’s right about the Watch,” said Lottie. “Mother is beside herself. Even the guards are out looking for you.”
August frowned. “What? Why?”
“Things have been weird at home,” she said. “Something’s different.”
Uninterested in the aeslings’ conversation, Marlow turned to Felix. “You talk to your girlfriend?”
That caught August’s attention, and he leveled a scathing look at her.
Felix let himself bask in the obvious jealousy, his distracted thoughts returning to that moment of closeness—the scent ofsandalwood laced with the subtle, damp smell of the Hollow Dark that clung to August’s raven hair.
Then he remembered the night market, the nobles, the elixir.
“Yeah, I got some answers. But you won’t like them.”
Marlow grabbed her glass and went to sit in a booth. Once he joined, she took a long sip and then said, “Alright, out with it.”
“There’s an elixir being used by the nobility.” He glanced up at August and Lottie, who had gone quiet, listening.
“What’s an elixir got to do with missing wielders?” asked Marlow.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Not for sure.” He remembered the girl changing Sarah’s hair, and the way she had brushed the whole thing off like it was no big deal, like he was ridiculous for getting so worked up over it. “It gives them magic.”
Marlow folded her arms on the table, leaning forward. “Ah here now, that’s just ridiculous.”
A few days ago, Felix would’ve agreed.
“I saw it for myself,” he assured her. “They’re using magic like a plaything.”
Her expression darkened like a cloud blocking out the sun. “They’re paying money to use the magic they hate us for?”
This next part—the awful conclusion he’d come to—he dreaded telling her. She’d lost close friends to this. They both had. And though she hadn’t ruled out the worst-case scenarios, she still had hope that they’d show up. He hated to be the one to stomp out that hope. They were supposed to protect each other, and this . . . this was going to hurt her.
Felix forced the rest of the words from where they sat lodged in his chest. “I think they’re killing wielders to make it.”
Marlow blanched.
The ticking of the old clock in the room’s corner was deafening, every tick a violent blow, counting out the passing of each wordless second.
The worn leather of the booth creaked as Lottie slid in beside Marlow.
“You’re certain?” Lottie asked. “About this elixir?”
Felix’s mouth pressed into a grim line. “I hope I’m wrong. But it fits. A new elixir appears just as wielders start disappearing. One that hands over our magic. I keep going in circles, trying to find an explanation where they’re alive, but I can’t.”
The softness of Lottie’s face sharpened, and for a moment, she looked so much like the aesran, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it from the beginning.
“And you don’t think the Watch will help.” It wasn’t a question, but Felix shook his head, anyway.
He knew what happened when a wielder sought help from the Watch. He’d watched Elise pay for making that mistake.
No, they wouldn’t be going to the Watch for anything.
“I want to help,” said Lottie.
