“Bloody hell,” Michael whispered.
Apollo lifted his boot, but the impression of his heel remained, a light dent around the gold man’s thin lips.“I’m not sure what happened, but at some point during his ranting, he turned lead to gold.Shocked me.Shocked him, too, and Miss Grant used the opportunity to make an escape, which did not please your master.I was not pleased he tried to hurt her, and there was a… scuffle.Then the prototype was disturbed and all the gold dust inside it puffed up into the air.Stone inhaled it, and then… well, as you see.”He waved toward the pure gold body.
The apprentices looked at the prototype gold, lifeless on the worktable, shivered, then scooted farther away from it.
“I don’t wonder anymore,” Apollo drawled, “why no man’s ever passed down exact knowledge of the transmutational arts.They likely never live to do so.Hm.It does make me wonder about one thing, though.”
The apprentices’ wide eyes were riveted on him.
“Can’t say I’ll be able to pass a golden statue ever again without thinking…”
The apprentices shivered again.
“What do we do now?”John asked.
Apollo didn’t hesitate to answer.“Talk to Temple Grant.”
Michael returned to scratching his jaw.“He was asking round about us this morning.”
“He’s a traitor,” Michael said.
“And a bore, if you ask me.”Apollo rolled up his sleeves and tucked his shirt in.“But he’s not mad, and his sister didn’t deserve any of this.”He buttoned his loose waistcoat.“I know you gentlemen agree.”
They nodded as if their lives depended on it.
“Excellent.”He slapped them on the shoulders.“Good men.Now, I must get the lady to a safer place.”
John straightened.“Of course.”
Michael still looked unsure.“What do we do with the body?”
Apollo turned to the office, to Sybil.“Melt it down for all I care.Could likely fund food for an entire village.Would be an honorable end for a dishonorable life.”He didn’t wait to hear their response to that.He gathered Sybil and helped her into a floating chamber.Arm around her waist, her head resting against his chest.
The museum above ground was waking up, its corridors gray in the early morning, but still it was something of a shock when they stepped outside and into sunlight.His greatcoat swallowed her, but he slipped his hand inside, pulled out his green glasses and pushed them behind her ears.
When her nose wrinkled, he said, “It’s bright out, princess.Indulge me.”
She did, and he indulged himself, too.Because he didn’t want to part from her yet.Couldn’t.His lodgings were so very close, and she followed him silently down the street, around the corner, and up the stairs.
He hesitated at his door, though.It felt like opening up his chest and letting her into the messy, dusty tomb behind his ribs.It was that or let her go, though.So he opened the door.
She perked up inside, coming away from his body, looking around, the slight tremble that had coursed through her finally ceasing.“This is where you…”
“Yes.I know it’s an intimidating amount of luxury, but you’ll acclimate yourself to it.I barely notice it anymore.”He guided her to the one fucking chair.“Sit.”
She shook her head and left his side to inspect the room.Her fingers trailed everywhere, and on one—a golden ring.Made from his gold.He knew it,knew itwithout knowing it.His.The rough-hewn ring on his own finger tingled as if excited by the proximity of its mate.Or was that Apollo, not the ring?Apollo grateful to have Sybil here, alive and well, even if it washere, a place he’d never wanted anyone to see.
She smoothed the tattered curtain on the single window and traced the pattern of the rotting wallpaper.She circled the rim of the chipped and stained washbasin and studied her reflection in the tiny, wavering looking glass.She brushed a fingertip through the dust on the dresser and up the spines of the few books gathered there.
Principles of Alchemy.
And a book without a title.
This she pulled out gingerly as she looked over her shoulder at him.“May I?”
“Yes.”If it would help her heal.Anything if it would help her.
Now she found the chair and sat in it, absentmindedly, as she opened the book.The journal.
