“I just?—”
“Is it because of him?” There was a tinge of venom in his tone.
I hesitated to answer, but he had already drawn his own conclusions.
“Don’t worry, I understand.” He nodded. “This is just a gesture, nothing more. Let me escort you home. If you got upand disappeared like so many do at night, I couldn’t forgive myself.”
His words left me uneasy, sounding vaguely threatening. Maybe it was jealousy I was hearing or bitterness toward the fact that I was with Silas now. Whatever it was, it slipped away fasterthan it was brought up.
44
THE POISONER
The poison had consumed my entire evening and carried into the morning. I had been tweaking and testing until the sun came through. I convinced Viktor to get me a coach to my shop instead of Silas’s home to avoid an altercation. There was too much work to do, and I needed to get my hands on my tools while the ideas were fresh in my mind.
I had gotten it to the point where I added the solution to blood and it made most of the cells combust from a chemical heat. It was not perfect by any means and incredibly unstable, but it was enough for the purposes it was intended for. Sometimes it would make all the blood cells combust. Other times, it would only make them clot. Any reaction was better than nothing.
I had five small vials in my purse. I could test it if my second shadow showed itself tonight.
Butterflies formed in my stomach as I fantasized about finally feeling less helpless around these creatures. Now I had an edge.
“Alina!” a high-pitched voice called out, and pulled me from my deep thinking.
I held the pen still as if to mark my place in my book, glancing up at the red-haired manic in front of me.
“You weren’t at the shop, and we have to be at our appointment for our fitting!” Phoebe stopped in front of the coffee shop table where I was posted. “Do not make this a habit. You didn’t even call this morning! Just because you have a new shiny toy to play with doesn’t mean you get to ignore your best friend!”
“I didn’t notice the time,” I explained, looking up at the fractious nymph before me. I checked the small watch face on my wrist. “We still have thirty minutes.”
“Yes! But we didn’t get to have our morning walk!”
“We are going to walk together now.”
“It’s not the same type of walk!” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Let’s just go. The clock is ticking.” She hurried me out of my seat, collecting my book and dragging me away.
“What’s gotten into you, Phoebe?”
“The more important question iswhois getting intoyou?”
“That’s not fair!” I bit back. “It’s none of your business.”
“Alina!” she snapped, stopping in the middle of the walkway to face me. “You are allowing aman, of all things, to cut you off from the life you’ve built around yourself. Four months ago, you would have called me insane if I told you what has become of you.” She poked the corner of my book into my chest.
I had never seen her so consumed with anger.
“Phoebe—”
“No! Don’t ‘Phoebe’ me!” She raised her voice, and pedestrians glanced briefly at us upon hearing the commotion as they passed.
We looked at each other in silence. Phoebe’s chest was heaving from her bout of anxiety.
Slowly, I wrapped myself around her, squeezing her tight with my head resting on top of hers.
Her body was tense but gave way slightly with her head on my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered softly to her. “I would never abandon you, and I didn’t intend it to look that way.”
She was silent, which meant I needed to give her some sort of reassurance.
