“But she couldn’t do it.”
“Precisely,” I said. “If she could, she wouldn’t need us. But I think that her error in creating the Elixir—maybe more than one of her errors—is what kept you alive long enough for the real Elixir to come to the rescue. And I think that as we deconstruct it and come up with a formula, we’ll be able to undo everything she’s done.”
“So…you agreed to all of this for me.”
I shrugged. “For you, and for the other aurums.” And, in truth, because Itrulywanted to work on the problem. Because I wasn’t sure anyone else was capable of solving it.
“This is harder than it would be if you had your memory,” Wilder said, his blue-eyed gaze burning into mine.
“Yet harder does not mean impossible.”
We hadn’t told him about the Philosopher’s Stone. Not that I’d finished it or what I’d done with it. There was a limit, Desmond and I had decided, to what we could afford to tell Wilder, because Iris would almost certainly use him to spy on us again.
We had him back, but we did not have all of him. As the bruise around my throat could attest.
“Wilder.” I took his hand again from across the table. “The time has come to tell me about that night. I need to know how we wound up in bed together, when…I was with Desmond.”
Wilder paled. “He told you?”
I nodded. “He told me as much of the truth as he knows. And I need to know why I would betray him like that. Whywewould betray him.”
“We did not,” he said. “As pleasing as it was to indulge the fantasy—the possibility that you might feel for me what I feel for you—you deserve the truth. You and I didnothingto betray Desmond.”
My gaze narrowed on him. “But when I awoke, we were in bed, nearly naked.”
“Yes, and that is how we fell asleep—because I could not get warm, despite the fire and the blankets. You found me that night, on your way to the Dormitory, in a state of profound physical distress. I had been taking the elixir I told you about. The one that gave me confidence and focus, but its unintended effects had become too great. I had decided to cease taking it. That morning, I had smashed my entire inventory, and that night, I’d left the student laboratory, after setting up my station, because I was suffering tremors I could not control. I had broken into a cold sweat, and when you found me, I’d just involuntarily purged my entire dinner. I could not get warm.
“You brought me up to your room to care for me. You made me tea and built a fire, yet still I shivered. I confided in you what I’d done—why I was sick—and you seemed so pleased by my decision, but you would not let me leave. You insisted on caring for me, even though you felt a bit sick yourself at that point. So we curled up in your bed, skin to skin, for warmth. That is how we fell asleep, and how we woke up the next morning. Only…you had no memory of it. You thought we’d acted upon some passion, and when I realized you could not remember your relationship with Desmond, I thought there would be no harm in letting you draw conclusions, just to vex my brother. To indulge my own fantasy. I did not think it would last more than an hour, because he would tell you about your affair. And I left that disclosure to him. Yet he never made it.”
“Not until last night,” I confirmed.
“No more secrets,” Wilder said. “I think we should vow, all three of us, to share—”
The door flew open, and Desmond stood in the threshold, the darkened hallway behind him. His eyes were wide, his fists clenched around the doorframe. “Amber…I think the wolves truly are at the gate.”
“What?” I stood, my pulse pounding, and Wilder’s chair skidded against the stone floor at my back. “What’s happened?”
“There is a mob of Toolkeepers on the bridge, demanding entry to Alchemary Island.”
“And my father is leading the charge? Is this about my readmission? About Wilder’s ‘resurrection’?” The campus was abuzz about how inaccurate the rumor of his death had been, but there was no way for that good news to have proliferated beyond the island itself so fast.
“No,” Desmond said. “Your fatheriswith them, but…he’s completely unresponsive. He’s been infected. Amber, your father is an aurum.”
