“I know.”
Concern creased his brow. “What am I missing?”
“Lean slightly to your left, and I’ll tell you.”
His frown deepened, but he leaned to the side.
With him mostly blocking me from sight, I withdrew the vial from my pocket and administered several drops of the elixir into what remained of my tea, which gave my cup a familiar, comforting scent.
At least one of his ingredients had a mildly pleasant floral taste, and I suspected he’d harvested it from the forest himself.
“What happened to your hand?” Wilder demanded, his gaze caught on my bandage.
I did not answer.
He held his position until the vial was safely secreted away again. “Very well, now—”
“One moment.” I lifted the cup and drank deeply, slowly, from the cooling liquid until I’d drained it. Then I returned the cup to its saucer and smiled wearily at him. “Thank you. It’s been a rather trying morning.”
He gave me an odd look. “The less sleep you get, the more you look and sound like your old self.”
“I cannot tell whether that’s an insult or a compliment.” Whether he preferred this version of me or the previous one.
“It’s merely a simple observation.”
Yet it felt anything but simple.
“What’s happened, Amber?” His typical grin was conspicuously absent as he plucked the last bite of scone from my plate. “Why is your name on every tongue?”
I sighed. “There are two possible causes for that phenomenon, and I haven’t yet gathered enough evidence to draw an accurate conclusion.”
“Go on.…”
“Last night, though you did not meet me in the student lab, Pryce Wishart did.”
“Pryce.” Wilder scowled. “He—”
“Collided with you on the bridge and smashed your deliveries.” I nodded, holding his gaze with a meaningful one of my own. “I am aware.”
“That was bad enough, but before I could retrieve my satchel from the ground, a carriage came storming across the bridge and flattened it, shattering everything that hadn’t broken. I wasinchesfrom being thrown over the edge myself.”
A carriage had come to Alchemary Island in the middle of the night? “Whose carriage? What was the hurry?”
He shrugged. “I only caught a glimpse of the seal as I gathered my things, but it appeared to belong to the Crown. The guards didn’t even stop it for an inspection.”
The Crown?
But Wilder was still stuck on another point, his cheeks bright with fury. “And none of that would have happened if not for Pryce. That drunken clod. I had to walk all the way back to the Dormitory and raid my—” His frown deepened as understanding blossomed. “How did you—” Full comprehension seemed to slam into him with the force of a charging bull. “He did it on purpose.”
I nodded, and a complicated series of emotions cycled across his expression, darkening his eyes. Making his lips twitch and his teeth clench. It was like watching spring harden into a cold, harsh winter, without passing through summer or fall.
The only conclusion I could draw with utter certainty was that he had a better understanding than I did of why Pryce might do such a thing.
And yet Wilder asked me, “What did he want? What did he say?”
I glanced into my cup, wishing there was some way to procure a second pot of tea without leaving my seat. “He offered to ‘help’ me relearn the basic principles of alchemy without revealing my deficiency to the rest of our classmates. But he heavily implied that there would be a price. That I already owe him, somehow, and should begratefulfor the offer.”
Wilder’s brows furrowed until I saw far too much of his brother in the expression. “And may I assume that you declined his ‘offer’ in some fantastically violent manner?”
