Keegan rolled his eyes but plucked two, setting each one on the edge of the table. Logan had lost a lot of scales in the past month. I hoped it wasn’t too many or he would be weakened. Rufus picked one up between his fingers and stared at it for a moment. His eyes went misty but he shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and then he looked tome.
“Burn it,” he said to me, holding the little black scale out between hisfingers.
My brow furrowed. “Huh?”
He continued to swirl the ash with one hand and held the scale up to me. “Do your fire magic thing and burn the scale. It won’t hurt myhand.”
I looked at Isaac, who just shrugged. Okay … if I burned this guy’s hand and he turned my head to stone in retaliation I was going to bepissed.
I conjured up my fire, letting it sit in my palm, and then tilted it towards his outstretched fingers. That’s when I saw that a golden sheen coated his skin, all the way to his wrist. Cool. I doused his hand, watching the scale turn to white ash and fall to thedesk.
“Thank you!” he said, and brought his shiny golden fingers over to the pile of ash, mixing in all of the burnt dragon scale from the desk and from hisfingers.
As he stirred, the powdered gold he’d put in previously started to liquefy and become a wet golden metal, rolling in the ash, picking up the black soot and threading its gold through it. The alchemist leaned forward and breathed a slow and steady breath over the swirling mixture. I noticed Danny step forward withintrigue.
“Isaac, a book please. Not one of myfavorites.”
Isaac stepped forward and chose a book form the shelf, handing it to Rufus. Once in the alchemist’s hand it began to transform into a solid goldbrick.
Holymother…
“I’m the wrong kind of supernatural. I want to be you when I grow up,” I said, and hechuckled.
The gold-bricked book began to melt in his hand and pour over into the swirling ash concoction, all of this taking place on just a golden desktop, no bowl, nothing to keep it from spilling out but his ownpower.
“You know what I have learned from having endless wealth?” he askedme.
I shrugged. “That being rich is amazing.”Obviously.
A smile tugged at his lips. “That money can’t buy happiness. It can’t buy health, and it can’t bring people back from thedead.”
I went silent. He was right and it wasshitty.
Finally, he pulled his finger from the spinning golden and black mass. Not one drop of soot or gold remained on his skin and the mixture on the desk continued to swirl even without his intervention. I wasn’t sure who thought it was cooler, Danny orme.
“Now we wait. About twelve hours should do it. We’ll know by morning if I was successful. It may look different than before, but hopefully it still works for you. You’re all welcome to stay here. It would be my honor to hostyou.”
I looked at Logan and he nodded. “Even Isaac? He can staytoo?”
Rufus groaned as if he’d forgotten his feud with the druid. “Yes, he can staytoo.”
I smiled. “Alright, then. Thankyou.”
It wouldn’t be worth it to drive all the way back, or even stay at a hotel if he was offering for us to stay here. It seemed safest. The house was behind a big gate, and he could turn people’s lungs to gold, so I was betting he could hold his own in a druidfight.
He stood. “I’ll call my caterer. Isaac, are you stillvegetarian?”
Isaac nodded. “So isSloane.”
Dammit. I forgot about that.When my mentor looked at me, I smiled. A bit of a forced smile. Rich people usually had really good food. Like prime rib and bacon-covered ... I couldn’t gothere.
“Why don’t you all get settled in and I’ll see you for dinner in a few hours?” Rufussaid.
We nodded and left the room, he proceeded to give us a quick tour of the house. When he showed Logan and I to our room, we slipped inside and closed the door. It was a simple yet luxurious space. A plush bed with a sitting area off to the side. I fell into the mattress as Logan sat on the chair. As I lay there, I found my tongue probing my mouth and a shock ran through me when I felt my molar nearly grownback.
“My freaking tooth is growing back!” Ideclared.
Logan chuckled. “Pretty cool,huh?”
