He frowned. “That would be foolhardy in the extreme.”
“Butwhy?”
“For any number of reasons. There might be side effects you aren’t prepared for. It might not be strong enough. Or too strong. It might interact with other?—”
“For the love—” I snarled, pacing back and forth in front of his desk. What use was having an alchemist who specialized in potions if he was unwilling to brew any useful ones?
I changed tactics. “Don’t you want to find the lamp and control a genie?”
“You already know I do.”
I spread my hands. “This might be the only chance youhave to find one. You wouldn’t want to squander it because I’m not good enough at flirting.”
Zafir stubbornly went back to scribbling yet more notes. “You’re trying to manipulate me. It won’t work.”
I slid my hand with the genie’s mark branding my wrist across his desk. His gaze flicked over it then focused on his work again. I softened my voice. “I’m not manipulating you. I’m asking for your help soIcan manipulateJulian. One tiny potion, that’s all I’m asking. Or you can let me make it myself. I’ve brewed illegal potions before.”
That caught his attention. “Absolutely not. I don’t let anyone touch my potion ingredients or bottles or burners or?—”
“I would only do that if you were unwilling. I’m sure you aremuchmore skilled than I am,” I said in a warm, flattering voice.
“It would still be untested—” Zafir began, but I interrupted.
“I said you could test it on me.”
He was shaking his head again. “Impossible.”
Zafir only knew how to say no to things. “Why? Why is it impossible?”
“Men and women require different potions because of biological differences in how their brains and bodies are affected. We’d have to test it on a man.”
“What ifyousampled it, then?”
Zafir’s lip curled in disgust. “I’d rather drink poison.”
“Oh, come on; it’s perfect,” I went on. “You can try it out here to make sure it’s safe, and I would know anything you said or did was purely for scientific research.”
Zafir tapped his fingernail on the desk.
“All potions wear off eventually,” I wheedled. “We’d have a few hours where we could take notes about the potion’seffects, then it would be tested and you would have no guilt if a dose somehow found its way into Julian’s drink.”
He hesitated.
“It would be good research,” I told him. “You would learn a lot.”
“I’ll consider it” was all I got out of Zafir as he bent his head over his work again.
“I’ll look up the recipe to make sure we have everything,” I offered, pulling a stepstool over so I could retrieve the book. Before I even touched it, Zafir had jumped up and snatched the book back down.
“I’m perfectly capable of keeping inventory of my own supplies.”
“When will you make it?”
Zafir left out a long-suffering sigh. “Will you leave me alone to work after I make it?”
“Yes.”
“Very well.” Zafir flipped through the book. While most pages had worn edges or slight smudges on the corners, the recipe for the infatuation potion for men looked as though it had never been touched. His finger scanned down the list of ingredients. “I have everything we need, and it appears to be a relatively quick potion to make.”
