“I have something for you as well,” Wynter interrupted Viri’s thoughts, dragging her away from Reeve and Jonas and over to her workbench, where she’d lined up a small collection of vials. “If everything goes to plan and you head straight from the Summit to your brother, I’ll feel better if you have these with you.” She pointed to the vials in turn. “Impedidust and zingzest—you already know how to use those. The healing salve and morphenine,too. But this one is new.” She picked up a scarlet powder in a stoppered glass. “I haven’t had a chance to test it yet, but it might come in handy.”
Around a mouthful of food, Viri asked, “Do I swallow it?”
Wynter blanched and all but shouted,“No!”
Viri jumped and nearly choked on a piece of bacon.
“Sorry,” Wynter said, clutching the vial close. “But you definitely don’t want to ingest this. Don’t inhale it, either. Don’t eventouchit if you can help it.”
“Then what—”
“It’s an explosive,” Wynter blurted, then winced at the look on Viri’s face. “Or ithopefullyis. Like I said, I haven’t been able to test it yet. But I’ve been working on a new formula from one of my books, and I’m pretty confident I got it right.”
“On a scale ofit doesn’t work at alltobe careful not to blow yourself up, how confident is your ‘pretty confident’?” Viri asked dubiously, finishing off the last of her breakfast and tossing the bag into the trash.
“When I say ‘explosive,’ I don’t mean the incendiary kind, so you won’t blow yourself up—or anyone else, for that matter,” Wynter assured her, placing the vial back on the bench. “It’s more that it worksexplosively, in the sense of it having a larger range than, say, the impedidust. If you find yourself attacked by a group of reapers—like you did last night—then smash the vial wherever they’re the most concentrated. If the dust touches their skin, or they breathe it in, they should feel its effects almost immediately.”
“What will it do?”
“If I made it right, it should block their ellixen-heightened abilities,” Wynter answered. “Speed, strength, healing—all of that will be inaccessible. It won’t drain them like your fillium, butit’ll put you on even footing in a fight, at least until the effects wearoff.”
Viri stared at the scarlet powder in awe. “Like temporary nullicuffs, but in alchemical form.”
Wynter grinned. “Precisely.”
“You’re a genius, Wyn,” Viri said—something she’d told her friend many times, but that never made it any less true.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Wynter warned. “It might not work.”
“Doesn’t make you less of a genius.”
Wynter’s eyes warmed. “Love you, V,” she said softly. “Promise you’ll be careful?”
“Always.” Viri reached out to squeeze her friend’s hand. “And love you back. You’re the Orion to my Aurora, you know that, right?”
Wynter mock-pouted. “Why can’t I be Aurora?”
Viri chuckled. “Works for me. I’d happily chase you anywhere.”
“Speaking of chasing…” Wynter said slyly, her gaze drifting over to where Jonas and Reeve were talking quietly on the other side of the room. “We only have a few minutes left before we need to go, so you’d better spendevery secondexplaining how you kept such a juicy secret from me for so many years.”
The breakfast wrap turned sour in Viri’s stomach. “Braedan—”
Wynter waved a hand. “I’m not talking about your brother—we’ve already covered that. I want to know about Reeve.”
Viri jolted. “What about him?”
“What about him?”Wynter repeated incredulously. “Have youseenhim? He’s not my type—it doesn’t take an alchemist to know that mixing charm, intelligence, and confidence that borders onarrogance is a recipe for disaster—but, Elders, even I can admit that he’s beautiful to look at.”
Humor quirked Viri’s lips at the understatement, but then she sobered. “Beautiful or not, he’s a reaper. I won’t deny that there’s…something between us, some kind of spark, or attraction, or maybe just nostalgic feelings left over from the friendship we once shared. But it doesn’t matter, because like I said—he’s areaper. That overrides everything else.”
Wynter’s head tilted thoughtfully to the side. “He’s not, though. Not really.”
“He mightn’t siphon now, but he did once,” Viri said, refusing to forget what he’d done. “He killed someone. A girl. He told me so himself.”
Wynter didn’t have a comeback for that, but she lowered her voice to say, “I had a chance to speak with him and Jonas while you slept, and I have to admit, I like them. Did you know Jonas and Sage and their other friend—Ardin, right?—they only siphon from each other and other reapers? They don’t target children. They haven’t for a long time.”
Viri peered across the room at Jonas, watching as he petted Walnut’s head peeking out of his pocket. “I knew they could. But I didn’t know they did it exclusively.”
