Page 30 of The Alchemists

His roommates exchanged a glance that indicated a modicum of concern.

“Alchemy, Sebastian. Alchemy,” Tori said.

He rubbed his eyes, still confused. “I did the homework.”

Asher turned to Tori, now sighing at her. “I told you he was going to do it alone, but no⁠—”

Tori cut him off. “Then where have you been all night? Why are you dressed like you’re on the way to a farmer’s market in Silver Lake?”

Asher laughed. Seb looked down at his pants.

“I didn’t do the homework alone.”

“What do you mean?” Tori looked genuinely confused.

“I did it with…” He had trouble saying her name out loud. The last few hours felt terrifically private. He hadn’t thought about who he was, or what he was supposed to be, all night. He hadn’t even cared that he was wearing sweatpants in the library, even if it was a part of the library where no one would find him.

“You met up with Lily Perkins?” Asher choked on his beer.

“She’s my lab partner.”

“She’s cursed.”

“It’s not contagious,” he said to Tori.

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t know.”

Asher and Tori exchanged another glance.

“How was it?” Asher said, and it felt like he was asking a very different question.

“It was fine. She’s…” He’d been about to say “normal,” but that wasn’t true either. “Smart,” he finished.

“Well thank heavens for that. Jesus, Sebastian.” Tori threw up her hands.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.” He really didn’t. Whatever Lily’s curse ended up being, it wasn’t because of something she had done.

“The big deal is that she shouldn’t exist!” Tori’s wine-dark nails flashed and her accent flared. “She shouldn’t have been born, and she definitely shouldn’t be at Windermere. She’s an insult to our entire culture. That’s what the problem is.”

The words were out of Seb’s mouth before he could stop them. “And here I thought you were going to school in America because back home that’s what people were saying about you.”

The suite fell perfectly silent. Down the hall, a door slammed and someone shrieked out late-night laughter. Tori’s normally pale face drained of color and she sat frozen with rage. She stood up slowly, and when she spoke her voice shook. “Fuck you.”

Seb opened his mouth to call her back, to apologize, as she stormed to her room, but he didn’t know how to apologize for something true, even if it had hurt. He looked to Asher, but Asher looked away, taking his beer to his room, leaving Seb standing alone.

The sound of Asher’s keyboard slid under the door. Chopin—music to get buried to. Suddenly, Seb wasn’t hungry. He didn’t feel like the evening had been the beginning of anything anymore; he just felt like he was drowning.

LILY

On Friday afternoon, Lily went to alchemy and turned in the homework with their names side by side on top of the page. The class was a lecture, and they were able to ignore each other without incident, though she dreaded the coming Wednesday when they’d have their first lab assignment.

On Friday evening she watched a movie with Gran and the Girls from the attic, with her brain a million miles away. She woke up sweating from a nightmare of the red and black curse page. She’d dreamt that in order for the monstrosity to be born, it had to consume her. Its teeth against her skin, its winged embrace—both had been as horrifying as they had been enthralling.

Late Saturday morning and into the afternoon she spent with Daphne and Gemma in the Litchfield common room. Gemma plucked absentmindedly at the little-used grand piano while Daphne and Lily played a variation of French Tarot. She’d been grateful for Daphne’s text asking if she wanted to hang out. She needed an excuse to get out of her own head. Work quickly devolved into gossip and loitering—Gemma had taken roughly fifty pictures of herself at the piano, making sure the light slanting in through the windows illuminated her in a way that was appropriately ethereal.

Daphne was a savage Tarot player and had taken several tricks to Lily’s none, additionally casting several cantrips to double cards and otherwise cheat. After a third, merciless victory, Lily threw her hand down in disgust, using some of her spontaneous reserves to make sure the cards folded themselves into an elaborate tower. Daphne laughed her quiet, flat laugh, and it was one of those rare moments in which Lily felt perfectly normal—a typical college student, spending the day playing cards with her friend.