Page 67 of The Alchemists

“I hope not.” Lily shifted from foot to foot. “Now we wait.” She drummed her fingers against the soapstone. “This is going to take forever. I wish I had some letters to go over or something.”

“It’s good you didn’t, or they’d be long gone,” he said darkly, leaning back against the table.

“Well, I wish I had some way to pass the time.”

“Seriously?” He looked at her, stifling his guffaw. She was serious. “I know how we can pass the time. C’mere.” He reached for her, tugging her by the wrist, his thumb rolling over her bracelet, rich with Æther. “What is that?” he said, lips tracing a gentle trail down her neck. She melted in his arms, head tipping back to expose more of her skin. He felt her breath catch in her throat and it urged him on. “You always wear it. Them.”

“I can’t tell you.” She exhaled, and he paused, feeling her swallow beneath his lips. “Not right now.”

It was a satisfactory answer. Seb pulled her against him, hotly aware that she could feel everything the way their bodies were fitted together currently, hip to hip, leg to leg. He laced their hands together, tracing the band of the ring on Lily’s middle finger with his own. She leaned into him, her fingers creeping up the back of his neck, into his hair. His breath hitched, and he groaned silently into her shoulder.

Time melted as the arsenic burned and the cinnabar threw toxic gas into the neck of the flask, as the gold bubbled. Seb had almost forgotten what it was like to need, to want, so urgently that it drove out all sense, that it unpinned his Self and turned him into nothing more than a collection of impulses and tender nerve endings. He would have gone all the way, blown past every barrier, in that darkness, if she’d said she wanted it.

“Look.” Lily stilled against him. He followed her gaze, wetting his chapped, swollen lips. “We should get started on the next part.”

“Mmm,” he agreed, into her hair, moving his mouth to the ellipse of her ear. “Just one. More. Minute⁠—”

“By all means, don’t stop on my account, Sebastian.”

They froze as a light flicked on in the hallway, framing Chant from behind. He was still wearing the charcoal quarter-zip and his glasses, but he’d acquired plaid pajama pants and a rumpled look.

“Ohfuck,” Seb breathed, springing away from Lily, which meant hurling himself sidelong into the nearest lab table, smashing his hip in the process. His arousal died immediately. He winced as a rainbow of pain burst behind his eyelids. Lily, to her credit, did nothing.

God, she’s cool.

Chant stepped into the room, graciously leaving the lights off. “I have to say, if I catch you having sex in my lab, I just might have it in me to see you expelled.”

Lily shrugged, “Okay.”

Seb hissed at her. Getting caught trespassing and stealing toxic minerals was not the time to start calling bluffs.

“Might I ask exactly what you’re doing here, well past midnight on a Saturday? As we’re all aware, you certainly don’t have any outstanding assignments.”

“Extracurricular research?” Seb winced out.

“We’re working on the Elumnara,” Lily said plainly.

They stared at her—Chant with bald curiosity and Seb with horror.

“And you should let us finish because we’re incredibly close to a breakthrough, and if you come over here, you’ll be interested, and you’ll want to help, and then we’ll be disqualified due to faculty assistance.” She spoke quickly but coolly. “And I know you want us to win.”

Chant stopped.

Seb wanted to kiss her. He realized he could, once Chant was gone.

“That’s all very presumptuous of you, Miss Perkins,” Chant began slowly, looking between them. Lily folded her arms over her chest. Chant yielded. “Well then, I suppose I’ll leave you to it. Two things: the fire extinguisher is just…here.” He kicked it gently where it sat next to his desk. “And don’t have sex in my lab.”

“We’re not idiots,” Lily huffed.

Seb was definitely an idiot. Chant fixed him with a pointed stare.

“Speak for yourself, Miss Perkins. I wish you a fruitful morning.”

LILY

Somehow, she slept, snatching fitful hours after crawling into bed shortly before dawn and staring at the ceiling, feeling wired and unreal. They’d melted the ring, and with exhausting casting, managed to hold it all together. In the end, the crucible had bequeathed them a disc with a hole in the center the size of a penny. It was made up of five concentric circles in a spectrum that began with gold in the center, followed by red, white, and black. A depression in the shape of a maze or a labyrinth had etched itself into the surface of the disk, to what purpose neither of them had any clue.

Seb had insisted on driving her home in his ridiculous car, and then they’d kissed outside her house in his ridiculous car until he’d groaned about having Cantrèa later and she’d leapt out onto the sidewalk.