Read Online Dark Alchemy by Laura Bickle - Free Book Online Page A

scrap wood, and doors torn from the upstairs rooms of the house. Paint peeled from the elaborate six-­panel doors. Mason jars held silvery liquid that seemed to quiver in the uneven light. A hot plate glowed red in the darkness.
    â€œStroud?” Cal called. He thought he spied movement in the furnace. Through the grate, a tiny salamander wriggled. It dropped to the ground and scuttled across Cal’s shoe. Cal started, jumping back as the creature slipped away.
    â€œHere, child.”
    Cal saw him then, nearly motionless in this hoarder’s nest. Stroud was sitting on a stool, measuring powders on a postal scale. He was old enough to be Cal’s father: a stringy sinew of an ex-­hippie hunched over his work. His blond hair was fading to grey at the temples, but his eyes shone fever-­bright blue. He looked over the round rims of his glasses at Cal.
    â€œI’m sorry to disturb you.” Instinctively, Cal took a step back.
    â€œIt’s all right.” Stroud’s lips peeled back over a smile. He cocked his head, observing Cal. Cal squirmed. He always tried to avoid Stroud’s notice. Getting Stroud’s attention usually meant trouble. For the young women, that meant being tied up in his bed. For the young men, it meant dangerous assignments that often landed them in jail.
    Cal swallowed. “Adam and Diana are missing.”
    Stroud took off his glasses, frowning. “How long?”
    â€œThree days. Justin and I went out to find them . . .” Cal shrugged, his hands open. “We can’t find them. All their things are still here, at the Garden.”
    Stroud drummed his fingers on his makeshift workbench. A bead of mercury rolled off the edge to the floor. The bead veered around Cal’s foot into spiderwebs beneath a shelf.
    â€œI sent them to spy on Sal Rutherford.” Stroud’s gaze was distant. “I hope that Rutherford didn’t find them.”
    Cal’s fists clenched. “I’ll go look for them there.”
    â€œNo.” Stroud shook his head. “Not yet. Not alone. Give them more time to come back.”
    â€œWhat did—­” Cal bit his tongue. He knew better than to ask the Alchemist questions. If he asked, he got answers he would never forget, answers that would keep him awake at night.
    Stroud regarded him. “Can I trust you with a secret?”
    Cal bit his lip. He wanted to say “no.” He didn’t like secrets. But he had no choice. “Yes.”
    â€œRutherford has magic.”
    Cal frowned, processing. “Magic like this?” His thin fingers sketched the lab. “You’re the only one who makes the aqua vitae, the Elixir.”
    Stroud’s gaze burned like the blue of a gas flame. “He has something else. A piece of the puzzle of eternal life.”
    Cal didn’t ask any more questions. He didn’t want to know how Stroud had come upon this shiny bit of information.
    But Stroud was going to tell him anyway. The Alchemist opened a battered leather journal that seemed to be disintegrating under the weight of mildew. His fingers flickered through the fragile pages. “I have Lascaris’s journals. He left something there, on Rutherford’s land, that yields immortality.”
    Cal could see spidery sketches, strange symbols, and words in Latin, but could make no sense of it. “If Rutherford has the secret, why isn’t he using it?”
    Stroud smiled. “I don’t think that he knows how to use it.”
    Cal’s fingers knotted nervously in the chain to his wallet. “I’m worried about Adam and Diana.”
    â€œWe’ll find them,” Stroud said soothingly. “You’ve been up all night?”
    Cal nodded miserably.
    â€œAnd got into a fight, I see.”
    Cal touched the side of his swollen face self-­consciously. “It was nothing.”
    â€œRest first.” Stroud handed him a glass vial.
    Cal stared at