Marcus began pacing back and forth. “This is all wrong. It’s not working!”
“What’s the problem?” Kallie asked. “Maybe I can help.”
“You can’t come along and fix this with your false realities and illusions!” Marcus raged. “We need better ingredients—realingredients.”
Marcus wasn’t acting like himself. He didn’t usually yell at her about things like this. He was losing his patience with Kallie, and that was telling of how low he felt. He definitely was getting depressed.
“Hey, I’m good for more than just my illusions,” Kallie snapped. “Get me a list. I’ll get whatever you need.”
Marcus scoffed. “From where? I needmagical plants, Kallie. In case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t exactly bountiful in this stupid forest.”
Kallie walked over to Marcus, and his footsteps came to a halt as she shook him. “Marcus, I need you to pull yourself together and get me that list. I know a fae apothecary not far from here. Charlie and I will go. I’ll portal us there, and we’ll get everything you need.”
“You’re not going to find what I need at any random apothecary,” Marcus insisted.
“I’ll find it at this one,” she promised.
The message was loud and clear. This wasn’t just any fae apothecary, bound by the rules of Malovian law. She knew about black-market dealers, and she was willing to walk us into danger to get what we needed. It was either that, or eventually let the Warden find us. We really needed this potion if we wanted to move about without being tracked.
“What if someone recognizes you?” Marcus demanded.
“I can disguise us with glamour,” Kallie said. “It’s a simple illusion that will conceal our features. See?”
Magic tingled over my skin and across my nose. I had no idea what I looked like, but judging by the way Marcus gasped, I must’ve looked like a completely different person.
“What if the Warden’s tracking you?” Ava asked nervously. “You’ll be leaving our ward.”
“We’ll be quick about it, before his spells can find us,” Kallie said. “We have to take the risk to get the ingredients.”
“All right. Give me a minute.” Marcus came over to the picnic table. He must’ve conjured a paper and a pen, because he began scribbling something down. The paper rustled as he handed it to Kallie. “I hope this place really has the stuff, because if it doesn’t, we’re fucked.”
“We’ll get it,” Kallie promised again, though I heard uncertainty in her tone. “Charlie and Oberi are with me.”
Magic bloomed in front of us, and Kallie took my hand and led me through the portal. The temperature dropped, and my feet hit solid pavement. Voices came from somewhere nearby, echoing off walls around us. It seemed we were in some sort of alleyway.
“Get down,” Kallie hissed.
The three of us ducked, and I leaned against the cold metal of a dumpster. I knew that feeling all too well, after spending many nights on the streets. I missed the forest already.
“We’re in the alleyway behind the pharmacy,” Kallie said. “They’re closed for the night, but there are cameras on both sides of the alley. I should be able to scramble the images with my magic.”
“The pharmacy?” I asked. “I thought we were headed to a black-market dealer?”
“Two birds with one stone, Charlie,” Kallie said. “The pharmacy is a front for the magical dealings that happen behind the counter. We’re getting Marcus and Ava their medsandthe ingredients for the potion. These places are usually warded against magic, so we’ll have to get in the old-fashioned way.”
We could try bartering first, Oberi suggested.
“With what?” I questioned. “They’ll spot an illusion from a mile away.”
“Come on,” Kallie hissed. “We don’t have much time. Oberi, keep watch.”
On it, sister, Oberi said.
Kallie dragged me forward. She pulled something out of her hair and shook out the strands, nearly smacking me in the face. Kallie knelt beside the building, and the lock wiggled as she stuck her bobby pin inside it.
“Once I get this open, an alarm will go off,” Kallie said. “We’ll have to disable the alarm system immediately.”
I smirked. Working with Kallie was better than any thief I’d teamed up with in the past. “I’m guessing you know how to do that.”
