Page 96 of Alchemy of Souls

“More like you tore it up and lit it on fire,” I say, far too hyped up. I honestly don’t know how I feel about Grayson in this moment. Utter betrayal and extreme gratitude all wrapped in one.

“Just the same, I need you to follow me,” he says.

“Why on earth would I do that?” I fire back.

“BecauseI’mtrustingyou, Claws. I’m trusting you with something I’ve never trusted anyone with.” He hesitates. “This is something that could get me killed. And I can only hope that you won’t completely hate me for it.”

Whatever I thought he might say, that definitely wasn’t it. Grayson’s trusting me with something that could get him killed? I can’t even imagine what that could be.

I take a deep breath and nod. Then I walk across the street toward the trees. He hands me one of the warm mozzarella, tomato, and pesto paninis and we walk in silence side by side, the only sounds belonging to the forest.

When he does speak, his voice is quiet, subdued in a way I’ve never heard it. “My brother Liam wasn’t like the rest of my family,” he starts slowly. “He was kind and caring. He was also my shield, weathering the storm of our family so I didn’t have to.”

When Grayson told me his uncle killed his brother, my first thought was to reject it, to say that it had to be some horrible accident. But today convinced me.

“Then one night Liam called the Key,” Grayson says as he looks ahead at the trees. “We were in our living room trying out spells and suddenly there it was. I remember being awestruck, super proud that no one had seen the thing in a hundred years but it wasmybrother who called it. And to top it off, he was still an Academy student, only in his third year.”

I glance at Grayson. Part of me wants to reach out and touch his arm in comfort.

“While I was celebrating, Liam was confused and nervous,” he says. “And when I asked him why, he told me to shut up. Liam never snapped at me and I remember being surprised, hurt even.”

“Suddenly, we heard my uncle in the foyer,” he says on an exhale. “Immediately, Liam shoved the Key in his pocket. He told me to get out. Only this time I wasn’t upset, I was scared. Because Liam had that look, the one he always got before our family did something awful.”

He turns my way, giving me a sad smile.

“He grabbed my shoulders and looked me right in the eyes. He told me he loved me and that he was sorry. He said he had no time to explain, but when things got to be too much, I should go into the woods behind the house and find the red maple surrounded by spruces.”

I step over a fallen branch, wondering if that’s what Grayson is taking me to see—the red maple.

“Then he sent me to my room and told me to stay there. I was so used to listening to him, I did it even though I didn’t want to. I was twelve. It was late at night, and when Liam didn’t show up in the next hour, I passed out.”

My stomach drops, because I can sense what’s coming next and it breaks my heart.

Grayson exhales, looking up at the sunlight through the canopy of leaves. “The next morning Liam was dead. And my entire world fell to pieces.”

“Oh, Grayson, I’m so sorry,” I say, my heart aching for him.

“My uncle said Liam was poisoned—that it was a targeted attack by the Lawless. But I knew my uncle wanted that Key. He’d been obsessed with it for as long as I could remember. And my brother had just called it. Liam would never have given it to him. I knew immediately that my uncle killed him for it. All while I wassleeping. I didn’t even try to stop it.”

“Gray, that’s not your fault. You were a kid—”

“Twelve,” he says gruffly. “I was old enough.”

I’m about to argue but he says, “Don’t,” so quietly that it sounds like a plea. And so, I don’t.

“That day I promised myself,” he says, his voice resolute. “That I’d never let my uncle get that Key. And that I’d pay him back for what he did to my brother. It took me weeks to find the tree. But when I did, I discovered something else.”

He stops walking and gestures at an enormous maple, one surrounded by spruces. “We have to climb it. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” I say, the words feeling out of place and stilted. I want to tell him I’m sorry ten more times, that I understand now why he hates his uncle. But I’ve never seen Grayson vulnerable like this and I don’t want to overwhelm him.

He climbs the handholds on the tree until he’s about fifteen feet in the air, then he pulls himself onto a thick branch. I scale up after him, and he reaches down for me.

But when I stand up on the branch, he continues to hold my hand as he walks in front of me.

“I got it,” I say, not unkindly.

“No offense, Claws,” he says over his shoulder. “But I saw you on that high beam. And that was when you weren’t recently drugged by my uncle. I’m not having you fall out of this tree.”