The Fake Heart (Time Alchemist Series) (25 page)

There was one last picture of the old and healthy Kathleen Hearst. She had a kind, thin smile and snow white hair. On her neck was a small, silver chain that held
a tiny silver locket.

A locket that
had
to hold a shard of the Elixir.

◊◊◊◊◊

“I can’t believe this,” Dove said, her icy eyes completely mesmerized by the
documents.
“I can’t believe this!”

“So…I was right?” I asked, as Dove also went over the copies of the articles and obituaries I had printed from the library (and paid a heavy price of near
ly fifty cents per
page. What rip offs!)

“Guinevere gave a shard of the Elixir to Kathleen Hea
rst, to cure her of some unnamed
illness,” I said, “And now the Elixir must be wherever Kathleen’s grave is!”

“
Bonaventure Cemetery,” Leon said over my shoulder as he read the obituary as well. His breath tickled my cheeks and I almost reached over and hugged him. Even Dove seemed delighted by his presence, “It’s not even that far from here. But
the only problem is—”

“What? What kind of problem?” I asked, a knot of dread forming inside me. No, there couldn’t be a problem! We finally got this close!

“The size,” he explained, “Bonaventure is roughly
one hundred and sixty
acres. Even if we leaved now it would take us hours—or possibly days—to even find where
the Hearst grave is. Plus we have to plan a time when we can…
er
, retrieve the Elixir when nobody is around.
”

“But it’s still something,” Dove said. But unlike before, her voice was gentle with a hint of excitement. She wasn’t taunting Leon about his negativity—she was trying, at least to me, to find the good in the situation, “All we have to do is split the search. Guinevere’s journal mentioned Bonaventure a few times, so I think we can all say for certain that the Elixir is indeed buried in Bonaventure. It will be rough, but it won’t be a waste of time.”

He nodded, “That sounds good. I’ll ask Mr. Jones if I can run errands everyday—I’ll stop by Bonaventure and scout out a little at a time and see where it gets us.”

I jumped in, “But with such little time you would have every day, it would still be impossible to explore
the entire grounds. What if I—”

“No.” both Dove and Leon said at the same time.

Silence.
“What?”

The
y
locked eyes—icy winter blue met summery ocean
green
ones. That was highly unusual. Normally they avoided eye contact all together, or sent each other glares as sharp as knives, full of hate and frustration when the other wasn’t looking. This time, it was like they had some sort of mutual understanding. Maybe it was a sibling thing.

“I, well,
we’ve
been thinking,” Dove said, closing the two books with a soft thud, “Maybe you should just stay here, Emery.”

“What? Why should I?” I blurted, feeling an unusual stab of betrayal in my chest. Why was this happening now?

“Beca
use it’s going to be dangerous—”
Leon started, but I cut him off with a withering glare.

“I know it’s going to be dangerous,” I snapped, but when his eyes drooped I felt a twang of guilt. But what right did they have to suddenly decide this for me? And how long had they been talking like this behind my back? “That’s why I want to come. Didn’t we all agree to do this together?”

“We did,”
Dove protested, “But—”

“Nope.
No buts!” I said,
crossing my arms over my
chest stubbornly, “We’re all in it together or we’re not.” We were so close—so close!—to finding the Elixir! Wouldn’t it be amazing to find it right before the Winter Formal, so I could dance and laugh and have fun without a care in the world, swinging in Jack’s warm and strong arms—without even worrying about dropping dead on the dance floor at a moment’s notice? And, most of all, this would bring Dove and Leon just a little more
closer
together. If they could see how well they worked as a team, maybe they would remember the times when they were with Guinevere. Maybe they would finally get along!

Wouldn’t that be the best Christmas present ever?

But unlike my bouts of stubbornness from before, neither of them looked phased by
my
refusal. Dove shook her head, “I’m sorry, Emery. But this is what we decided. We don’t want you to go to Bonaventure.”

I felt the knife of betrayal twist inside my heart. I glanced at Leon, begging him with my eyes to argue back, but he l
ooked set and determined. “But—”

“You were right, Emery,” Dove said, placing a hand on my cheek, like a mother comforting their crying child, “This is our fault. We—Leon and I—we need to fix this ourselves. We’ve gotten you involved far too much.”

Leon nodded, squeezing my right hand. It was so warm and comforting. The silver band of my bracelet brushed against his skin and I felt a strange jolt from his touch. “We both agreed to do this. And we also agreed that once we found it we would come straight back to you—to save you.”

“I—are you two leaving me?” my breath tight in my throat. I wanted to scream
,
Y
ou
can’t!
Not just yet! What am I going to do without you two?
But I held them in. This parting, it was going to happen someday, but I d
idn’t think it would be so soon…

Dove scoffed, “Of course not! There
’s still that Ice A
lchemist to worry about. We can’t leave you alone like that!”

Oh, right.
Of course.
I managed a laugh, but I couldn’t shake this empty, cold feeling inside me. Even if it wasn’t today…some day they would both be gone. Geez, how could I get so close to these two knuckleheads in such a short period of time?

I don’t even know if I could handle it.

Months earlier, I
worried about fitting in at St. Mary’s. Well, that had certainly flown out the window. Three months ago, I had worried about dying, always dreading the exact second when my fake heart would give out. Now it was practically the last thing on my mind. But now…I felt like my heart, fake or not, was caving in whenever I thought of the day that Dove and Leon would leave.

Did I really
want
my normal life back, after all this hard work and fighting and laughing together?

CHAPTER 22

The hours slipped away
, blending into days. F
inals had come and gone
,
and every student on campus (attendee or not) was talking non-stop about the Winter Formal.
Pretty soon St. Mary’s Academy had transformed into a glamorized, sparkling
Winter Wonderland, as trees and bushes were decorated with lights that shone bright blues and whites, and thick round wreaths hung from every window tied up in perfectly knotted bows. The auditorium was sealed off from the world as the selected students on the Winter Formal committee decorated tirelessly for days (and by that, I mean they hired people to do it, of course). Everyone was giddy with anticipation for the Winter Formal and winter vacation soon to come.

Except me.
I felt like a bitter old Scrooge.

The winter air felt harsh as the days became shorter and darker, but, like Dove and Leon insisted, I spent all my time with Jack.
He was like a warm, tender flame
in this stupid dark winter, and the stupid dark thoughts of my empty fake heart. With each day that passed, I could see in Dove and Leon’s eyes that they were just a little bit clos
er to finding the Elixir as they
exchanged ideas of how to get into the cemete
ry, what times would be best,
what to bring, etc.

All I could do was stand to the side and nod. No matter how much research I did on Bonaventure, despite it’s fascinating history and being a local famous spot for movie sets and the place where great artists and soldiers were buried, there was nothing else I could do. Not
even looking up where the Hearst Family grave s
ite was helped, because I found nothing. The only way to
really
find it is to go out there and look myself, but A) both Dove and Leon would have protested heavily, and B) There was no way for me to leave campus for a reason like that anyway. It was absolutely prohibited for students to leave the campus unless they had a written note from a parent, a teacher
and
one of the administrative assistants to Headmistress Marg
a
ret.

Or unless you had money to flaunt, which I
—unfortunately—
did not.

Twice I saw Mallory and a few of her e
ntourage being whisked away in a shiny black
limousine
through
the gates for “Winter Formal” shopping and planning.
Which would have been just dandy with me
if
they weren’t
bring
ing
armfuls of bags ba
ck up to their rooms every day (no doubt trying to find the perfect dress for the Winter Formal); “all for the good of Winter Formal” my left butt cheek.

I spent every free moment I could when Jack and I couldn’t hang together to research
just
about
…anything! Nicolas
Fla
mel
, the Elixir itself, alchemy, I even tried finding some sort of history
on
Guinevere, but that was like finding a needle in a hay stack! I looked through her journals probably a hundred times and still found nothing.

I hadn’t really given the Winter Formal a second thought, except when Jack would a
sk me what my favorite colors w
ere, or if I preferred a limo to a horse drawn carriage (seriously?! These people with their money!
It was just being held in the auditorium—not in Atlanta!
But I had been beyond flattered, even though I declined the horse drawn carriage)
,
or when some of Jack’s groupies would pester me about what I was wearing and to not eat anything the day before so I could fit perfectly in my dress. Yeah, like that was going to happen. I didn’t even have a dress yet. Even though I had gotten Dad’s approval to order a dress of
f
the internet, I couldn’t put my heart into it. I just picked a simple
, but pretty,
moss green prom looking dress and shoes that looked like they wouldn’t kill my feet from JC Penny’s and waited. I could just use my own foundations (as plain as they were) and attempt something with my hair at the last minute anyway.

If this wasn’t the biggest event of the year I would rather have just slept in bed all day.

But it wasn’t until the day before the Winter Formal—when the air was buzzing with excitement and shrieking girls showing off their dresses and plumes of perfumes clung t
o the air—that Dove finally told
me their game plan.

“We’re heading out tomorrow night,” she said.

Tomorrow night?
Why
tomorrow
, of all days?! “Why so late?” I asked, hoping she would drop a hint as to which area the Elixir might be in.

We were both bundled up on my floor in thick blankets, drinking hot chocolate and munching on ham and cheese sandwic
hes I had fixed downstairs (
it was super easy to fix whatever you want since
ninety percent
of
the residents at Moore Hall
made the kitchens off limit
s
to themselves). I looked out the window as the wind whipped the tips of the trees in the moonlit night. I hoped that Leon was warm and safe in the clock tower.

“Leon told me he felt like someone was watching him,” she said,
taking small sips of her drink, “We don’t know if this Ice A
lchemist knows I exist, but I’ve been pretty safe hiding here. Leon and I think that whoever is watching him is waiting for us to move. If we guessed right,
whoever it is lives on campus, and since tomorrow half of t
he residence will be occupied with this…Winter Dance
you mentioned, moving out at dusk is our best bet.”

“Why are you even telling me this?” Dove k
new I would be occupied
tomorrow
, and that winter holidays began the day after, which meant I would be packing my things and heading back to New York for the next two weeks of winter break.
I had mentioned the dance to her before and said I was going (she didn’t seem very interested)
, and Dove and Leon had both agreed (without my consent) to get the Elixir before I left Georgia. A
nd
I can’t help but think she selected
tomorrow night on purpose.
To make absolutely sure I was busy and out of their hair, but in a place where she knew I would be safe and sound.