The Fake Heart (Time Alchemist Series) (37 page)

Even Mallory, although she was crushed by Jack’s disappearance and loath
ed
the fact that I probably had something to do with it, didn’t taunt me or accuse me of anything.
Verbally, I mean. I could see the accusation like poisonous darts in her pretty eyes.

My heart felt like it was ripping in pieces for Mallory. Not just her, but practically the entire
school
had lost their fr
iend. Even the Alexander’s had no idea what
happened. Nobody knew that Jack wasn’t Jack anymore. Who knew how long he had been forcibly taken over by Ivan’s soul? Was the Jack I hung out with just Ivan trying to get closer to me, or was that a bit of his real self trying to shine through, begging me to help him?

I bet the real Jack Alexander had fought back hard, and I felt a little bubble of pride swell up inside me.

One winter afternoon, the day before
the second term began
I sat on the floor
in my dorm room;
ankle propped on a cushiony purple pillow and nursed a hot chocolate. It was tough convincing Dad to let me come back to St. Mary’s—he wanted to
whisk me away to safety back
in
New York, but I
put my foot down on that, determined to stay here for good and finish school.

Besides, if I was up North, how would I be able to practice alchemy with Dove?
And most of all, this is what Grandma wanted—excluding the getting-killed-and-saved-by-alchemy bit—for me to stay and finish my schooling at St. Mary’s. She left me that bracelet for a reason; if she knew of its powers she never let on, but I still felt as if she was watching over me with a proud, proud smile on her face.

Dad caved after a while
and surprised the both of us by having Unc
le Ben ship
his things down. Even more surprising (and I didn’t know if it was due to the fact that St. Mary’s felt responsible for my state or they just wanted to cover it up)
,
he got a job
as maintenance man-slash-janitor. The look on Dad’s face when Mr. Hogan—filling in as temporary Headmaster of St. Mary’s (the best choice of a Headmaster, if I do say so myself)—was so bright it filled up the entire room!

So, I got to continue studying at one of the best schools in the South, talk to my friends and adjust to my n
ew dorm room. And new roommate, Dove.

That’s right.
Dove and Leon were
going to be
official St. Mary’s transfer students.

I watched as she adjusted her own pillows on the other side of the room (twice as
large as the single I stayed
; and how we managed to get such a room in the first place was beyond me. But he
y
, don’t look a
gifted
horse in the mouth, right?)
as I gazed out the double wide window that held a variety of cute stuffed animals I had gotten as get well gifts from Karin, Samantha and a few other people I barely knew (and it was a pretty touching thought). I wondered how Leon was adjusting in his new dorm and how his new roommate would treat him. I bet it was much warmer than being holed up at an old out-of-date clock tower with little to no heat.

It took longer than I would have expected for the question to come out. For one, I assumed we were past the mentor-slash-student lesson planning stage of our training. And two, I didn’t want to tire us both out the day before second term by worrying about things I couldn’t understand. And most importantly, I knew I would be bringing up even more sad and painful memories of Guinevere, but I still asked.

Why would someone like Ivan Novak go through such trouble for all of this? How many people was he willing to step on and kill to get what he wanted?

“He’s always wanted eternal life,”
Dove explained to me
, holding a
light blue ceramic mug with tiny birds on it (a Christmas gift from me) between her hands, “Master
told us once, a long time ago
,
that
Ivan Novak was never granted the Elixir because
Flamel
knew what he planned to do with it
.
He couldn’t leave such a powerful item in the hands of a twisted student anymore.
”

I thought back to his ravings in the cemetery—how he seemed to refer to Guinev
ere just like he did the Elixir,
an object of power he had to have. I had a feeling that Guinevere was a lot
smarter than he thought. “But how does somebody have the power to…transfer their soul from one body to the next?” I asked.

“It’s a hard and very tiring process. It takes a lot of power and alchemy to successfully transfer a soul completely into a body. Usually, the body is…newly dead from natural causes, or…”

“Or murdered,” I finished, tasting bile on my tongue.

She nodded, continuing with her lesson, “To Ivan, going that way was the closest way he could become immortal until he got his hands on a shard of the Elixir. You’ve seen his power, Emery—that was only a fraction of it.”

I sputtered my drink, drops of brown falling on my blanket, “A fraction?! He was insanely strong—much stronger than Leon!”

“He is—or was—a very powerful alchemist, capable of controlling all four of the alchemic elements and
more. Remember what I said about
transferring a soul to a different body takes much power? Ivan Novak must have gone through
hundreds, possibly thousands
of bodies
over the centuries
to continue living.

“
I’m willing to bet that he lured in
unsuspecting prey—like the former Headmistress
, for example—in order to harness their powers and drain them to make the transfer easier. But even he has to use his own alchemy for the process. This is just an assumption, but with every new body he switched to, his power grew weaker and weaker, until he could only control one certain element.
Eventually—if we…
you
…had not stopped him, his powers would have drained and drained until there was nothing left.
”

I shiv
ered, gulping down the last of my
drink.
Even if Ivan Novak had reached the end of his own life….something told me that he would have stopped at
nothing
to obtain his Elixir; even if he could barely walk, or talk, or harness energy—he was a sick, twisted individual who could twist people around his fingers to do his bidding.

To think that one tiny stone could grant somebody an immortal body. What kind of things would happen if you collected
all
of the shards?

“
Guinevere
told you all of this?”

She nodded, shifting underneath the black and blue striped blankets I scored from downstairs, “She said that’s why she took Leon and I under her wing,” she began, “After she found out what Ivan was doing, she wanted to be ready. But…”

“It was too late,” I said, then, worried that I might have upset Dove. “But we did it, didn’t we? We stopped Ivan Novak for good.”

“Yes. We did.” Dove smiled.

“She would be so proud of you and Leon if she knew what you two did, you know,” I pressed, “I know I am.”

We had all made mistakes—some more costly than others. But I knew deep in my heart, wherever Guinevere is right now, she couldn’t have chosen two finer pupils to take under her wing.

I couldn’t have chosen two of the best friends I ever had.

I wasn’t scared of anything anymore. Not about school, or my alchemy, or even the future. Confused?
Definitely.
Who knew what awaited us later on in the future? How long was my heart going to keep going? I knew I was supposed to die back in the cemetery and somehow, I felt like I was similar to Guinevere, who struggled and fought on until her very last breath. By some stroke of luck, I had cheated death once more.

I had a new life—and I wasn’t going to waste it any time soon.

EPILOGUE

“I still can’t believe we had a piece of the Elixir right under our noses,” Leon mused as he stomped his mud covered boots on the stairs before walking inside the Administration Hall, blending into the sea of black and crimson adorned students who
crowded around
, comparing new class sch
edules and gossiping about where they went on
winter vacations. Some girls peered over their books at Leon, ears red as they giggled and whispered behind
their
hands.

Dove laughed softly at his sour looking face. If the young freshman girls thought Leon was cute, the naïve young boys certainly couldn’t take their eyes off of Dove; looking as gorgeous
as ever
in such an oversized red jacket and skirt
,
but she somehow (yet another mystery of D
ove I needed to figure out)
made it look
good
.  “And you even had it in your possession before you foolishly gave it back to Emery.”

“I wasn’t being foolish
,” he started, flushing
a bit at his sister’s teasing,
“I was just—”

“Enough y
ou two,” I walked up behind them as best as I could, balancing my crutches
,
as I looped my arm
through Dove’s and g
ave
Leon a playful pat on the shoulder, “This is your first day, so don’t make me put you in time out.”

The both gave me quizzical
looks
as we tromped through the crowded hallways to retrieve their semester schedule, since I was put in cha
rge of “
helping the new transfer students adjust to St. Mary’s” and all. “I hope that we get history together with Mr. Hogan,” I said to Dove, “
And maybe you could
come
check out the Humanities Club with me.
You will absolutely
love
Karin, too. She’s a hoot.”

“A…hoot?” she said nervously, “I had no idea she had
such
a condi
tion—”

“Never mind!
Forget I said anything!” I grinned, rolling my eyes a little. Even now I can’t really understand Dove’s way of thinking. She’s super smart, super athletic, super beautiful, yet the
simplest phrases and jokes fly
right over her head. “You know what’s really funny?”

The both gave me perplexed expressions; left eyebro
ws rose at the exact time,
a sibling thing, I guess. It was super cute. I started again, “That Jack—Ivan was with me the entire time and he never even looked
once
at my bracelet,” I said, holding the now plain silver band up to my face. There was a small gaping hole where the shard of the Elixir had been, but it looked
better now, in my opinion. It was like that stone had lived for a single purpose—to save somebody—and now it had fulfilled its duty.

It had been a huge surprise to wake up back in the hospital weeks ago, to see the empty silver band resting on a plastic table, twinkling in the rays of the soft morning light. I had pestered a few people (namely the alchemist duo) but neither had said a thing.

I turned to Leon, grinning. He returned my grin with a big toothy smile, and I felt my cheeks flush scarlet.
Ohmigod
.
He has dimples. How cute is that?! Even with the fading signs of battle all over his face, and the way his body seemed to cringe slightly with every move, he looked positively nice.

Very
nice.

We walked out of the building together, bundled up in our coats and scarves that protected us from the mid-January weather as I led the way to our first classes. We passed other groups of students rushing by
who were late for class
or just idling around on the stone benches, trying to get as much sun and air they could before it got too cold again. I spotted
Samantha
near one of the small fountain
s
that had been donated by a
n
alumni class back in the 1990’s, surrounded by a few girls that were definitely
not
Mallory and posse. She looked up and gave me a hesitant, but bright, smile.

I waved with as much enthusiasm that my poor, still sore shoulder could endure,
and was pleasantly surprised to see
her wave happily back.
Maybe
, I thought,
without all of the drama and near death threats, maybe I’d have a chance at actually making real good friends with Samantha
.

Half way across the grounds, near the lake I stopped. Their conversation about their new class schedule (which still left them in awe as they tried to remember the last time they ever in went to school) came to a stop when I twirled around,
gripping my crutches tightly
. The tiny
multi-colored bead
keychain on my leather bag bounced against my jacket.