The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(47)
“Try what?”
Blue hesitated. Once she told Dinah, there would be no going back. She had no doubt a woman as desperate as Dinah would hound her day and night until the experiment worked. But Dinah wouldn’t spread the word to the rest of the city. She’d want the gold all to herself to pay off her debts, restore her property, save her daughters, and remain in position to win the betrothal.
“How can you help me?” Dinah’s voice was hushed, but there was a spark of anticipation within it.
Blue met her gaze and remembered what Grand-mère had always taught her. If you saw a wrong and had the ability to make it right, it became your responsibility to do so.
“I can try to turn lead into gold.”
The words sounded ridiculous. A far-fetched dream that an alchemist could chase for her entire life and never see come true. For a moment, Blue thought Dinah would laugh in scorn or berate her for talking nonsense when the Chauveaus were in desperate need of a real solution.
But Dinah smiled. A slow, cold curving of the lips that made the hair on the back of Blue’s neck stand up.
“I can’t promise.” Blue’s words were rushed as Dinah clasped her hands in front of her chest as if praying and then turned to survey the kitchen. “I’ve come close, but haven’t actually succeeded yet, so there’s a good chance I won’t be able to figure out the key to it in time. But I’ll try.”
“Of course you will.” Dinah turned back, that unsettling smile still locked in place. “It’s what you do, isn’t it, Blue? You rescue the strays. The desperate. It’s the purpose that gets you out of bed and keeps you moving forward even after unspeakable loss.”
Blue opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t think of a single thing to say. This was a far cry from the reaction she expected. Should she smile back? Agree that Dinah was desperate? Remind her that it might not work?
Dinah gestured toward the front door. “Well, let’s head to the shop and get started. I’m sure your abilities rival those of your mother, and as I’ve recently learned, she was quite the talented alchemist. One would almost believe she combined alchemy with magic. Almost like the person who unleashed that terrible spell on my quarter the other night.”
Blue froze as Dinah’s gaze landed on her with startling ferocity. Her heartbeat was thunder in her ears as she faced the older woman. What she said next could be the difference between life and death, both for herself and for Grand-mère. If Dinah learned that Blue did indeed possess magic handed down through her mother’s side, she could decide that reporting Blue to the authorities and taking credit for capturing the person responsible for the carnage would put her in a better position than waiting for Blue to hopefully create gold.
It wouldn’t matter that Blue wasn’t guilty. Not if they could prove she possessed magic. She’d heard the stories about the alchemists in other quarters who’d already been beaten, threatened, or had their shop burned after the spell. It wouldn’t take much to convince the city that she should be put to death.
Taking a calming breath, Blue said quietly, “My mother was simply a talented alchemist. As am I. Now, do you want my help or not?”
Dinah’s eyes narrowed, but she simply said, “Of course.”
Today, Dinah’s carriage waited to take them into the city. Blue guessed that since the creditor had found them at the farmhouse, there was no use in Dinah continuing to hide her presence. They spent the ride in silence, Dinah staring out one window, while Blue stared out the other. When they came abreast of the shop, the carriage rolled to a stop, and Dinah sucked in a sharp breath.
“Blue,” she said, her voice low and urgent.
Blue scooted to Dinah’s side of the carriage and peered out the window at the Mortar & Pestle. Someone had painted Death to Witches in red sand paint across the front windows. Ice crept over Blue’s skin, and she hugged her arms close to her body as she shivered.
“I’m not a witch,” she whispered.
“These peasants don’t understand the difference between an alchemist’s potion and a witch’s spell.” Dinah sounded furious. “And they’ve damaged the shop with their ignorance.”
“It will come off,” Blue said, rubbing heat back into her arms. “I’ll hire Lucian to get a crew of kids to scrub it.”
The words would come off, but the message would still linger in the back of her mind. And if it lingered in hers, how many others would walk by her shop and remember it? How many believed it? And would she ever feel truly safe until the witch responsible for the carnage was caught?
Not for the first time, she was deeply grateful to Kellan for assigning extra guards around her shop during the day.
Hours later, Blue had rushed Nessa through her regular tutoring session, thankful that Kellan hadn’t come with her that day as he had the four previous days. She didn’t need any distractions. Not with Dinah suspicious that Blue might have magic.
Not that Blue’s magic was anything spectacular. Certainly nothing dangerous. Just a little affinity with harvesting and combining plants. Still, she couldn’t afford to take any chances.
Once Nessa and her guards left to return to the castle, Blue turned her attention to the painstaking process of alchemizing ordinary metal into something precious. She heated the stove, prepared her pressurized pot, and pulled down the Eldrian mineral that had nearly worked last time. Soon, she lost herself in the rhythm of her work, forgetting about the passage of time or the fact that Dinah sat at the worktable, her sharp eyes following Blue’s every move.