Alchemist's Kiss by AR DeClerck Read Free Book Online

exceptionally adept at protection spells. He lifted his hand and the normally invisible runes began to glow. They were difficult and complex to weave, but Archie had an affinity for them that I could not match. Icarus was stronger than us both in all areas of magic, but even he deferred to Archie for wards and shielding spells.
    “I've no concern over your wards.” Icarus cut his eyes to me. “The Hand will lead them to us. No amount of magical shielding can block its power.”
    I let my hand settle over the chain around my neck. “I can run. I'll take The Hand and return to America.”
    “No.” Icarus was quick, shaking his head. He clenched his hands in his lap, and I had the impression he wanted to physically hold me, as if I might attempt to run at that very moment. “We stay together. I can't protect you if you leave me.”
    “The Hand will protect me.”
    “The Hand is fickle,” he argued, “It will align itself with the strongest so that it may use its magic without stricture.”
    “It hasn't left me for you.”
    He narrowed his eyes at me. Color suffused his face and mottled the skin of his cheeks. “I will not allow you to leave me, Cora.”
    “I don't want to leave you, you stubborn, silly man. I'm trying to save your life!”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “As can I!”
    The room was silent as my words echoed off the walls. I sighed. This was how it always was between us. We could not agree, even if we both wanted the same outcome.
    “Perhaps we'd best agree to stick together.” Archie looked between us with a barely concealed smile. I sometimes wondered if the man was mentally ill. Whenever Icarus and I would argue he would watch and smile. Once I'd asked him what amused him so, and he'd only murmured, “The fires of passion, dear Cora.”
    Icarus calmed, his color returning to normal as he relaxed back into his chair. To say I wasn't a bit pleased by his ardent demands that I remain at his side would be a lie, despite how much I may argue for the opposite.
    “We stay together.” he agreed firmly, looking at me.
    I nodded. “Together.”
    “Now that we've settled that, how do we prepare ourselves for the dark wizards who herald our demise?”
    Icarus glared at Archie. “We bolster our defenses. Call up our debts, and work a bit of offensive magic.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “Isn't that for emergencies only?”
    “I daresay fighting for our lives, and the lives of every living thing in London, is an emergency.” Icarus said dryly.
    “One thing we know for sure, the Gecko and Baiandelio won't attack us when we expect them to. They'll wait until we've relaxed our guard.”
    “Then we don't relax our guard.” Icarus grinned. It wasn't humorous, but reminded me of the lion I'd seen at the zoo. Hungry and feral. “We will need to speak to the Grand High Coven and the wizards in neighboring cities. We'll draw to us all those who owe us a debt, and we'll set about ridding London of these scoundrels forever.”
    “And your father?” The words tasted foul in my mouth. From what I knew of Victor Kane I could not imagine how he'd fathered a man as noble and brave as Icarus.
    “My father will be left to me. He's in London to kill me and I plan to let him try.”
    “Icarus, he's strong, and from what we've seen he's only growing stronger!” I bit my lip and shuddered at the thought of him engaging his father.
    “My father created me.” Icarus said simply, and he rubbed the palm of his hand where the scar of that creation remained. “Now he will have to pay for that.”

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Hyde Park, London
     
    “Why, exactly, are we here?”
    Icarus squinted through the driving rain at Cora. “The Grand High Master is about. This was his requested meeting place.”
    The park was empty as the cold spring rain fell all over the city. Here and there a dapper butler walked a dog under a wide umbrella, a sour look on his face. Icarus pulled up the collar of his herringbone duster as the