36. Lukas
Lukas
“He’s gone. Authorities have turned over the campus and his home, and it’s apparent he’s fled.”
“Shit!” Vane yelled, slamming her fist against the table.
The messenger flinched but stood his ground across the room from her.
Alicia was a frightening force to be dealt with when she wasn’t fuming in anger.
Today I had seen an entirely new level of her fury, and I was glad not to be on the receiving end of it.
Never did I expect to be this involved when I took the internship with Ed.
I wanted to be with him to get as involved as I could, and now I was sitting in an emergency meeting for the entire prosecution team.
Ed and the rest of the group recognized my contributions, and I no longer felt like an intern.
“He could be anywhere.” Alicia’s assistant said, looking around the table. “Ed, is there a tracing potion of any sort?”
I held back a grimace at her question, knowing she wasn’t familiar with potions.
A tracing potion was something few potion masters could accomplish.
I’d read about them in historical textbooks, but even the tracing potion mentioned was nearly impossible to complete.
It would take an ingredient we surely didn’t have access to—Arnold’s blood.
Ed looked at Vane solemnly, shaking his head.
“I can do it.”
Everyone’s necks nearly snapped from turning to look at Calvin so quickly. He pushed his glasses up his nose as he gave Alicia a blank look.
“It’s nearly impossible,” Ed interjected, his brows furrowed. “And even if you could do it, you would have to have—”
“Arnold’s blood. Which I have…theoretically.
” Calvin looked annoyed that Ed would question him.
When no one spoke, the Oathbreaker continued.
“I have a vial of Mira Aster’s blood, and theoretically, I could extract Arnold’s blood from hers.
The two should be entwined in that vial still, since I enclosed it before breaking their oath. ”
The room was stunned into silence. I ran through every potion procedure I could think of that could extract specific blood from a mixture, and came up blank. Immediately, I leaned forward, more than intrigued.
“It might take a few days of trial and error, but I should have enough blood.” Calvin leaned back in his seat, seeming completely confident in his abilities and unfazed by how his very actions could be life or death, possibly literally, if Arnold did anything else malicious.
“Very well. Take your time, but please…hurry,” Vane said, nodding to Calvin with clear apprehension clear on her face.
With a curt nod, Calvin stood from his chair. “Ed, Lukas, care to join me?”
I bit my tongue to keep my enthusiasm at bay, because of course I wanted to join. I silently grabbed my things and stood to follow Calvin out the door.
We took Calvin to the largest potion facility Ed had control over, and it was pretty impressive.
Much larger than the one Ed and I had worked in, which seemed like a closet compared to this one.
I’d forgotten Ed wasn’t simply a potion master who dealt with the law, but a pioneer of potions, engineering new and alternative potions to be used by magickind.
This lab was built for a team of highly trained potion professionals to do their jobs.
Most likely, the potions commonly created here were medicinal, but today, the schedule was clear.
Ed spent a great deal of time on the phone, clearing this facility for the next week, explaining to me that it had the strongest and newest equipment.
Once we were in the lab's stillness, just the three of us, Calvin turned to us. Concern was written on his face for the first time since I’d met him, and it instantly turned my gut.
“Is there any chance that either of you has access to…ancient, perhaps forbidden texts? I am confident I can create the tracing spell needed for this, but I didn’t come here prepared for something like this.
It’s not something I’ve memorized.” Calvin’s hands were clasped in front of him, and despite the worry in his eyes, he still held himself with utter stillness and a confidence I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen someone have.
“Boy, I thought you said you could do this!” Ed threw his hands up, walking away from us as he shook his head in disbelief. “There has to be another way we can find him, right? We can put out a message to all the wizarding areas, let them know there’s a highly dangerous—”
“Ed,” I said firmly. He stopped talking, turning slowly to look at me. His face was red, and I could see sweat beading on his forehead. “I think we can find the texts.”
I was pulling out my phone before I cared to explain to either of them what I knew, dialing the only name that I knew could handle this for us.
“Lukas? Are you done? What’s going to happen? Did they arrest Arnold?” Elsie’s voice was higher than usual, and I didn’t hold back the smile it put on my face, nor did I cut her off.
“Well, no, we’re not done. Just getting started, really. And they didn’t find him. Where are you?”
Elsie was quiet for a moment, her gasp at the news her only response. Then, “I’m at Noah’s house. All of us are here.”
“Perfect. We’re going to need your help.”