The Element of Death (The Final Formula Series, Book 1.5) by Becca Andre

 
    The Element of Death
    Copyright © 2014 by Becca Andre. All rights reserved.
    First Kindle Edition: February 2014
     
    Editor: Shelley Holloway
    Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics
     
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    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
     
    Chapter
    1
    J ames pulled in a breath, unable to accept what he had read. He recognized the handwriting and the style of alchemy notes on the facing page. The journal was Addie’s. But the words…no, they couldn’t be hers.
    Rowan snapped the journal closed, startling James. He looked up and realized that Neil, the necromancer behind all their recent problems, had fled, but he’d hunt him later. Now his gaze settled on the woman who knelt before them. Addie kept her head bowed, intermittent tears dropping to the glossy black tile.
    “Amelia.” Rowan’s voice broke the silence and Addie cringed, curling in on herself as he continued. “The last ingredient of the Final Formula.”
    She didn’t move. James began to wonder if she’d even heard when she took a quivering breath and spoke. “The blood of an Element. One drop.”
    Addie whispered the words, but they hit James with the force of a punch. It was true. Addie had found the Final Formula, the Elixir of Life…and she’d damaged Era, Rowan’s sister, to accomplish her goal. Was the rest of it true?
    Rowan walked over to her and James tensed, not sure what he’d do. Rowan dropped the journal and it smacked the tile. Addie flinched.
    “Counter what you did to her, and I’ll spare you.” Rowan’s tone was pure, uncompromising Flame Lord.
    Addie nodded, but kept her head bowed. Her hands settled in her lap, and James glimpsed the blood that slicked one palm. His blood. She might be immune to its deadly properties, but he couldn’t leave it where it might harm another.
    “Rowan, the blood,” he said.
    A flash of flame licked across the floor where James had lain—and danced across Addie’s palm. She gasped and fisted her hand, tucking it against her chest.
    Rowan started for the door.
    James hesitated. He wanted to ask her if it was true. Had she intended to give him to necromancers?
    A drop of blood fell from her bleeding nose and struck the tile with a soft splash. Her nose always bled when a surge of memory broke through her magically induced amnesia. Did she remember what she’d done to Era? To him? She doubled over further, her head hanging…in shame.
    James followed Rowan from the room. In a daze, he trailed along as they descended the carpeted stairs to emerge in the wide hall behind the visitation parlor. The faint scent of flowers lingered, but didn’t hide what lay beneath. It was the same with every scent in this building: floor polish, bleach, formaldehyde—nothing completely masked the odor of death. And it wasn’t the two bodies they’d left upstairs. This went deeper, into the very bones of the structure.
    The lights were off, but enough ambient light reached the windowless corridor to make the passage easy to navigate. Not that James had any trouble seeing in the dark. Rowan didn’t seem to have trouble either. His expensive shoes tapped out a determined rhythm on the polished hardwood, his stride confident in the gloom. Then, too, Rowan knew the lair of the city’s most powerful necromancer. He’d