Page 86 of Queen of Vengeance

His shoulders relaxed.

“Akil!” Agent Lexie shouted from across the room.

Akil nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun around and dropped the lavender liquid onto the floor.

He was an eight-foot-tall Owler. His feathers were mostly golden and tan with small hints of black on the ends, but after a few seconds, they became pure white and gray.

“I’ve been knocking on your door for ten minutes. What are you doing here?” Agent Lexie had no qualms about airing out her irritation to him.

“You wouldn’t be so cruel as to deny an old owl his vanity, would you?” He clicked his beak and appeared to smile.

“Well, it’s not the worst thing I’ve caught you doing with potions,” Agent Lexie grumbled to herself.

Lea turned her head slowly away, trying not to imagine what Agent Lexie had caught him doing.

“Is this our little runaway prisoner? My goodness, she’s beautiful. What potions do you use?” He marched up to Lea and grabbed her hand with his feathered fingers. “Quite lovely to meet you. My name is Akil Wiley.”

“Aleandra Nadir—” Lea started introducing herself before Agent Lexie elbowed her. That was when Lea remembered she was to assume a different identity.

“I suppose my name is Uremma Mirth,” she grumbled at her fundamental new name.

“That’s great. Now, next time, say it like you don’t want Diesel to figure out who you are and kill you,” Agent Lexie retorted while bobbing her head and smiling wryly.

Lea rolled her eyes in response.

“Aren’t you a fun number together?” Akil tilted his head, ushering Lea away from Agent Lexie. “Why don’t you come to my potion station and show me what you can do?”

He and Agent Lexie both stood back, allowing Lea to work.

It had been so long for Lea that it took her a moment to get back into the groove, but once she began, there was no stopping her.

In under an hour, she had written down five potions and mixed them to completion.

“Impressive, but are the potions any good?” Agent Lexie tried to inspect them, but as someone who wasn’t a practice potionist, unnamed potions were far outside of her area of expertise.

Akil approached the potion table and picked up the one closest to him.

The deep blue liquid appeared to be ink at first.

He opened up the bottle and tipped out a drop just on his finger. “Interesting. Viscosity is perfect. Has a very powerful magical essence about it.” Akil then licked his finger and drank the potion. “What’s its intended purpose?”

Lea looked down at his feet and looked back up at him with a smile.

When he looked down, he realized he was levitating from the floor. “Goodness! I feel as light as a feather— No pun intended.”

She handed him the second potion. “This is the antidote for the first potion. If you don’t drink it, you’ll just keep floating up until you’re burnt up by the Solare.”

“Heavens!” He grabbed the second bottle and his feet finally touched the ground again.

Akil was impressed with all the potions that Lea created. “I’ll be honest, I thought I was going to have to start you from the bottom, but it would appear you have far more talent than I was ready for. Originally, we were going to start you out as a lowly mixer and work your way up in the company, but I think this mission would benefit more from making you a potion producer. We can have you become an acquisition agent for his company. It would be the perfect cover!”

“That could work, but it seems risky,” Agent Lexie chimed in, rubbing her chin with her fingers. “She’ll still have to brush up on the things she’s missed over the years of being imprisoned. There’s new potion equipment. She’ll have to take courses on herbology. Not to mention, she’ll need to know the top talents in the industry.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to show her some adult things too, like manners, driving—and fashion.” Akil looked up and down at Lea’s outfit.

“What’s wrong with my outfit?” Lea looked down at herself before looking back up at Akil.

Akil smacked his face with his winged hand and shook his head.

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