Page 41 of Stars May Fall

I climbed the wide marble steps to the front door which was promptly opened by footmen. An ordinary-looking man stood inside wearing a simple brown suit that was slightly too big for his thin frame. His limp brown hair was slightly too long, forcing him to constantly push his fringe to one side. I assumed this was Gregane.

Callum grinned and clapped him on the shoulder as if he were an old friend and not a conductor of unspeakable crimes. “Ah, Tyler! Here we are again. Funny how fate draws us together.” I frowned. Hadn’t their last meeting ended with Callum threatening Gregane with a knife in order to get the disks linked to the haemalcomy still inside me?

The man pulled Callum’s fingers off one by one with a grimace. “It is not fate if you simply walk up to somebody's house and ask to see them.” His voice had a slight nasal inflection. He turned his small eyes on me but couldn’t maintain eye contact. “Lady Sophie. I’m glad to see you have recovered.” He only gave Meena a brief glance before he gestured to another door. “Come, let’s sit in the parlor.”

I followed. The palms of my hands were sweating so much, I wiped them in my skirts. If this next part didn’t work, we would likely be kicked out. Or worse.

“Your master is out?” Callum asked as he followed close behind the haemalchemist. Two of Lyrason’s guards brought up the rear, blocking our retreat.

“Of course. As is yours.” Gregane didn’t even glance at him as he spoke. He gestured to some wooden chairs padded with simple silk that were gathered around a low drinks table. “Sit down and tell me what this visit is about. It is most…unexpected.” He looked at us like we were complete fools. Doubt niggled.

Callum grinned and smoothed back his curls. “Well, as you know, we’re great admirers of yours.”

The man blinked slowly and pushed aside his fringe. “Admirers. Of haemalcomy. Is that what you are? Hmm?”

Callum ignored the interruption. “So I thought we could facilitate a trade of knowledge. You know things we’d like to know and vice versa.”

“So you’ve moved on from simply taking what you want from knife point, have you?” Gregane leaned back in his seat. “Do you really think I’m just going to give away Lord Lyrason’s secrets? What sort of a fool do you take me for? Does General Batton even know you’re here?”

It seemed the right time to take over. I leaned forward in my seat. “Mister Gregane, I haven’t had the chance to thank you for healing me. I’m very grateful.”

He tilted his head to one side and studied me far more closely than he had Callum or Meena. “I didn’t exactly have a choice. But the fact you survived so well is…interesting.” He folded his arms. “Now what do you want? Tell me quickly before I throw you out and tell Lord Lyrason you were snooping.” He lowered his eyebrows. “Or I could decide to just keep you here, I suppose, and get the guards to pat you down for any interesting kryalcomy.”

I held up one finger, resisting the urge to touch my detector or reserve and trying to hide my nerves. “I found traces of metal still in my blood. You’ve never had a survivor before, correct?”

Mister Gregane leaned forward slightly, and I saw I had sparked his interest. “Go on.”

“Well, we’ve confirmed I’m not infectious.” I really hoped I wasn’t blushing as I thought about kissing Kasten. “And my emotions and character traits are as before. I appear to be healthy. My body doesn’t seem to be reacting to the metal. I’m guessing it’s defeated whatever infectious agent you attached it to, leaving just the metal behind.”

Gregane didn’t confirm or deny my theory, and his expression remained neutral.

I drew in a deep breath. “Well, we wish to know what this metal is composed of. That way, we can work out how to remove it completely from my body.”

Gregane scoffed. “Knowing its component parts won’t help you. You have no experience with haemalcomy. Just because you’re a kryalchemist doesn’t mean you can do what I can do.” He ran his thumb across his lips. “And if you’re hoping to use this knowledge for your own experiments—or to create your own elixir of life—you don’t have the skills.”

I sat back, raising my hands. “That’s definitely not our intention.”

He scoffed. “You act all righteous now, but all it took was one of you on death’s door for the general’s moral compass to crack. When the people we love are threatened, there is nothing we wouldn’t do to save them. I suspect the same is true of you.”

I licked my lips, and my voice became quiet. “Who is it? Who are you saving?”

Gregane’s lips pressed into a hard line.

I swallowed and glanced at Callum who gave me a small nod. “We wish to trade knowledge or objects. We want to know howto make the metal inside me and its qualities. In return, we will tell you how to make a detector. It picks up anyone using kryalcomy on their person.” I paused to gauge his reaction. “We assume you know we have these, since you invented the collars to stop us from tracking the halfsouls.” I looked to one side and parted my hair to show the device attached to my skull as a show of good faith.

Callum and I had discussed what to offer at length. The detectors seemed like a good choice. Lord Lyrason and Gregane had already combatted their effectiveness, and if they became common knowledge, we would still have enough other secret kryalcomy to maintain our edge. When I’d asked Callum if we needed Kasten’s permission to give one away, Callum said Kasten had always been clear that his kryalcomy inventions were his alone, and he was simply grateful for the gift.

Gregane shook his head. “No, give me something more interesting. Tell me about the weapon the general wielded. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

I shook my head with an apologetic wince. “Its power has been exhausted, I’m afraid. It was created by accident and can’t be recharged. And what little we know about its forging, we’re unwilling to share.” I tightened my hands in my skirts below the table. “Think about it. If you have the detectors, the king would be very happy for knowledge of our kryalcomy. He would give you a large reward.”

The thin man scoffed again. Then stopped with his mouth open, his eyes on the table and his hand suspended in the air. “I’ll tell you what I will trade the metal for, however.”

His eyes flicked up, shadowed by the angle, and something in his look sent a shiver down my spine. It reminded me what this man did for a living and the unspeakable things it must involve. Beside me, Meena shifted and became poised.

“I want to use you for an experiment. You’re a survivor, and I have questions about your current properties.”

Cold flooded my insides.

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