Free Alchemist Academy: Book 1 by Matt Ryan

wary eye on the black-suited man.
    “Thank you for not causing trouble. My only intention here is to test you. If you pass, you may come to the Academy and learn what it is you were born to do. If you do not pass, I will leave. And trust me, you won’t remember I was even here.” With his gloved hand, he pulled out a pure yellow stone.
    I tried to process everything he said, but the thought of a test and going to the Academy swirled around. A whole place where there would be people like me. I wanted to be tested. I wanted to know about this academy. I thought maybe I could learn from Ms. Duval, but what could I learn from an entire academy dedicated to teaching the craft? These stones’ potential seemed infinite and if I could figure them out, I could change the world.
    “I found her. This isn’t fair,” Ms. Duval said.
    “Really? You think you own her, then?” The man glared at her.
    Her eyes twitched. “How did you find her?”
    “When a person uses a time stone, it sets off a shockwave my tracker stones simply can’t ignore. I imagine you had her make it for you?”
    She jumped from her seat again and glared at Mark. “You took my….”
    “It wasn’t yours, Mother. I saved you a lot of trouble getting rid of it.”
    “I had a buyer already. We would have been set up for life, Mark. For life .”
    “Yeah, until the buyer tried to kill us. I probably saved our lives.”
    “You know I wouldn’t let that happen again.”
    “This mother/son thing is real sweet to watch and all, but I have a job to do here. So, if you can sit back down and let me do it.” The man looked between the two of them before focusing on me. “Okay. Allie is your name, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “This little tester”—he held a yellow stone between his gloved thumb and finger—“wants to dissolve into the hand of an alchemist and only an alchemist. I’m going to place this on your hand, but first I want you to summon as much anger as you can. You see, your anger can hold it back from dissolving. The longer an alchemist can keep it from absorbing, the more powerful they are considered to be.” He cupped the yellow stone in his hand, out of my sight. “Most of the time it dissolves within a second or two. If it never dissolves, you fail and you don’t have the gift at all.”
    Mark placed a hand on my shoulder and the nerves crept back in place. I wasn’t as scared as I was nervous about failing the test. This man was from the Academy. I never fit in at school, or at home … anywhere, for that matter. Thinking of a place where I might belong was intoxicating. I could learn how to use my abilities properly, how to mix things in the right way. I didn’t want to ever have another accident like what had happened with Kerri again.
    I extended my hand and summoned my cocktail of anger. He took the yellow stone and placed it on my palm. It felt warm at first, then became cold. I strained, keeping the anger fresh, and my hand shook, but I kept the stone steady. The man in the black suit shifted in his chair and stuffed his hand into his pocket, probably to bring out the memory-wiping stone.
    If I failed this test, I wanted my memory of it all gone. I couldn’t go back to my stupid house knowing what I knew about the world around me. I hoped he could wipe the entire week away, if I couldn’t go. This was the first chance I had ever had to leave the grasp of Janet and her boy. The man now held a diamond-looking stone in his gloved hand.
    “Give it a second,” Ms. Duval warned.
    The stone felt heavy and the thought of it not melting beat out some of my anger. Then it melted into my hand. He stowed the diamond stone and leaned back in his chair.
    “Alright, Allie. My name is Darius, and I have an important question for you. Do you want to train in the field of alchemy? Do you want to come back to the Academy with me?”
    I shook with excitement. How could my world change in so little time? My hands covered my open mouth, and Mark