Free Alchemist Academy: Book 1 by Matt Ryan Page A

looked down at me with a concerned expression. He didn’t like this stuff. I wasn’t sure why he was so apprehensive about it. Maybe it was because he didn’t have the ability?
    “Yes,” I answered. If I could change time without even knowing what I was doing, what would it be like once I knew how to create everything? A sense of power swelled in me like a drug and I wanted more.
    “I don’t like this,” Mark jumped in. “We don’t know this guy. How can we can trust him?”
    Ms. Duval huffed, but I spoke first.
    “This is my decision. I need to know if I can fit in somewhere, Mark. I’m not like you. Everyone doesn’t just love me the second they get to know me. I’m different. I’ve always known that, and now I have some kind of validation. I have these abilities, and I want to learn everything I can about them.”
    “When would she be going?” Mark asked.
    “Now.”
    Mark let go of my shoulder and paced back and forth. He looked like he was having a conversation with himself. Just as I was about to interrupt, he came to a stop in front of Darius. “Mom, I’m sorry.” He extended his hand toward Darius.
    Darius furrowed his brow, but his look was nowhere near the utter shock on Mark’s mom’s face.
    “No. No, that’s not possible.” She shook her head, her voice a distant whisper, and she seemed lost in her own house.
    Mark wouldn’t look at her, but moved his hand again toward Darius. All the times he had watched me make stones . . . he had never directly said he couldn’t. I’d just assumed he couldn’t. I didn’t like the idea of him keeping something like this from me, but I couldn’t imagine what his mom felt.
    Darius plucked the same type of yellow stone from his bag and placed it in Mark’s hand. The ball dissolved in an instant and his mom let out a screech.
    “All these years, you’ve been lying to me?”
    “Mom, these damn rocks ruin our lives. I didn’t want anything to do with them. I was trying to save us.” He had tears in his eyes.
    “All the things I’ve done for us . . . for you. You don’t even know.” Ms. Duval glared at Darius. “I need to talk to Allie for a minute.”
    “We really must get going—”
    “I wasn’t asking,” she snapped.
    I jerked at her tone and stared at Ms. Duval. She eyed me and then motioned for me to follow her out of the room. I glanced at Mark as she pushed me into the next room.
    She stood next to me in what might be considered the family room, but only a few boxes occupied the space. Ms. Duval fidgeted with her hands and mumbled something about time.
    “Yes?”
    She jumped at my voice and grabbed my shoulders. I pulled back in surprise, but she held me firm.
    “I have weeks of stuff to tell you in one minute.” She glanced at the doorway. “Remember how I told you about Mark?”
    “Yes.”
    “There’s a reason no hospital can help him or diagnosis him.” She moved closer to me and whispered. “I thought I could make him an alchemist and used a stone on him. It hurt him. He knows what happened but what he doesn’t know is how bad it would be if I didn’t use heal stones on him for all these years and now, they aren’t working on him anymore. He’s getting worse but there is a way to help Mark.”
    “I’ll do anything.”
    “The Academy has something he needs to stay alive. I’ve been searching the whole country to find someone like you who can get into the Academy and do well enough to get one.”
    “Get what?”
    “A life stone. The president of the Academy, whoever that may be at the moment, will either have one, or will have access to the ingredients to make one. You need to get this stone if we have any chance of saving Mark.”
    My mouth hung open. Her eyes twitched as she watched the doorway and me.
    “Is it that serious? He seems fine. I mean, I’ve seen him reaching for his stomach a few times but nothing concerning looking.”
    “It won’t be long before he starts feeling the stomach pain again. It