Free Alchemist's Kiss by AR DeClerck

his head as the others trampled over him to run away. She knelt down beside him and tapped his shoulder.
    “Just kill me.” Icarus heard him wail.
    Cora smothered a smile as Icarus leaned weakly on the wall, his legs shaking. Never had he felt the kind of disturbance in the aether that the orb had caused.
    “That was supremely balmy idea.” She shook her head and tapped the man again. “Icarus could have killed you.”
    “The Dielectric was supposed to have stripped his magic!”
    “Dielectric?” Icarus moved to crouch next to the man. He cringed at the muddy boot prints covering the man's coat where the crowd had stomped on him to escape.
    “They swore it would stop the magic. Even yours.”
    “Not hers.” Icarus reached for the man and helped him to his feet. He pulled money from his pocket and pressed it into the man's hand. “Find an apothecary and get yourself healed.”
    The man stared down at the money in his hand, probably more than he'd ever seen at one time, and then back to Icarus with wide eyes. “But...I tried to kill you.”
    Icarus smiled. “Many have. You're not the first, and you won't be the last. But tell me, where did the Dielectric come from?”
    “A man, a scientist, was selling them at Columbia Road.”
    “Be off, then, young man. And the next time you wish to incite a riot, remember how those boot heels feel on your arse.”
    The man scampered away as Icarus sighed and rolled his shoulders. He could still feel the alien emptiness that had invaded him when the purple light of the orb had touched his magic.
    “Shall we continue?” he asked, offering Cora his arm. She took it but sniffed at him. “Angry at me again, Cora?”
    “I warned you to run, and you ignored me. Someday you will learn to listen when I tell you something.”
    “I admit that I let my machismo run wild.”
    “The Dielectric is dangerous.”
    He frowned as the smoke appeared before them again at the end of the alley.
    “Indeed. That's an avenue of investigation we shall pursue once we've found Archimedes and have gotten my father out of London.”
    She leaned into him and for a rare moment she was his soft, sweet Cora again. “We're trying to get out of this alive, Icarus.”
    “Then we'd best find Archimedes quickly. He's always been the more level headed of us all.”
    She laughed and he cherished the sound. Instead of moving away from him she moved closer, and he could swear he felt the heat of her clasp through his coat.
    “Promise me we'll find him.”
    He patted her hand and pointed to the smoke, which wavered in the direction of the steam mills. “I believe we are on his trail already.”
     
     
    Icarus was used to fear. He'd often found that he worked best when his heart was racing and his mind was in the grips of deadly terror. He became calm, the world around him slowing just enough that he could out-think or out-maneuver whatever danger lay in his path. As Cora clung to his arm he began to understand that what he felt now was not fear, but dread. The smoke would indubitably lead them to Archimedes, but he'd begun to worry over what state the man might be in. He had no doubts his father, or the men that followed him, was behind the taking of their friend. His palm burned with the memory of just how terrible his father's wrath could be.
    The stacks of the steam mills rose above them, casting moonlit shadows over the cobbles. The streets became narrower, the buildings closer together as they approached the center of the city. There were no flowers here, no joyful sound of children in their mother's arms. This was the darkest part of London, and these witless non-magics had chosen this tainted ground to build their silly factories.
    Cora shivered hard, all the way to her fingertips. He reached for her, putting his arm around her shoulders and drawing her closer to his body heat. His coat was protected by magic, warming him and her in turn.
    “You've never been here?”
    She shook her head. Her perky