Page 41 of The Blood Orchid

“Scarlet—” she said warningly.

I tightened my grip around her hand as hard as I could manage. Then I closed my eyes and carved a new name into the sky.

The River Alchemist.

The ground flashed away, black mud sliding off the surface of the earth, replaced by needle-sharp grass. A thousand dark trees flew past us on either side, a greatwhooshof air blowing over us as the world unfolded.

I dragged the Empress behind me, forcing her to cross the landscape with me or have her shoulder torn out of its socket. Her sharp nails sank into my wrist, drawing blood, but I only gripped her tighter.

We fell to the soft ground before a pale riverbed that had nearly dried up, a small clearing of silver grass that stole the moon’s pale light, casting the clearing in ghostly white.

And there, pallid and wide-eyed in the grass, was the River Alchemist, her tattoos etched in gold across her skin, glowing like starlight around her face.

“Scarlet?” she whispered, the sound echoing as if whispered up from the bottom of a well. Her gaze fell to the Empress, and she took a startled step back.

Out of all the royal alchemists who had died, I’d felt the worst about the River Alchemist.

She’d helped me figure out how to poison the Empress when none of the other alchemists would dare discuss something so treasonous. She’d stolen my shoes to get me out of studying with the Moon Alchemist, brought berries and bugs for Durian to eat... and had died fixing my mistake.

I’d only visited her once in this plane, to tell her to hold on while I found the elixir, and to spread the word to the other alchemists, who I couldn’t bear to face. She was the only one I knew wouldn’t blame me for what had happened. When I’d told her my plan, she’d stretched back in the silver grass and looked up at the sky.

Take your time finding Penglai, she’d said.I needed a vacation anyway.

And now I had brought the Empress right to her. Once again, I was endangering other people with my impulsive decisions. But this time, it wouldn’t be in vain. I would make sure of it.

The Empress tried to yank her arm away, pulling me to the ground.

“Help me!” I said to the River Alchemist.

The River Alchemist rushed forward and grabbed the Empress’s free arm, bent it behind her, and used it to pin her to the ground by her shoulder. She turned to me, eyebrow raised. I hated how she hadn’t even hesitated to trust me. I didn’t deserve that kind of faith.

“Scarlet—”

“I don’t have time to explain right now,” I said. “Hold on tight and bring her far away.”

“Where?” the River Alchemist said, frowning.

“Anywhere.”

She shook her head. “If you and I aren’t thinking of the same place, we’ll be pulled—”

“In two different directions,” I said, nodding.

The River Alchemist’s eyes brightened with understanding, catching the light of the moon as the trees shifted overhead. A smile spread across her face. “Death by quartering,” she said. “I like it.”

“More like halving,” I said, shrugging.

“Good enough,” the River Alchemist said, turning toward the moon. “Hold on tight.”

With her next breath, she was gone.

All at once, the Empress was dragging me across the sky, my shoulder tugging painfully at its socket as roots and stones scraped beneath my feet, the land flashing by so quickly that it blurred into a haze of gray. I had no destination in mind, so I was being tugged across the world along with the Empress.

I needed to choose somewhere else, but I couldn’t decide where to go. I didn’t want to bring the Empress to any of the other royal alchemists, and certainly not to Hong. It had to be someone I strongly desired to see, someone that would tug me inthe opposite direction of the River Alchemist with just as much speed and force. What other dead people did I know, who the Empress could no longer hurt?

My father, I thought.

Before I had even fully decided, I’d slammed to a stop against the trunk of a tree, nearly losing my grip on the Empress in my surprise.