Clare smiled when Tatianna’s back was turned, the crinkle around her eyes the same as The Villain’s.
“What sort of properties does blue ink have, anyway? Why would someone specifically want it?” Evie asked.
“Nothing spectacular, to be honest,” Clare said, shrugging. “My regulars who preferred it mostly used it to read what others had written with it.”
“How does that work?” Evie angled her head.
“When you use ink from the same vial, with one drop, any word that was written with that inkpot can be made to appear on the page before you.”
“Any word?” Suddenly Evie’s heart was pounding, like she was slowly tipping over the edge of a cliff.
“Any word that was written with it, yes. When I enchant the ink, it becomes like a body. Even when the drops are separated, they can be linked again by the words. Think of it like if one of your fingers was cut off but you could still move it. Because it was once a part of you.”
“So the ink will always reveal the truth?”
“Until it runs out.”
Evie nodded, her mind racing.
Clare snorted, looking around the room. “It’s actually most useful in office settings. Whenever you write with that ink, it takes just a drop of it to copy what you’ve written.”
“Don’t tell the pixies that. They’d be out of a job.” Evie smiled and pressed a finger into her temple, exhaling slowly. “Magic ink, magic scar, magic dagger. It really is a part of everything, isn’t it?”
“I’m sorry.” Clare smiled. “Having magic is one thing, but I know being around it without fully understanding it can be confusing, even frustrating.”
“When did you get yours?” Evie asked quietly.
“When Trystan became The Villain,” Clare said, a haunted, faraway look in the beautiful depths of her eyes. “It was a…hard day.”
Evie nodded, unsure what to say, which in and of itself was cause for concern. Words rarely failed her; it was the ones that came out that usually did it.
“Got it!” Tatianna walked over, looking between them like she knew she was a welcome interruption. “Here you are. Let me know how the poor man likes it—I can always switch back to the other mixture.”
Evie pushed up on her toes and kissed the healer’s cheek. “Thank you, my friend.” She turned to smile at Clare. “And thank you, too.”
The Villain’s sister eyed the vial in her hand with a sympathetic expression. “Your father has the Mystic Illness?”
Evie nodded and placed the medicine in the pocket of her skirt before moving over to the table to pick up her cloak. The last few hours had been such a blurry mixture of pain and relief, she couldn’t begin to recall how it had made it in here from the hook beside her desk.
“Evangelina, before you go!” Clare called, and Evie turned to meet her eyes. “I’m making another batch of different inks this afternoon. Would you like some?”
Evie shrugged, grinning lightly. “Why not? I’m sure I can find a use for a blue.”
“Great!” Clare called. “I was making another order for East Marigold, anyway.”
She froze, her blood chilling.Tatianna snorted. “Great name. Is your customer a flower?”
Evie’s smile didn’t fall from her face somehow as she turned and left the room, a renewed sense of purpose in her steps and more than one vial in her pocket.
Of all the fancy bottles on the shelves near the door…Yes, Evie had good use for this one.
Chapter 52
Evie
It was late by the time Evie finally made it home that night. The light in Lyssa’s room was already out, but when she entered the kitchen, there was her father, standing over a pot, murmuring to himself. The pungent smell of two spices that were clearly never meant to be mixed filled the air.
She tried to keep her heart calm, her breathing even, tried to act normally. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she forced a smile to her face.
“Good evening, Papa. What are you making?” Evie asked.
“Why is this so difficult?” her father replied quietly instead, sounding pinched and frustrated. Evie knew he meant well, and she felt a painful jab in her gut from the guilt of having missed dinner, missed putting Lyssa to bed. She pulled the vial from Tatianna out of her pocket and handed it to her father, hoping he didn’t see the shaking of her hands.
“Please at least try this potion, Father,” Evie said. “My healer friend said this is a new type of pain tonic and it’s been seen to be very effective.”