Into Thin Air

Chapter 46

The hourglass was lovely. There was no sand in it, but Lizzie knew it wasn’t made for keeping time. The carved, wooden handles were more detailed than she ever could’ve imagined, and she couldn’t stop herself from admiring it as Hope worked. It was old but well taken care of. Someone had clearly loved this piece.
As if she had read Lizzie’s mind, Hope said, “It belonged to my Aunt Freya. She left it to me when she died.” Hope took a shaky breath. She ran the sweaty palms of her hand across her skirt, ready to change the subject. “Are you ready for this?”
“I’m gonna do everything I can to help you find Jade.” 
Hope shook her head, hiding her pain behind a half-smile and a light tone. “You don’t even remember her.”
“Doesn’t matter. Nobody else believes Sebastian exists. I help you with your person, you help me with mine. That’s the deal.” Lizzie nodded firmly and picked up the larger piece of the ascendant, sandwiching it in between her palms. “Now let’s do this.”
“Okay, slow down.” Hope laughed, pushing Lizzie’s hands down with her own. “You don’t even know what you’re doing. The container can only take in magic so fast. If you force too much in too quickly, it’ll shatter.”
“What happens if it shatters?” 
“I’ll be mad that you destroyed my Aunt Freya’s sandclock.”
“Oh.” Lizzie sighed, a little relieved. She’d thought there would be more dire consequences than Hope’s wrath - not that that wasn't known to be deadly.
“And the magic will rebound and probably kill you.”
Lizzie’s mouth dropped open. “Oh.”
“So, you’ll have to keep your hand on mine.” Hope pressed Lizzie’s hand to the top of the hourglass. “Just in case the magic’s too much for you, you can put some inside of me.”
Lizzie jerked her hand back, almost knocking over the hourglass in her haste. “But you’re not a siphoner. Forcing more magic inside of you will hurt you.”
“But it won’t kill me.”
“It could.”
“Then I would just come back as a vampire.”
Lizzie opened her mouth to argue more, but Hope cut her off.
“Come on.” She put Lizzie’s hands back in place. “Slow and steady.”
They both closed their eyes and barely breathed, too afraid to shake the unsteady balance as Lizzie carefully pulled magic from the ascendant. It flowed through her, in one hand and out the other. It hurt as it passed through her chest, and Lizzie worried that the powerful magic would be too much for her all-too-human organ. 
Terror iced her veins as she irrationally imagined Hope having to tell her parents that their daughter had somehow died of a heart attack, but she didn’t say anything to Hope, and Hope couldn’t see the pained expression on her face. The magic was beginning to make Lizzie nauseous and just when she thought she was going to have to stop, Hope cleared her throat.
“I think that’s enough.”
Lizzie smiled at the darkness just on the other side of the thin glass. It squirmed and moved as though the cloud of black were a living thing. But that's just what they needed.
Their eyes flickered up to each other at the same time, and their smiles only got wider. 
Hope went about the locator spell, effortlessly linking a bit of rat’s blood to the magic inside the hourglass. Lizzie watched in awe as Hope made such complex magic look so easy. She only tore her eyes away from the tribrid when the blood began to move across the map. 
Except it didn’t move far. 
“It’s here in the school,” Lizzie said, almost disappointed that they hadn't figured that out for themselves.
Hope, however, had already considered that. She looked closer at the map. “It’s in the armory.”
“Of course.” 
Hope’s chest swelled with so much pride that it hurt as she looked at Lizzie. Hope would’ve never thought to do a locator spell with the essence of the ascendant’s magic instead of blood herself. And she would’ve had no way to draw the magic out of the ascendant so cleanly and put it into the hourglass. Hope didn’t often need help, and when she did, she certainly didn’t get it so easily. 
She squeezed Lizzie’s hand. “You did it.”
“We did it.”