"She is an absolute genius when it comes to rare herbs and stabilizing mana cores," I rambled on in a quiet, hurried whisper, my words catching on each other as I kept going.
"No normal physician could have balanced the liquid moonstone without causing a violent reaction, but her calculations are always so precise, and she spent weeks perfecting the balance of the amethyst liquid..."
"Irene, who is that friend of yours? Can I get them to come here?" Xander interrupted softly, his low growl cutting right through my frantic explanations. His dark eyes narrowed with a calculating intensity.
My eyes lowered instantly, my voice dying in my throat. I had fully expected him to ask this, but I still hadn't found the right way to navigate the danger of it. Neisa was a hidden variable, an illegal alchemist who wasn't supposed to exist in the capital. Skipping her name entirely, I focused on his second question.
