A drop of blood.

His sly smile and stupidly watchful eyes.

It wasn’t a selfless decision for the sake of her parents, but something quieter; a flicker of curiosity, that convinced her to give him a drop of her blood in trade for a bag of coins. A fault in her routine, a breaking point that was never meant to be discovered.

Mabel Cantrell knew nothing more than the life her parents had laid out for her; she was a baker’s daughter, a maiden that by all rights would spend the rest of her life crusted in dough in a sweltering kitchen, working for her parents until death did them part.

Vaughn was sent from the underbelly of the capital to find the blood of maidens for his patron, an Alchemist who fancied giving him odd requests. But then came an anomaly- a variable neither of them could have been prepared for; Mabel.

With this blood bargain between the two, the world of Magick was unveiled. It’s fierce, wild, and older than name- it was never meant to bend.

But Alchemy does not ask permission. It takes. Refines. Breaks. Under the practiced hand of the Alchemist- revered, faceless, and utterly brilliant, Alchemy becomes something near-beautiful: gold coaxed from rot, life shaped from loss, miracles stitched from agony.

This is his domain, and Mabel- chosen not by fate but by formula- is being drawn into the masterpiece.

As something ancient begins to wake in her name, Mabel must face the truth; the new path she walks may not be hers alone…and whatever waits at the end has been waiting a long, long time.