Chapter Eight

After returning home past 2 a.m., Harry, too wired to sleep, decides to do alchemy in his basement lab. His massive cat, Mister, demands a fire while Harry descends to the subbasement and wakes Bob the Skull, an air spirit and repository of arcane knowledge.

Harry briefs Bob on the day’s murders, Morgan’s suspicion, and his plan to visit Bianca. Bob, angling for entertainment, refuses to help unless Harry agrees to make a love potion as well as the escape potion Harry wants for emergencies. Irritated but pragmatic, Harry relents.

They craft an escape potion “to be the wind,” using Jolt cola, motor oil, feather shavings, espresso, a bus ticket, a broken chain, a stored shadow, and “mouse scampers.” Bob assures Harry it blends speed and brief intangibility. Harry sets it to simmer.

They then assemble a love potion with tequila, dark chocolate, perfume, lace, a captured sigh, candlelight, ashes from a racy romance passage, and shredded cash as a diamond substitute—over Harry’s ethical qualms. Bob defends the choices with his centuries of experience, and Harry focuses on finishing.

Harry powers both brews with will, worry, anger, and stubbornness, chanting until the mixtures flare and froth. He bottles and labels each potion, too exhausted to argue further as Bob crows over the results. Harry extinguishes the lab’s fires, returns to bed, and, with Mister settling over his legs, outlines his next steps: meet Bianca, locate Victor Sells, evade the White Council, and hunt the killer before the killer finds him.