Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber

Here is a summary with spoilers for Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber

Holland Tierney once took a folklore and legends class. It was one of her favorite classes, with one of her favorite professors, and she has been secretly hoping to find one of the legends in real life. One day, she thinks she’s found one—a folklore about a Watchman. The Watchman, when asked the right question, will tell you when you will die.

When Holland sees the Watchman, she is on a date with Jake, a somewhat new boyfriend. She tells him about the class and the Watchman, and they decide to put their names down and hopefully hear back from the Watchman.

Back at school, Holland’s advisor, the Professor (her folklore professor), is somewhat missing, and she is given a new advisor—a young man named Adam Bishop. Neither of them is happy about it.

Back home, Holland receives a mysterious lockbox connected to a bank. A note attached to it claims that the box was given to her by her father and that she needs to come to the bank to look at it the next morning. Holland doesn’t like the feeling, as the bank name and mysterious box are part of another folklore legend she learned about. What are the odds that she would run into two legends within 24 hours of each other?

Holland thinks about calling her twin sister, January, to see if she knows anything about their dead father and the mysterious box, but she doesn’t get the chance because she gets a call from her boyfriend, Jake. He is panicked because the Watchman got back to him—he is to die later that night. Jake asks her to come over just to be with him, since he really only did it to impress Holland.

After saying goodbye to her friends, Holland rushes over there and finds that Jake has minutes left to live. But the Watchman did say that if he kills Holland, he can extend his lifeline. When Holland hears this, she starts to run away, with Jake chasing after her. When Holland looks at her watch, the time that Jake is supposed to die has passed, and when she turns, she finds a dead Jake on the ground.

Rather than call the police, Holland runs back into Jake’s house, feeling something is off. She finds a document revealing that Jake is not even a real identity—he was hired to trick her by becoming her boyfriend and getting close to her. Holland feels sick. While snooping, the Watchman contacts her: she is going to die the next day around midnight. If she wants to extend her lifeline, she needs to find the Alchemical Heart and bring it to him.

Holland hears the police sirens and decides to run, but when she gets to her car, it won’t start. A man arrives, grabs her, and says that her sister January sent him to help her. He introduces himself as Gabe. With few choices left, Holland gets into Gabe’s car. He answers a few of her questions, but mostly tells her that she is a dead woman trying to find the Alchemical Heart.

He takes her to his home, but on the way, they run into Adam, who also happens to know all about the legends and folklore. Things escalate and end with Gabe shooting Adam, and the two continuing on to Gabe’s home. That night, Gabe and Holland end up sharing a kiss.

The next morning, Gabe helps Holland get ready for her bank appointment, as there are a lot of things that could go wrong. When Holland arrives at the bank, her professor is there. The Professor reveals that she has been using the class to find gifted and magical students—just like Holland. The Professor also reveals that January, her sister, works for the bank, which Holland had no clue about. The Professor offers to work with Holland, as long as she can have whatever is in the box.

During this point, Holland gets a nosebleed and a bit of a hallucination—something she has struggled with a few times throughout the book. The Professor also reveals that she knows all about Gabe, saying that he is a dangerous man Holland shouldn’t be around, especially because rumor has it that Gabe killed his wife to gain her magic. Holland doesn’t want to hear anything else, feeling a bit betrayed by her professor, so she goes to look at the lockbox.

She finds her father’s final screenplay. It’s revealed that Holland’s real name is Holland St. James, daughter of the tragic story of a screenwriter. She and January had found a new last name, thanks to the legend attached to their father’s legacy. Holland grabs the manuscript and runs out of the bank, though not to Gabe—she doesn’t trust him now.

Instead, she finds a miraculously recovered Adam, who tells her that he is working with her sister January and that they both work at the bank. Holland is surprised, as she didn’t know her sister worked there or that she knew about the legends. Before Holland fully trusts Adam, she wants to know more about him and some supposed rumors about him. He admits that he used to be the Devil—it was a persona that he and his brother Mason created to trick people into giving them their magic. But then Mason backstabbed him, killed their father, and took all their parents’ power, leaving Adam with nothing.

With a little more trust in Adam, the two decide to follow her father’s clues and go to his old movie studio, believing that’s where he left something behind. Both believe it will be the Alchemical Heart. When they get there, Gabe is also there and finds the object first, though he looks disappointed, puts it back, and leaves. When Holland looks at it, it’s a pencil—but she knows what that means: a local bowling alley she and her father used to go to.

Attached to the bowling alley is the place where Mason works and spends most of his time. When they arrive, they expect to run into Mason, but instead, they run into Gabe, who has been following them to get to the next clue. They all go searching for it, and that’s when Holland runs into Mason. He claims that she needs to be careful because Adam will be the one to hurt her.

As they search, Holland makes the connection—she has had the Alchemical Heart the whole time. It’s in a necklace her father gave her. When she figures this out, Adam sees the realization, stabs her, and starts to take the necklace. But it’s too late—the day is over, the Alchemical Heart has now moved locations, and it won’t be able to be found for some time. Along with the heart moving, her death date is officially over—she managed to live.

The Professor returns to Holland and offers her a job in the magical world. She now knows that her sister January joined the world a while ago but only did so to protect her. She still hasn’t been able to get a hold of January to talk about everything. Holland accepts the job, excited for what’s to come. Soon, Mason also comes to her and gives her a black business card before disappearing.