Page 11 of Skyblossom
I blinked slowly. “Practice… what?”
“Dating, being together.” Viv shrugged, speaking curtly. “Her friend’s vision is probably fey tricks anyway. Then when nothing materializes on the last day of the semester, she realizes the actual true love has been by her side the whole time.”
“I thought you didn’t care.”
“I don’t,” she said shortly. “I’m going to sleep. Goodnight.”
“This doesn’t look like you don’t care,” I said, butthatshe didn’t care about—she shut the door on me mid-sentence, and I was about to complain about her when Rosie clapped her hands together.
“I think Viv’s right!” she said. “Having your all-or-nothing shot with the love of your life coming up must be stressful for Summer. She could use a little… rehearsal.” She winked.
“Oh, saints, Rosie,” I mumbled, putting my tea down and covering my face. She was… I mean, Summer had said how nervous she was and about how she didn’t want to mess it up. It was just… was I really supposed to suggest something like that? I wasn’t nearly cool enough to say something like that. “Look, I… I helped her get the ingredient she wanted. I don’t even have a good excuse to keep spending time with her.”
“You can just ask because you like her! She’s allowed to say no if she doesn’t want to. But she’ll want to. You’re a real catch.”
“Eh… I’ve got the charm of a sewer ghoul.”
“You are not. Duel me right now and I’ll have you take it back.”
“I will pass. You, um, you’re sure you didn’t tell the others about—”
“About the skyblossom thing, no.” She paused. “About your cute little Dragon House crush, abso-fucking-lutely.”
“Yeah, I have noticed that… I’m going to bed now, okay? I need some time with my books to help me clear my head.”
But they didn’t, of course—not when I spent the whole time just thinking about Summer. And there must have been a hypnomancer around here somewhere trying to make matters worse, because I dreamed of Summer all night. Her face close to mine in the wyvern car, close enough I could count every individual streak of blue in her eyes…
I’d thought I could get away from everything, so the next morning, when I was up before the rest of the galeria even stirred, I slipped out and skipped the Great Hall for breakfast at a quiet café in Juniper Square district, peaceful and still in the mornings, dark greenery in among old and imposing stone architecture that looked like ancient magics with the way it was swathed in early-morning mist and pale dawn light.
But I only got a few bites into my oatmeal when the chair across from me pulled out, and I looked up with a start at where the tall, willowy figure of Lumi Silvervale stood over the seat. “Miss Cadence,” she said, pouting at me already, and I put a hand up.
“Ah, don’t sit there—”
“Hmph! You can’t hide from me and send me away, Cadence.” She dropped into the seat with the damaged leg, and it buckled, and she dropped so immediately it was almost comical, shrieking as she fell over backwards and landed on the floor.
“Lumi?” I stumbled out of my chair and knelt next to her, and she made a face at the chair, kicking it.
“Even the chair is out to get me.”
“I wasn’t saying you can’t sit, just… that chair is, kinda broken… are you okay?”
She looked away, pouting. “My butt hurts.”
“Okay, I mean, I can understand that. I have some herbological remedy…”
“For my butt?”
“I mean, you put it in your mouth. I wouldn’t recommend rubbing it on your butt. You could! I just wouldn’t recommend it.”
She sat up, rubbing her tailbone area. “Yes please,” she mumbled, still through a pout like none I’d ever seen. I opened up my herbal bank, plucking out another Galyr’s tooth, and she perked up, looking at it. “Oh—what’s that?”
“Galyr’s tooth. It’s a restorative agent that heals low-level pain and mental distress.”
“No, no. In your little plant book. The one with the purple streak on it. It had some really interesting magic on it.”
“Oh, that’s—nothing,” I blurted, my face red, hiding the herbal bank behind my back. Oh, saints. That was a terrible job of lying. Especially to somebody who probably had divination to tell if I was—
“Oh, okay,” she said, and I slumped, staring in disbelief as she took the Galyr’s tooth and put it in her mouth. She’d… bought it. Huh. I mean, maybe shewaslacking in practical awareness a little.
