Page 4 of Skyblossom
She huffed, hands on her hips. “Well, it means I knew you’d be leaning out your window in the morning with good news! Are you coming to breakfast, or what? I’m going to starve to death.”
“Try to cling to life for ten minutes longer while I get changed and cleaned up a little.”
She pouted, looking away. “I’m going to starve and die, and it’s going to be your fault, Summer. It’s going to be written on my death certificate and it’ll be written on my tombstone too,here lies Lumi Silvervale, victim of—”
I shut the window. She was a diviner, she probably knew I’d shut the window before she finished anyway.
I operated at two speeds, zero or a hundred, and now that I’d shaken off the sleep, I got out of zero and made it to a hundred, swishing through my room getting ready, a Dragonfly potion to start the day off right and a few herbological compounds for my skincare routine. My uniform responded to its enchantments and fitted itself onto me, shirt buttoning up and tie tying itself, blazer slipping onto me, and my shoes lined themselves up at the bathroom door on my way out, so I stepped into them and opened the window, hoisting myself up into the sill. I pressed my brogues against the stone surface of the windowsill, and I gripped the cool lunar silver of my wand, pulling up a flicker of magic before I pushed off the window and jumped out into the cool, brisk morning air.
The air responded to my magic, cushioning under me and slowing my fall until I landed softly on the damp grass just in front of Lumi, and I stood up, brushing myself off. “So,” I said, “you look alive.”
“Barely,” she said, pouting.
“Well, good thing I’m quick. Ow—” I flinched when the swatter hit the side of my face again, and I grabbed it out of the air this time. “Do we have issues, Swatty?”
It drooped a little. I patted it.
“I was being hyperbolic. I’m not going to unenchant you. Thanks for waking me up. Now stop swatting me, I’m awake.”
It perked up again, lifting out of my hand, and I patted it and sent it back up to the window, which shut itself as the swatter flew back inside.
“So, good news?” Lumi said, and I grinned at her, settling in alongside her on the path. It was easy to forget it from the window up above her, but I always felt small standing next to Lumi, who towered at a full six feet of willowy frame.
“Well, your visions were right this time, because I do have good news.”
“My visions arealwaysright.”
“Yeah… of course they are. Breakfast at the Great Hall?”
“Ugh,anywhere.I’m about to keel over and die.”
“Well, can’t have that.”
We started off through the gardens around Dragon House, the morning air crisp and cool around us, rolling down from the cliff faces of the hollow. It was quiet this early in the morning, but the rich magic of the hollow was flush in the air, and the minor dragons that lived around the hollow were out in full force while the students slept. We passed through a crowd of steel-scaled blackwings and had an audience of curious draconewts on a wrought-iron fence that separated the path from the cliff, jagged wings of bigger dragons cutting through the air above us as we walked, and I told Lumi how I’d found a lead for my potion design.
“I was creeping around in a greenhouse I didn’t actually have permission to be in,” I said, “and I poked the wrong bush a little bit, and, well, I sort of got Elery’s Cannoned through a tree and onto this girl’s table while she was having tea. But it was like fate,” I said, talking animatedly with my hands while we walked. “Her name’s Cadence, herbalist with Scorpion House. She seems like she really knows her stuff.Includingwhere and how to get the highest-quality snapbush root. We’re meeting up after class today to go have a look.”
Lumi put a hand on her chest and looked at me like I’d said something scandalous. “Summer. Are you flirting with her?”
“What? No!” I stumbled on the loose stones kicked across the path. I didn’t quite look at her, though—thinking about Cadence. I knew I wasn’tsupposedto think it, but she’d been sweet, charming, funny. Or maybe it was just how romantic the whole atmosphere had been, randomly finding myself in the middle of an enchanted tea party with her while her snagweed cuddled up with me and a lumini landed on both of our handsat once. “It’s about my alchemy,” I said. “I’ve got the arc-con extension sparked if this works out like I think it will.”
“She’snot your true love. I already told you this.”
“No, I know that,” I said, awkwardly pleading now. “I’m not flirting with her, okay? Promise. We’re going to find ingredients together.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you sure there’s not someotherbush she’s trying to help you find?”
“Oh my god, Lumi. Keep those thoughts on the inside.”
She threw her hands up. “I told you, your true love is going to show up in your life on the last day of classes! It’s going to be beautiful and romantic! I had a vision strong as dragonscale.”
“Iknow.I’m not trying to make anything happen with her.”
“Okay. But I’ll be scrying on what you’re doing out in the bushes to make sure you’re not getting frisky!”
I scowled. “Lumi, are you trying to see me naked?”
She waved me off. “I’m a diviner, I already have!”
