Page 7 of Skyblossom
In return, I helped her with her runology homework. I still had no idea why she’d taken a runology class again in the spring semester, but she wasn’t enjoying it any more than she had been in the fall.
“So,” I said, drawing my wand and holding it, just idly looking at it, something to keep my hands busy. “That girl, Summer—she wants my help with finding a rare ingredient for a special potion project she’s doing.”
“Okay. Normal so far.”
“She fell from the sky and landed on my table after I plucked a magic flower and wished to find true love.”
“Okay, less normal.” She turned on me, and I buried my face in my hands.
“Oh, Rosie, don’t look at me.”
“You plucked a magic flower and made a wish?”
“That weird flower I’d been trying to identify. I found an old source naming it as a skyblossom—said it would make your wish come true if you picked the right petal and curse you if you picked the wrong one. I thought it was fey tricks, but I was also tired of the flower and decided to just set it aside, so I, um… well, I, uh.” I hunched my shoulders, mumbling. “I’ve felt really… lonely… since Natalie left. It’s so dumb to admit to, but I’ve never gotten over that and I miss her, but more than that, I miss being with someone. I miss being in love. So I wished for… um, true love.”
“And as soon as you did, Summer fell from the sky and landed on your table, and now you’re dry humping her.”
“Somehow it’s weirder.” I described everything—the interaction in the greenhouse, Knot taking to her and coiling up on her, the lumini landing between us, the agreement to help with her alchemy class project of an extension of the Arcane Conduit potion. Walking out of the greenhouse together and the way luminis had been just about dancing hearts in the air the whole way back. Rosie was absolutely glowing by the time I talked about our goodbye at the path into the Citadel, and how she’d given me her number, and…
“And shewinkedat you?” Rosie repeated, and I put my hands over my face.
“I mean, just, you know, playing around, having fun.”
“Girl, you just got your names written in the stars together. Why didn’t you tell me you had a magical wish-granting flower?”
“You don’t think it actuallyworked,do you?” I said in a desperate whisper. “It’s just a coincidence—thinking abouttrue loveand so I’m seeing it everywhere.”
She laughed loudly, grabbing my hand and tugging me up to my feet, and I stumbled out of the chair as she took both of my hands, squeezing. “Invite me to your wedding.”
“Wedding—” I felt my face burn, and I scowled. “I met her twelve hours ago!”
“Correction.She wasdeliveredto you by the ley lines twelve hours ago, to be your true love! Oh my god, I’m so happy for you. Natalie sucked. I’ve hated seeing how dead you look in the eyes since then. I’m going to get Kali to help me do some digging, some spying, find out if Summer is a good person, but I’m sure your fated true love isn’t a wartcat.”
“Saints and—stars—Rosie!” I pulled my hands away and covered my face again. “You can’t be serious. There’s no way a flower like that is real. Maybe I got cursed! Maybe… maybe I’m destined for heartbreak. Maybe the curse is that a beautiful woman shows up and gets close to me and then leaves me just like Natalie did.”
“Then Kali and I will Shatter her. Easy.”
“Also, please don’t tell Kali about this.”
She groaned.
“Wand oath,” I reminded her.
“Can I just tell her you met this girl and say itseemslike you’re interested and ask her for help finding what we can?”
I swallowed. I should have said no, but… but I… I wanted information on Summer. Just out of… academic curiosity. I was a scholarly type. I loved having knowledge. That was all it was. “Sure,” I said, and she lit up.
*
I paid a whole lot of attention during classes.
I was lying. I paid no attention whatsoever.
It was rare for me not to pay attention in classes—I was the type to show up with all my notes in perfect order and sit in the front of class, raise my hand for every question and have the professors askanyone other than Cadence.So it was probably a bad sign that I was sitting kicking my feet under the desk staring out the window and daydreaming.
I was sick with nerves and excitement in equal measure when I finished classes, and I just about ran the whole way back to my dorm to get changed. I went with something a little bit… cuter than I should have for a practical excursion, but I wanted… well.
It was instantly a problem, because Kali wasn’t the only one Rosie had told the shorter, approved version of the story—all five other members of my galeria were out in the common area when I got back out, sprawled across the couch and the chairs, Rosie sitting on the table kicking her feet under it gossiping to the others, Kali playing with Viv’s hair while the latter was lying against her side on the couch because the two were playing a year-long game of will-they-or-won’t-they, Opal and Drake arguing about something irrelevant like they always did, but everyone stopped to look at me when I stepped out from the hallway and into the common room, freezing up with my face flushed.
