Page 26 of Skyblossom
“Me neither. This is incredible.” She walked closer, kneeling in the soft moss at the base of the tree, and she ran her fingers through the lichen over the bottom of the trunk, magic dust sparkling off of it like dew off blades of grass when she brushed her hand over it. “This is potent stuff.”
“Don’t get power-hungry and start grabbing it all.”
“I might. This could be the start of my corruption arc.”
“Should we have a dramatic duel here for me to bring you back to the light?”
She laughed, standing up. “I’m a sucker for you. I’d go back to the light if you gave me puppy-dog eyes and asked. Can you harvest it? You’re better at it than I am.”
I shouldn’t have, but I kissed her—she had to know how much was loaded in this moment, how symbolic the whole idea of it was, but I kissed her, and she didn’t pull away, didn’t fight it, just put her hands on my waist and kissed me back until I pulled away. “Yeah, I can do that,” I said softly, and she laughed lightly.
“If I knew asking you to harvest a magic plant would get you to make out with me, we’d have been spending a lot more time in the woods.”
“Mm. Shush.” I kissed her again, but I managed to pull myself away long enough to stoop down and use my herbalist’s tools and my wand, carefully sectioning a weakly supported piece of the lichen and extracting it. The magic in the grotto shimmered brighter around us when we did, and I put the sample into one of my preserving jars, slotting it back into my herbalism bag and turning back to her. “So, do we make a potion now?”
“Can you harvest one of these mushrooms or something too?”
“Huh? I mean… I guess I could, but I don’t know…” I put my hands on my hips when I saw the little laugh spilling over her features. “Saints, I wasn’t actually kissing you because you’d asked for me to harvest something.”
“Damn.”
“You can just kiss me.”
She laughed, and she did, stepping in and pressing a long, soft kiss to my lips. The magic in the grotto was warm and welcoming and sprung up higher around us when we kissed, like it was responding to us, like how everything had responded to the two of us since the moment I picked that petal and made that wish.
And it had to fall apart, and it did, when I pulled back from the kiss and my stomach clenched anxiously at the sight of a figure there behind Summer, back in the entrance of the grotto,shoulders hunched, a look that was equally dark and sad on her face—Lumi Silvervale, her arms folded.
“What’s wrong?” Summer said, turning back, and her posture tightened at the sight. “Oh—hi. Lumi. Hey. Hello. Thanks for the tip, you were right about the—”
“You were lying to me,” Lumi said.
“Oh, no, um…” Summer shifted awkwardly, scratching her head. “About the tree? I guess I doubted it would be here.”
Summer was making it worse. I swallowed past the anxious lump in my throat and said, “I’m not trying to keep her from anyone—”
“You’restilllying to me,” Lumi said, hunching her shoulders higher. “I thought you were my best friend, and you’re hiding things and lying, and I thoughtCadencewas my friend too—”
“Lumi—” I started, stepping forward, and I put a hand on her arm—she pushed it away, but I put my hand back, and she didn’t fight it this time. “I mean it,” I said. “I told Summer when we started that I didn’t want to keep her from her true love, so we promised we’d just… do this until the end of the semester. That was it.”
Lumi pursed her lips, a sad little look like a hookfox with its tail cut off. “I would have understood if you’d told me the truth. I just wanted to know.”
“I’m sorry, Lumi,” Summer said. “I—it was me insisting we couldn’t tell you because I was worried what you’d say to me. Don’t blame Cadence for it.”
Lumi pushed out a short, sharp sigh that tried to be angry and came out sad, and she turned away. “It’s okay. You two are happy. Forget what I said and forget about me.”
“Lumi!” Summer said, stepping after her, but Lumi squeezed back through the crevasse and out of the grotto, andSummer groaned, hanging her head. “Dammit.Dammit.I don’t know why I’m like this…”
I swallowed thickly, squeezing my hands together. “I’m so sorry,” I murmured. “I didn’t mean to mess with your friendships…”
“You didn’t—it’s not your fault. I’m the one who—”
“Please don’t beat yourself up for this.” I shook my head. “You should make things right with Lumi… tell her you just didn’t want to hurt her. I mean… we’re probably at time, now, anyway, aren’t we?”
“Cadence—” She turned on me with her eyes wide, brow furrowed. “Wait, are you breaking up with me right now?”
“I mean, we agreed we’d stop before the end of classes, right? We have less than a week left. We should have done it an hour ago and we wouldn’t have caused any problems with you and Lumi…”
“But—Cadence—” She gritted her teeth, clenching her hand in the air, struggling for words. “It’s just—what if—”
