Page 27 of Skyblossom
“Oh, don’t even say it,” I said, pushing the words out in a short breath, turning away.
“What if I want to be with you instead?”
“You can’t say thatnow.Not before you’ve even had this thing happen for you.”
“Okay, then I’ll come back to you after classes end, and I’ll tell you I didn’t meet anybody I want to be with more than you.”
“When I know you’ve been trying not to, so I get to know I took you away from the actual right person for you?” I shook my head. “Maybe Lumi was right. Maybe we shouldn’t have done this.”
“Lumi’s almostneverright.”
I choked on a laugh and a sob, when I really needed not to be either laughing or crying right now. “She’s a good friend for you,” I said thinly. “And I hope we can still be friends too… Imean, I really want to see that potion. I’ll just… maybe need a minute first.”
“Cadence, please. Lumi and I will be okay. We’ll work it out. She’ll understand it’s not a reflection on her. She loves you. She’ll be happy with us together once she sees it. Everything’s been so perfect with us—”
“Everything’s been perfect because of obscure magic,” I said quietly. “I… I had a magic flower. The skyblossom. Said to be able to grant wishes, or to curse you, depending on which petal you pick. I, um… I wished for true love and picked a petal,” I said, my heart racing more with each word, nervous enough I felt like I’d be sick. “And, well, then you fell onto my table immediately after, and luminis started flocking around us and Knot pushing us together…”
“I…” She swallowed, looking at me with wide eyes. “I don’t think luminis are strong enough to push people together anyway.”
“Notnot,Knot.”
“Oh, Knot, not not like not…” She shook her head.
“I just think I plucked the wrong petal and got cursed to be around you but not get enough of you. I think I’m just a curse on you.”
“Don’tsaythat. You’re not a curse. And I don’t care what any flower has to say on the matter one way or the other. I wantyou,Cadence. Exactly as you have been, with or without magical interference from luminis and Knot and wyvern cars and magic confluence and everything. I… I love—”
“Don’t,” I said, and she flinched, eyes wide. I felt myself crying now, looking down at the ground. “Don’t say that,” I breathed. “It’s hard enough as it is. Please go try to find your actual true love.”
She swallowed hard, and I saw her eyes shimmer with tears, before she took a half-step back. “How long do I have to give it before I tell you there is nobody else?”
I shook my head. “Please. If you’re thinking things like that, then even if we did get together, I’d spend forever believing I kept you from your soulmate.”
She looked down. “Cadence…”
“Thank you. I’ve had a really good time.”
“Me too. I… I still want to be your friend, too. You and all your friends. I’ve loved being a part of everything.”
“Next… next semester,” I said with a small laugh. “My galeria is going to be so upset we’re not together. But you go have a great summer vacation texting your true love, and I’ll see you in the fall so we can be friends.”
“I can’t wait to see you again,” she said softly, and I felt like I’d break when she stepped in and pressed another long, soft kiss to my lips.
I still felt it even after she was gone, back out of the grotto, leaving me sitting on the ground in front of the winter-blue blossom,I can’t wait to see you againechoing in my mind, and it was long after she was gone that I managed to whisper to an empty grotto, “For what it’s worth, I love you too.”
Chapter 12
TRUE LOVE, AND THE LOVE KILLER
SUMMER
The potion seemed stable. That was good news, at least.
I missed the first class of the day—slept in without Lumi coming around to try getting my attention, and I’d shut the swatter in my drawer the other day when it refused to stop hitting my face, so when the alarm went off, I turned it off, groaned, rolled over in bed, and went back to sleep. I dreamed ofCadence all night. Wished I was a hypnomancer, so I could just shut it all off. But as it was, I woke up with ten minutes to go until my first class, and I had to weigh if it was worth it to show up late or, worse, break a few windows on the way there with evocation to get to the classroom on time.
It was a review session before the practical exam anyway. I wasn’t in the headspace to review anything. So I wrote it off and went to the alchemy lab after a late breakfast, the lab Cadence and I had made our own, and it was as painful a sight as it had been last night, her plants still there.
But the potion I’d set up to finish brewing overnight was also there, a flask simmering slightly with a pale golden concoction inside. I got a hollow ache in my chest tapping my wand to the table and stopping the burner, picking up the flask, looking at it.
