Page 29 of Skyblossom
I shrugged. “I dunno… maybe you were right. Maybe we shouldn’t have done that.” I paused. “Hey, do you know what a skyblossom is?”
“Is it a flower that flies around in the sky?”
“It’s… probably not. It’s a magic flower said to be able to grant a wish, but only if you pick the right petal, and if you pick the others, you get cursed.”
“What if you pick them all at once?”
I tented my hands. “Well,” I said. “I guess you’d get a bunch of curses and one wish to come true.”
“What if you wished to not be cursed?”
“They… cancel each other out? I dunno. I don’t know if this thing is even real. The legend, I mean. The flower is real—Cadence had one.”
“Oh, really?” She looked over at me. “Did she make a wish?”
“Um… yeah.” I shrugged, looking away, feeling my face warm. I was glad it was dark in here. “She wished to find true love.”
“Wait, what? When?”
“About five seconds before I fell on her table and we were surrounded by luminis.”
“Saints, you didn’t want to tell me that part?”
“I didn’t know it until… well, until after I last saw you.” I sighed. “She says she thinks she got the wrong one and got cursed, presented with someone she really liked only to lose them. I’m wondering the same thing—if we both got cursed. Do you think… maybe that would mess with your vision?”
“I dunno… I’m not an expert in flowers.” She shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“I mean, if it affected your vision, yeah?”
“Does even the vision matter? I should have known it was bad news if it was coming from me. I’m the love killer.”
I put a hand on her back. “You’re not thelove killer.You’ve just had bad luck.”
“What’s a stupid vision good for, anyway? If you’re happy with someone, that’s way more important than what some visionsaid.” She hunched her shoulders. “I just didn’t think you’d fall in love with someone else in the eleventh hour!”
“I really didn’t expect it, either, if I’m being honest with you, but—” I shook my head. “I just worry if I ignore it and pay no attention to anything that happens on the last day of the semester, then I’ll go around always wondering on some level if I missed out on mytrue love,you know?”
She made a face like she’d had a sour candy. “Does that mean I killed all your love?”
“No—it’s not your fault. You just wanted me to be happy.”
“I know. But I shouldn’t have been so… spell-to-the-face with it.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Summer.”
I shifted closer to her side. “It wouldn’t have been so messy if I’d just been upfront with you from the beginning. So… I’m sorry, too. We’re still friends, right?”
She hunched her shoulders, pouting. “I’d get bored without being able to talk to you.”
“Me too. Losing Cadence is bad enough. I don’t want to lose you too.”
“She is a total sweetheart… if I hadn’t had that vision, I’m sure we’d all be happy together as best friends, me and her and you and her friends, everybody.”
“You can never know what would have happened if it had gone another way.”
“Chronomancers can.”
“Okay, well, I don’t see any chronomancers here, so we’ll have to settle for that. I’m just glad at least to be your friend.”
“Mm.” She slumped, staring down at the floor. “Me too.”
