Page 67 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
“Bulb.”
“Pardon?”
“It grew from a bulb.”
He shot her a look. “My point is you used magic not to form the flower but to encourage thebulbto start and complete its life cycle. Everything in the world has its own reserve of magical energy, you see, but some things far more than others.”
“Like the Eye of the Serpent,” said Violet thoughtfully. “It has its own magic, which users can draw on.”
“Exactly, but not everyonecandraw on the magic inherent ineveryday substances because they simply don’t have much to spare. An artifact like the Eye contains an immense store of power compared to a single seed—er,bulb.”
She smirked at his correction.
Nathaniel continued. “By pouring your magic into the bulb and asking it to grow, you evoked the energy that was already within it, the same way a water mage can bring a kettle to boil, or how the Clerics of Rava can shape structures from raw earth.”
“So that one’s an actual flower, then?” Violet asked. “And the dahlia isn’t.”
He shook the dahlia at her and turned to his worktable, where a sample of the blight was contained within a large glass jar while he waited for his new safety equipment to be delivered. “If my suspicions are correct, then yes,” he clarified, opening the jar.
He dropped both into the jar, Violet looking over his shoulder, and watched with satisfaction as the rot crept over the dahlia and, just as with the mugwort, slowed and stopped. The freesia, however, was quickly overtaken in its entirety, collapsing within the jar to become a stringy mess of black goo, soon indecipherable from the rest.
“So what does that mean?”
“Well, it means that the blight reacts to magic.”
“We knew that already, didn’t we? It pushed back when I tried to use my magic to reverse it.”
“Yes, butwhy? Magic is balance, remember, so what is the blight balancing by pushing back?” He looked up at the rain-splattered panes of the roof, his mind whirring. “When did you say the pain in your hands started getting worse?”
“Not long ago. It stopped going away just after—” She sucked in a breath, her mouth falling open. “After I saw Sedgwick.”
Nathaniel took her hand between both of his and absently began massaging it again. “Magic shouldn’t hurt,” he murmured,kissing her fingers. “You said it first started when you came to Dragon’s Rest?”
She nodded, frowning. “I—yes.”
“Sedgwick came here that very same week, did you know that?” He looked down at their clasped hands. “And the ingredients he came looking for when he first came to the apothecary—how could I have forgotten?” Nathaniel thought back to that list. Minotaur horn. Mane of marea. Both were elements of magical creatures that could be used to perform powerful magic—or inhibit it. “What if Sedgwick is trying to obstruct your magic? The blight affects plants. Wouldn’t it make sense that he’d identify a powerful plant witch as a threat to his plans? That he’d take steps to deter anyone who could potentially stop the blight otherwise?”
Violet’s eyes widened. “You think Sedgwick is targetingme?” She appeared thoughtful. Quietly, almost to herself, she added, “That…makes a lot of sense.”
Nathaniel squeezed her hand. “If we can figure out how he’s affecting your magic and counteract it, we could stop your magic from hurting you anymore.”
“And get rid of the blight,” she reminded him.
“Yes, the blight. Of course.” He smiled sheepishly.Distraction, he thought again, with no shortage of fondness. “That too.”
He’d been focusing too hard on the blight, but the answer had been staring him in the face all this time—Violetcould reverse it. If Sedgwick saw her as such a threat, then it meant her magic was the key to stopping the blight. He only needed to help her unlock whatever alchemical means Sedgwick was using to hurt her, and luckily Nathaniel had a lifetime of experience as an apothecary. He knew how to combine alchemy and medicine.
Nathaniel reached for a pair of gloves. “I need to test a theory. I need to—”
“Get dressed,” Violet finished, smirking at him. “You need toput your clothes back on before you do any experimenting. I’m not an alchemist, but even I know you probably want to be wearing a shirt.”
He looked down at his bare chest. “Ah,” he said. “You are correct.”
“I often am, much to your chagrin,” she teased, and reached for her buttons. “Do you want your—?”
He grabbed her wrist, stopping her, and they stared at each other for a moment. “You undressing right now is going to lead us in one direction and one direction only,” he told her, smiling. “And as much as that’s a road I’d happily travel down again, Dragon’s Rest needs a solution to the blight, which meansyouneed a solution to Sedgwick.”
She redid the offending button and stood on her toes to kiss him again. Nathaniel allowed himself to sink into the kiss for just a moment before pulling away. Truly, he felt he’d never be able to get anything done again in this greenhouse. If it weren’t for the matter directly at hand, he didn’t think he’d actually mind at all.
