Evergreen Legacy (Society of Magical Botanists #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

It’s just one tree. The thought should have calmed me, but I was squeezing my fingers into my palms through my knit gloves. We can plant another one in its place.

I walked along Wildflower Trail with Callan Rhodes, tree affinity botanist, founder’s descendant, and one of two lead members of the Root and Vine Society, the secret club at Evergreen Academy that I’d joined.

For the society’s first mission a week ago, some of us had traveled to the tree conservatory in Washington State and recovered a centuries-old quill.

We had taken the quill because we thought it could point us in the direction of the Vanished Compendium, a book of Floracantus that hasn’t been seen for at least one hundred years.

While we were successful in recovering the quill, something was blocking its locating features.

Instead of acting like a compass that pointed to the book, the quill spun erratically in a circle any time we tried to use it.

And that brought us to our current plan—killing Frank, the oldest tree in Weed, California.

My eyes went straight to Callan’s hand, which held the poison that could take down such a majestic oak. I let out a sharp exhalation and stumbled over a loose branch on the trail.

Callan slowed and turned to me, his thick eyelashes sweeping as he scanned my face. “Are you okay, Briar?”

We were almost at Frank. I could just make out the large tree and the letterbox attached to him in the dark. My stomach rolled.

I shook my head. “I’m feeling a little sick.”

“The tissue necrotizer we’ve developed is painless. It will spread through the veins of the tree and destroy any cells—and associated magical spells that it holds—without the tree ever feeling anything.” Callan’s voice was gentle.

I knew he was trying to console me, but it wasn’t working. I ran through the reason we were here in my head, looking away from the poison. Callan had realized that Frank, the oldest tree in town, was the source of the blocking spell on the quill that should point us to the Vanished Compendium.

He’d felt magic around the tree on Halloween, then a painting in Professor East’s office of a tree that looked just like Frank had tipped him off even further.

According to Evergreen Academy records, the painting had been installed roughly one hundred years ago, the same time that the Vanished Compendium was rumored to have last been seen.

“Are you sure you felt the blocking spell when you examined Frank yesterday?” I asked, wanting another confirmation that harming Frank wouldn’t be for nothing.

Callan nodded solemnly. “The blocking spell is attached to Frank. I ran through several methods to remove it, but the spell wouldn’t budge.”

If Callan was right, and I was sure he was, a magical botanist had attached a blocking spell to Frank’s cells to keep the Vanished Compendium hidden. Which meant that as long as Frank lived, the blocking spell embedded in the oak’s DNA would interfere with the quill’s locating features.

I chewed my lower lip. It was perhaps the worst dilemma I had been in since learning I was a magical botanist. The Board of Regents had been making changes at Evergreen Academy, the magical college Callan and I attended, and we needed to shift the balance of power back in our favor.

Finding the long-lost Vanished Compendium was the clearest way to do that, and we were closer than any botanist had been in a long time.

To get us over this last hurdle to finding the book, we needed to remove the blocking spell that was running from Frank to the quill.

There was no other way. Tears filled my eyes.

“Do you want me to do it without you?” Callan offered, breaking into my thoughts with a gentle voice.

He stepped closer and took one of my gloved hands firmly in his.

A raindrop landed on my cheek. “If it makes any difference, I don’t feel good about this either.

For tree affinities, poisoning a great oak doesn’t feel right.

But botanists also know to look at the bigger picture when it comes to how we interact with and use plants as resources. ”

I nodded. Logically, I knew all of that. Finding the Vanished Compendium might be the only way to save Evergreen Academy from a takeover by the Board of Regents. It could be the key to putting power back in the hands of all magical botanists, not just the founders’ descendants.

Despite knowing that, I could barely think of Frank without dread filling me. If we were going to poison the tree, I needed to take responsibility and be part of it. “Let’s just get it over with,” I said then gently dropped Callan’s hand and approached the giant oak tree.

“Will we see anything… happen after we administer the poison?” I asked, reaching out to rest a hand on Frank’s bark.

“It will spread through the cells, and the tree will begin to show signs of distress within a few days. I imagine someone will report it to the local foresters, but there won’t be anything they can do.

By the end of this week, the tree will have deteriorated to the point that it will need to be removed for the safety of those walking along the trail. ”

I noticed Callan was carefully referring to Frank as “the tree” and “it,” likely trying to depersonalize the experience for me. But I had grown up with Frank. I was the local, and I had more of a connection to the tree than Callan, despite his more developed tree affinity.

“And when Frank dies, what will happen to all the cuttings of him around town?” I thought of our annual fall tradition, where people throughout the town of Weed came to the Wildflower Trail and were given cuttings of Frank to plant in their yards.

According to Callan’s theory, each cutting amplified the blocking spell’s effect, and the tradition of giving new cuttings to the residents of Weed every Halloween was a clever way to keep the blocking Floracantus fresh.

But who put the Floracantus on the quill to begin with?

“I can’t be sure, but since they’re just serving as boosters, I think they’ll stay alive, and the blocking spell in them will dissipate when the one in Frank is gone,” Callan replied.

I swallowed, buying time. Rain continued to fall in infrequent droplets, seeming to imitate my uncertain mood.

“Are you ready?” Callan asked quietly. We had put up signs about a mudslide on either end of the trail, and it was rare for people to be in the area at night, but we still needed to hurry in case we were disturbed.

I nodded, and Callan knelt by the base of the tree. With a tenderness that he rarely displayed in public, he placed a hand on the bark and murmured something, and I got the impression he was apologizing for what he was about to do.

He uncorked the vial of poison.

Blood rushed to my head, and my fists knotted once more.

“Wait.” I put up my hands, and Callan looked over his shoulder at me. “We can’t do this.”

Callan paused, waiting for my next words.

“Frank is practically a sacred tree to the city of Weed. Causing his death, even in the dignified way you have so carefully planned, is just… wrong.” My stomach relaxed slightly as I voiced what I had been feeling.

Callan stood and put the cork back in the vial. “I trust your instincts. If you don’t want to do this, we’ll find another way.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? There is no other way. It’s sacrifice Frank or never find the Vanished Compendium.”

“Maybe there’s some avenue we haven’t explored.”

But even as Callan said the words, I knew they weren’t true.

The quill was the most promising lead to the book that the Root and Vine Society had ever had, and since they had me, a magical botanist with every affinity power, just like the Renaissance-era botanists who had written the book with the quill, we had a shot at using it.

“I just wish we knew who had put the blocking spell on the quill and why. Maybe there’s a reason they didn’t want the book to be found.”

“I’m certain there was a reason. But that was a long time ago. Circumstances change,” Callan said. He nestled my hands in his, squeezing warmth into them. His eyes found mine again, his long dark lashes sweeping across my face once more. “What do you want to do, local?”

Local. There was that nickname he had given me on our very first meeting. But it wasn’t just a nickname. In Weed, California, I was the local, and therefore, Frank was my responsibility. No one else in the Root and Vine Society could understand what the tree meant to the community.

No, I couldn’t participate in killing the majestic oak, and I couldn’t let my friends go through with it either.

“We can’t do it,” I breathed.

Callan’s shoulders fell, but he nodded and gave my hands a squeeze. “Okay. Plan’s off. We need to find another way to locate the book.”

Even though I was the one who suggested the change, I was full of questions. “What will we do about Wyatt? Once he has an expert examine the fake quill I gave him, he might be back for that one.” I nodded toward Callan’s backpack, where the real quill resided.

Callan straightened at the mention of his brother but didn’t hesitate to respond.

“It doesn’t matter. The quill can’t be used while the blocking spell is in place.

As long as Wyatt doesn’t know about the Frank connection, he’ll never be able to unblock it either.

And you are the only one with all the affinities who can use the quill, so he wouldn’t get far, regardless. ”

The little relief in the tightening of my stomach vanished. I was putting Evergreen Academy and the Root and Vine Society at risk by not taking the final step to find the Vanished Compendium. But killing Frank was a step too far, even in dire circumstances.

“I’m sorry,” I said, barely able to meet Callan’s eyes. “I really thought I could do this, but now that we’re here, I know it’s not right.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you two made the correct decision. I’m pretty fond of Frank here.”

We jumped at the sound of an unexpected deep voice, and I spun to see a man who had appeared out of nowhere. There was something vaguely familiar about his tanned skin and pine-green ball cap, which were slightly illuminated by the lantern he was holding.

Callan’s eyes shot up to the trees, and I realized that was where the man had come from.

How much had this stranger overheard?

“By the looks on your faces, I can tell you weren’t expecting me. But if you two are magical botanists and you’re doing what I think you’re doing, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”