Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
When the weekend arrived, I took a break from the sabotage and secrets at Evergreen Academy to spend an evening with my aunt.
Bryce was out with friends, so my aunt and I were crafting homemade pizzas before watching a rom-com.
The aroma of spring flowers floated in through the open patio door.
Since the weather was warming, my aunt had moved most of her flowers outside, and I assumed Bryce was grateful to have some surface space back.
As we put the pizzas in the oven, my aunt turned to the one large bouquet remaining on the counter, whose blooms were currently evenly splayed between both of us. I had been watching them all evening as they’d subtly flipped back and forth between me and my aunt.
When I got up from the counter, the flowers tilted back toward my aunt. I hadn’t realized she was watching them, too, until she pointed and said, “There! See?”
“See what?” I asked, wondering if there was a bug on the bouquet.
“The flowers have been moving,” she said, squinting at them.
I froze, a giggle of sheer panic coming out of me.
“I know it sounds crazy,” Aunt Vera said, “but I’ve been noticing it for weeks. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but with you here, it’s even more obvious. They’ve been subtly shifting in the vase.”
I swallowed, words trapped before the point of forming anything intelligible in my brain. Aunt Vera knew something was going on. Was it time to tell her? And if I told her, what then?
While I was running through my internal freak-out, Aunt Vera pointed the oven mitt at me. “You know something.”
I put my hands up. “No, I don’t!”
“Oh yes, you do, Briar Rose. I’ve been able to spot your tells since the first time you ate the last of the ice cream then pretended to know nothing about it. What is going on?”
I dropped onto the barstool, my bottom hitting it with a loud thud, as any will to continue keeping the secret departed. It was time. Aunt Vera deserved the truth.
“Aunt Vera, there’s something I need to tell you. It’s about Evergreen Academy and about… you and me.”
She paused for a moment before leaning on the counter across from me. “What is it?”
“You and I are… special.” I cringed at the word. I should have practiced what I would tell her if the moment ever came. Instead, I had been blissfully ignoring it.
“Special?”
“We have… powers.” I grimaced. I am horrible at this. “Maybe it will be better if I show you.” I picked up one of the flowers and, keeping an eye on my aunt, said, “Petale expandere.” Immediately, the flower expanded its petals in every direction.
Aunt Vera’s eyes widened. “How did you do that?”
“It’s magic, Aunt Vera. We have plant magic. You and I and a small percentage of the population can work spells on plants.”
“I’m a flower witch?” Aunt Vera asked, raising her hands to look at them.
I let out a choked laugh. “I guess you could call it that. In our family line, we have powers—affinities are what we call them—toward all kinds of plants. I don’t know whether you have all the affinities or not.
You seem to be particularly drawn to flowers, so maybe you just have a floral affinity.
” My mind spun as I thought through the genetic possibilities.
My aunt had been a twin. Was her magical DNA split between her and my mom?
“I knew something was going on,” Aunt Vera breathed.
“Once I started going all feral for flowers after the wedding, I sensed something was… different about me. I began to pay closer attention to them, and they always seemed to bend toward me and toward you. And now you’re telling me I’m a flower witch. ”
“We’re called magical botanists, technically.” I tried to smile. It was hard to tell if she was taking the revelation super well or if she was in complete shock.
“Bisnonna always said we had magic in our family. She was serious? This is real? Do that spell thing again.”
“It’s real,” I said then demonstrated a few more basic Floracantus, causing the flowers to grow, shrink, and—when I tried a Floracantus from the new book of da Vinci’s—causing a petunia to turn from white to purple.
At that, Aunt Vera put her hands over her mouth. “I feel like I’m hallucinating, but this affirms what I’ve been feeling these past few months. You’ve known about this since you joined Evergreen Academy?”
“Yes,” I said, preparing my apology. “Professor East said I couldn’t tell anyone. The academy is extremely secretive. I wish I could have told you. I’m really sorry, Aunt Vera.”
She shook her head. “Don’t be. I’m not sure I would have believed you until I started experiencing it myself. Professor East… He’s the one who called me last year, wanting to ask a few questions?”
I nodded.
“Why did I start experiencing my powers last fall? What changed?”
“You came into contact with something that unlocked your powers, just like I did. It’s a trait of our family line.”
Aunt Vera poured herself a glass of wine and beckoned me to the couch, where she sank into one of the deep, cloud-like cushions. “I think it’s time you tell me everything.”
I spent the next hour filling Aunt Vera in on everything from the moment I had seen something strange in the microscope in Professor East’s class at SCC through an overview of my recent classes.
I left out the Root and Vine Society, the Vanished Compendium, and the extent of the threats to the academy.
The last thing I needed was for her to be concerned about anything in the world she had just learned about.
I waited in tense silence for her response. My aunt was rarely quiet for so long.
Finally, she let out a soft “huh.”
“Huh, that’s interesting? Or huh, you think your niece has gone crazy?”
“It’s more of a huh, that feels right.”
I let out a breath of relief.
“Thanks for telling me. I’m happy to know my dealings with the flowers weren’t all in my imagination.”
“You certainly have a floral affinity. I can run all the other tests on you to see if you have affinities for other plants, like I do.”
Aunt Vera surprised me by shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so. I haven’t felt a connection to any plants except for the flowers. And maybe a little something when I’m baking. That would mean I had a… What was it? Herbs affinity?”
I nodded.
She continued, “But I don’t want to get tested for the rest. Despite how fascinating this is, it doesn’t change much for me.
Bryce and I just started our life together, and it’s a good one.
I can already tell that what you’ve been learning at Evergreen Academy is going to take you far away from here.
I suspected that before I began to connect with the flowers.
And I’m happy for you. You’re a lot like your mom in that way. But me? I’m content right here.”
Something like relief coursed through me, with a sprinkle of disappointment that Aunt Vera didn’t want to know more. I couldn’t imagine not learning everything there was to know about my affinities. But our life paths were different, and I respected that.
“I’m not saying I’ll never ask for details down the road, especially if plants start growing out of my ears or something. But for now, I trust you, and I believe everything is how it’s meant to be.”
“Okaaay,” I said. “But if you do ever decide to add a florist business to your café, I think it will be wildly successful.”
Aunt Vera glanced at the bouquet on the coffee table, which was arcing toward both of us. “You don’t think the clients would wonder what was with that little trick?”
“You’d be surprised what people don’t notice if they aren’t looking for it.”