Chapter 4
RIDING THE WYVERN (CAR)
SUMMER
Wyvern cars were already not the best idea.
They were cute little enchanted carriages that flew between the highest point of the Citadel and places out in the Grounds, and most of them were just right to be a cozy fit for two, which meant I was keenly aware of the thought of telling Cadence Lumi thinks we’re hitting on each other while we were pressed up side-to-side in an enchanted flying carriage ride.
But then there was a short line to board, and once it was our turn, the car that had shown up was one of the old fleet preserved and kept around, the ones with the old style that just felt painfully romantic now, with dreamy little draperies on the windows and a shimmering of magic dust that swirled around our feet as the door swung open and I stepped inside.
Cadence hesitated, shifting from one foot the other, looking wide-eyed at it all with a blush spilling out over her cheeks, and I wondered if she was feeling as confused by all of this as I was—why it was that magic romantic enchantment seemed to spring up anywhere she went.
I wondered if she thought I was cute, too. But Lumi would kill me if she knew I was thinking that. Luckily her divination didn’t let her read minds.
Cadence didn’t get to hesitate for long, as someone in the line behind her cleared their throat pointedly, and she stumbled and hustled along to climb into the carriage next to me.
I shifted over to make more room on the seat, but the old fleet cars were a little smaller…
we still ended up sitting with our legs touching as the door swung shut and the carriage took off, lighting up with enchantments activating in the form of golden scrollwork sprawling over the surfaces as soft orchestral music filled the car. It sounded too romantic, too.
“I… I do love the old cars,” she blurted, eyes straight ahead. I was glad I wasn’t the only one nervous. She smelled like flowers… I guess that made sense.
“They’re really cute,” I said. “I’m surprised you take them much. I thought herbalists all just spent all their time out in the Grounds.”
She laughed, relaxing a little and looking down to play with Knot as he crept down her arm to poke around in the air. “I’m actually a double-major.”
“Oh, yeah? Overachiever.”
“Ha. I’m just a big nerd… I do enchantment, too.”
Maybe that was why she was so… enchanting. Maybe she had beautiful-things enchantments lavished onto every part of her. It would suit her. “I could never,” I said. “I’m fighting for my life just to keep up with one major.”
“Alchemy’s a competitive subject, from what I’ve heard.
But I’m not that special! Just… I just like being around books.
Learning everything I can.” She shrugged.
“I’m first-generation magic… I always wanted so badly to do magic, and now that I’m here, I feel like I can’t waste a single second of learning as much magic as possible. ”
“You’re first-generation?” I said. “I wouldn’t have guessed… you talk like Lumi. I mean, without the dramatic exaggerations and constant whining.”
She covered up a laugh with one hand. “I grew up reading about magic from the very first days I could read. Studying about magic fundamentals or reading novels set in arcania. And, you know, hanging out in online forums for arcanists. I spent more time with magic kids on the internet than I spent with the actual kids in the real world around me.”
“Well, it’s paid off. You clearly know your stuff. I’m first-gen too, but I admit I kind of felt like I was up a dragon’s den with a cricket bat when I got here. I felt wildly unprepared.”
“But doing your own potion extensions is no flicker.”
“Yeah, it’s not easy, but hey.” I nudged her side playfully. “Overachievers band together, right?”
She laughed, the sweetest little sound in the world. “Here’s to that,” she said. “So, um, your friend Lumi? She’s definitely heritage magic, right? She had it written all over her.”
“Oh, for sure. The Silvervales have a storied history in spectral magics. Her mom is a great diviner too.” I looked out the window at the Grounds going by below us, colorful boughs of magic plants wrapped up in the winding paths coming out from the Citadel at the heart of campus, and I felt a nervous rush in my chest at the sight of a pair of luminis, again, keeping up alongside our car, their wings glowing brighter as they did.
Seriously? Was that another one of Cadence’s enchantments, that the magic birds known as a sign of love kept following us around?
What a time to admit to this. “Um, well. I should preface this by saying that Lumi is a bit weird. She’s a really good diviner, so she’s used to her intuition being correct, and it’s hard to get her head out of an idea once she’s gotten there.
But she, um, she thinks you and I are, um, well.
That we’re—” I shrugged, trying for casual and offhanded.
“I don’t know, flirting? That you’re trying to come onto me? ”
“Does—does she,” she said, a nervous catch in her voice. My throat felt a little tight. That kind of reaction made it sound a little like she was.
“She wants me not to go seeing anybody until I meet my true love, so—she’s protective.”
She gave me an odd look. “What? How are you… going to find your true love if she won’t let you see people?”
“Well.” I scratched the back of my head.
“She’s had a, um… this sounds silly to say out loud.
She’s had a vision of me meeting my true love, uh…
on the last day of classes this semester.
” I laughed nervously, looking at anything but Cadence.
“See, I, uh, I might be friends with everybody on campus, but I’m, um…
it may actually surprise you a little then to learn that I’m hopeless in matters of love!
I can never make anything work with a girl.
And so, um… well, I asked her if she could try to read my romantic future, and…
” I shrugged awkwardly. “Well. Apparently I’m set to have a dramatic…
meeting… with the love of my life. On the last day of classes.
So! She doesn’t want me getting too close to other girls before then. ”
“Oh…” She stared at me, wide-eyed, studying, and I felt like I was blushing. Yeesh. I looked away.
“She’s just really extra. You can ignore her most of the time.”
“I have a hard time picturing that,” she laughed nervously.
“A diviner, being extra? Have you never met one?”
She laughed. “No, no. I mean… you being hopeless in matters of love. I mean—” She caught herself, speaking faster. “I just think you’re so cool and confident, like you’d be able to ask anyone on a date, and you seem really interesting and nice and everything, so I feel like they’d say yes!”
I kind of wished I didn’t have Lumi’s vision, so I could test that theory out right now.
Cadence was kind of acting like she was interested, and I’d have loved to take her out to a cute spot in the Citadel for dinner, but…
again, Lumi would kill me. “Well, think again,” I said breezily.
“I get really awkward and overly enthusiastic when I’m around a girl I like, and I can be way too much.
And then I take anything less than that same one-hundred-ten-percent as rejection, and I pull away and feel stupid. ”
“Wow.” She looked down. “Does Lumi know anything about, um… what your true love is supposed to be like?”
“Nope. Just that we’ll have a meeting under the passionoak tree by Marveille Station while I’m getting ready to head off campus for the summer, and supposedly it’ll be, um…
love at first sight. And then we text all through the summer, and when we see each other again in the fall…
” I laughed awkwardly. “I dunno. It’s weird that I feel kinda nervous, like it’s a practical I don’t know if I’m ready for. ”
“I feel like I’d mess it up. You know—get so nervous I’d say something dumb once I finally met her and ruin the whole thing.”
“That’s what I’m thinking too. I’ve told Lumi that, but she insists it’ll all work out perfectly, and—”
The carriage banked suddenly, making a wide turn—there was a reason the old cars had been mostly phased out, not the most agile, and we tipped at an angle, Cadence gasping as she slid along the seat and pressed up against me, her hand catching on my wrist and pinning me against the side of the car, drawing in a sharp breath when I turned to find her face inches from mine again.
“S-sorry,” she blurted, and I was about to laugh it off when Knot slipped down her arm and moved in a blink to snare around us again, just like this morning in the Great Hall, and she gasped.
“Knot, no!” she said, but the double negative aside, it was too late anyway—he wrapped around us both and pulled taut, pulling Cadence fully onto me in the tight quarters of the car, luminis flitting outside the window just below us.
I swear the universe was doing this on purpose.
“Hey, Knot… good to see you too,” I laughed nervously, trying not to think about Cadence’s temple pressed up against my cheek, how soft she felt, or how nice she smelled. I think I was doing badly. “Okay, big group hug… there we go… are we happy now?”
“I am so sorry, he seriously never does this—I have no idea what’s gotten into him—”
“He let go once we were laughing this morning,” I said. “Um… have any funny jokes?”
“Uh. Why… why did the dragon get fired from the coffee shop?”
“Too big to fit in the shop?”
“They were descaling.” She laughed once, short and nervous. “I’m sorry, I’m not good at jokes.”
“Oh, like descaling the coffee machine—” I laughed nervously too, mostly just aware of Knot tightening so Cadence’s arm pressed up between my breasts. “I think that’s funny.”
“I mean, your answer probably makes more sense—”
“Maybe. Unless it’s a big shop. Big shop with big machines pulling big dragon-sized espressos.”
She giggled, clearly more from the nerves than anything else, but the sound of it made me laugh, too, and we were both wrapped up in a giggling fit before long, and sure enough, Knot relaxed off of the both of us as the car settled out right and glided down for a landing.
Cadence pulled away, blushing furiously with a hand over her face, still giggling in fits, and even though I was still laughing myself breathless, my mind was fixated on how I was pretty confident I knew what it meant, getting nervous and blushy being pressed up to a girl like that. If Cadence had a little crush on me…
No, no. I had a fated encounter to wait for. If I tried anything with Cadence, I’d just be setting her up for heartbreak.
“Okay, okay—” she said, still covering her face, as the door swung open to the platform on the soft, grassy hill in front of the sapphire-blue surface of Glimmerdeep Lake.
“If you want really good snapbush root, we’ll go to a spot a bit out of the way, so it’s about a half-hour walk from here. Um… hopefully Knot will behave.”
I slid out of the car with her, the air fresh and crisp with the sweet, cool scent of Glimmerdeep’s waters in the air, a few students out in the water playing together with some kind of crystal-gleaming sea creature, the shape of Dolphin House visible across the water.
“Lead the way,” I said, turning to Cadence and pushing down the flutter in my chest, resolving not to think about things too much.
“And let me know what I can do to pay you back.”
“Oh, saints. Overlook the fact that my snagweed keeps attacking you?”
“Done, but I’ll go above and beyond to find something else to give you. Overachievers, remember?”
She laughed, shaking her head with an affectionate little eyeroll. “Okay, Summer,” she said, turning on her heel and walking to the edge of the platform. “C’mon, you.”