Chapter 6 #2
It was early that evening when we were stationed out in a blind in the woods, watching for any sign of movement.
What I thought was my best bet yet, shuffling sunflower root, wasn’t named for its skills as a card dealer but for the way it shuffled slowly around the forest, creeping looking for the best concentrations of ley line energy to feed on.
What that meant, however, was that we couldn’t track a location where it should have been, exactly, but just a path it was likely to be shuffling along, and we hiked through dragon territory and past a few rocks carved by dragon talons in the likeness of dragon faces, some of them unnervingly realistic, to get to a lookout point in the bushes above a ledge rich with flowering mosses.
And we sat. It was a lot of sitting, actually.
Sitting wasn’t my strong suit. Cadence was infinitely more patient than I was, settling in easily, while I shifted constantly and made small talk, but eventually even I ran out of things to yammer about, and when we’d fallen quiet for a minute, Cadence said, “So… how come?”
“How come I’m creeped out? Because I swear one of those dragon rocks is actually a real dragon pretending to be a rock. They’re too realistic.”
She laughed, nudging my shoulder with hers, as she pulled a package of snacks from her bag. “I’m sure you’d… heroically sweep me off my feet and rescue me if that happened. No, I mean… how come you’re so intent on this potion extension? You’re going through a lot for it.”
I poked at the tiny colorful flowers in the mossy carpet below us. “I can’t fly.”
“That’s… actually a pretty normal state.”
“Not even with magic. I don’t know what it is.
I’ve worked hard on the Flight spell. I’ve even tried studying it from the draconological angle, but nothing.
I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing, giving full control of my physical status over to the magic force, but I’ve never been able to cast a successful Flight. ”
She furrowed her brow. “Oh… so that’s why you have the potion focused towards evocation.”
“I like alchemy because anybody can take a potion, you know? It kind of transcends all boundaries, all barriers. Even someone who’s never cast a flicker of magic in their life can take a potion and do something amazing.
So for me, it’s like… if I can focus the standard Arcane Conduit brew to make a potion to empower Flight enough that even I can cast it, then it’s proof I can make potions that can cross any boundary, any barrier.
And proof I can fly, dammit,” I laughed. “I’ll be walking on air.”
“Your puns are cute.”
“Everything about me is cute.”
A glimmer of magic light pulled my attention up, up to where the thick, bushy green canopy that closed in just over our heads sparked with thin swirls of colorful magic light. Cadence’s eyes sparkled as she looked up, taking it in. “Oh… magic confluence,” she said.
“Must be the ley lines reacting to something close by. I guess there’s an outcropping not far away.”
“I never get to catch these,” she said softly, shuffling closer to my side, close enough I could feel her warmth against me, as the lights swirled brighter, more and more of them swimming through the brush around us, casting us in a kaleidoscope of magic light, a soft resonance sound like a distant violin swell humming from the magic around us. “It’s so pretty…”
I looked down at her—away from the magic lights, and instead at the way they glinted in her eyes, that look of wonderment as she took it in all around us.
“It is,” I said, and she softened, looking at me with that tender look in her eyes—this close up, just the two of us, under the glow of the magic lights, the urge to kiss her was almost unbearable.
“You’re going to fly,” she said softly. “I look forward to seeing it happen.”
“Won’t just see it happen,” I laughed. “Going to take you with me once I pull it off. Ever had someone take you flying before?”
She blushed brighter, but she smiled wider, eyes sparkling. “Maybe not on your very first time trying.”
“Okay, touché. On the second time.”
“You wouldn’t need to do that.”
“I keep telling you I’m going to do something to thank you for all your help. Taking you on a flight tour is the least I can do.”
She laughed, looking down at the ground between us. “It’s a plan. You know—get that practice in with sweeping a girl off her feet before the last day of the semester.”
I gave her a nervous laugh, shifting awkwardly. “I guess I need all I can get if I’m not going to embarrass myself in front of her.”
“You’re going to do amazing.” She twirled her finger in her hair, looking down. “I mean, you clearly know how to… but, I mean, I could use the practice too.”
I blinked. “Are we going for the, like, practice kissing angle right now?”
“No!” She flinched, blushing vividly, hands up. “I mean…” She shook her head, a wild look in her eyes. “No! No. Just practicing how to do these kinds of things, flying people places, long walks by the water, dancing… I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m just insecure I could never keep up.”
I smiled achingly at her, and I rose slowly to my feet, offering her a hand. “Do you want to dance, Cadence?”
“Oh…” She looked breathlessly at my hand and back up at me, but someone else made the choice for her—Knot rose up and held onto my wrist and hers, pulling her up until her hand met mine, and she clasped firmly as I guided her hand to my lower back and let the other one hold onto hers. “I… don’t know how to dance.”
“I know a bit of ballroom dance. I’ll show you.”
“Wow. Okay. Please do.”
The magic in the glade responded to ours, sparking up brighter in swirls around us as I led Cadence, clumsily at first, to the slow, steady steps of a dance, and I felt my heart beating faster with the closeness, Cadence’s rich hazelnut-brown eyes looked into mine like I’d cast the sun to life.
I explained the steps, showed her through the motions, as our shoes bumped against each other, nervous giggles turning into slow, building confidence as we found each other’s rhythm, and all I could think was that I hoped Lumi was making good on her promise not to scry on me.
When the magic confluence grew stronger above us, shimmering magic dust falling down over us in a twinkling rain of light, Cadence settled to a stop in front of me, leaning slightly off balance on her tiptoes towards me, and she said, “I didn’t know you could dance.”
I winked. “I’ve got lots of surprises.”
“Do I get to find out what the others are?”
“If fortune favors me.”
Knot knew what he wanted—he snaked out from Cadence’s back and looped around us both, and when he tugged us closer together, I didn’t overthink it—the snagweed and I were on the same page.
I leaned in, and I kissed her, my lips finding the soft touch of hers with the little startled sound that softened into a blissful noise of contentment, her hands slipping to my back and holding me against her.
Something rustled in the brush before I could rethink why this was a bad idea, and I cracked my eyelids to look at where—I stiffened at the sight of a shape poking through the brush. One of the stone dragon heads, eyes narrowed to slits, moving slowly as it breathed, eyes locked on mine.
It growled. Cadence jumped back from the kiss, whirling back as I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away. “I knew it—I told you one of them had to be real—”
“Run—”
“Trust me that that’s the plan!” I said, and I knocked back a potion as the dragon shoved forward with a growl, and Cadence and I ran for our lives.