Chapter 14 #2
I had no control over it. I streaked forward too fast, nearly colliding with a tree, and I gripped my wand with white knuckles and veered off to the side, kicking and flailing my hands and feet like that would help me move, and I steered myself very nearly into the side of another tramcar moving back in the other direction, and I pitched once it went past, nearly nosediving into the grass.
I pulled up a surge of magic that swirled around me and picked me up in the last instant, lifting my course until I rocketed upwards towards clear, blue sky, and I laughed wildly, my heart racing faster than I’d ever felt it before, as the tracks got small below me and then, soon after, the Citadel came back into view, buildings looking like dollhouses.
“Holy shit, I’m flying,” I laughed. Knot climbed up from my jacket, curling to look at me curiously and back down at the ground, and I laughed wildly. “Knot! I’m flying!”
He snaked fully out of my jacket, curling around to wrap over my shoulders like he always did with Cadence, and I didn’t know if I was wrong to take it as a sign, but I took it as a sign, tilting the magic forwards and sending myself careening towards the Citadel.
Towards the clock-tower face that stood at the center, Cloudless Tower, and in its shadow, Scorpion House.
I managed to pull my phone out, and I didn’t overthink it—I called Lumi, who picked up right away.
“I could sense you were about to call,” she said. “Did you forget something?”
“Yeah, I’m flying back for it now.”
“What? Why is it so windy where you are?”
“Well… mostly because I’m flying back for it now.”
“Oh, saints, you’re being literal—what are you doing, Summer?”
“I met someone—a brief chance encounter at the station—and I realized I don’t care, I could have celestials open up the sky and sing in holy chorus, I don’t care, I want Cadence. Where is she?”
“Oh, god, I don’t know. How would I know?”
“Lumi, you’re a diviner.”
“Oh! Oh my gosh, I am.”
“And her friend! You could just text her if you don’t want to scry her location.”
“No, I love scrying people’s locations. She’s… she’s in Marveille District. I think she’s heading for the station too.”
“I’m concerned how fast that was, and I’m now forever assuming you know where I am at all times.”
“Good luck! I knew you’d get your true love today!”
Huh. I guess she had.
The Citadel opened up below me as I flew in low, slowly getting steadier, and Marveille District was easy to find—not just for how busy the station was right now, but the way the beautiful brick streets and ornate buildings were alive with magic lights right now, and I felt like my chest would explode when I saw her—Cadence, small below me but radiant and unmissable even from up here, in the plaza in front of the station, the fallen pink-and-gold leaves of the passionoak tree scattering under her boots as she walked.
I’d never felt so sure about something before.
I slowed to a stop just above the plaza, steadying myself with a nervous breath out before I let the effect drop, pulling up a surge of magic to cushion my fall as I dropped, and I touched down on the cobblestone path just behind Cadence, who turned back at the sound and gasped, her hands up over her face at the sight of me.
“What—oh, saints and—Summer?”
“Hey,” I said, this impossibly happy feeling in my chest like everything was just the way it was supposed to be, and I held up my hand, Knot coiling around my wrist. “Got a little runaway snagweed if you’re looking for him.”
“Oh…” Her gaze softened, and she took a nervous step closer, holding her hand out to mine.
Knot reached out past my hand, coiling around her wrist, and he held onto both of us, locking us together just like he had on that first day, and she sniffled, her eyes shining.
“Oh, Knot, you can’t do this right now.”
“Cadence—I didn’t just come to bring him back to you, I—I met someone. I think. Maybe that was supposed to be my chance encounter, maybe not, but I realized I don’t care, I don’t care what kind of encounter it is, with who, where, when, why, how, anything. I just want to be with you.”
“Summer…” She clasped a hand over her mouth, eyes quivering. “You mean—”
“I get to decide who feels like my true love to me. And if you’ll have me, I… I want it to be you, Cadence. I—”
Something slammed into my back like a missile. I grunted, staggering forwards, and Cadence shrieked, moving to catch me. I felt it like a bloody thrasher had just tackled me—I looked back, and I laughed breathlessly when I saw my luggage, sitting on the ground.
“Shit, I forgot it was following me.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a little—just a little hurt—”
“Hold on, I have something for that—” She had a stem of magic plant in her hand before long, the Galyr’s Tooth she’d given me on that first day, holding it out to me with her hand that wasn’t tied to mine. “If you ball it up and—”
“And bite down on it with my back teeth,” I said, taking it. “Thanks.”
I put it in my mouth, doing as she’d said, and the moment I bit down, I felt a shimmer of magic—not just inside me, easing the blunt pain in my back, but around me, as the plaza and the flowers around the edges of it stirred with a magic light, and a swirl of movement rustled from around us as a flock of luminis rose from the bushes, chirping and calling to one another as the magic shone off their glowing wings, and Cadence’s eyes softened as she looked up at it all, where passionoak leaves swayed above us, a symbol of love.
Here under the passionoak tree at Marveille Station. I guess Lumi’s vision hadn’t specified it would be my first time meeting someone here. Just that I’d had a dramatic encounter with the love of my life under this tree.
And here, in front of me, her hand linked to mine, her eyes shining as she looked up at the luminis around us and slowly swept her gaze back down to meet mine, was the one and only woman I wanted to find here.
“Summer…” she started, taking a step closer, lowering her gaze for a beat before she met mine again, stronger this time. “I know it wasn’t my place, but I came here to find you. To see if… you know. Hoping you hadn’t left yet.”
“Cadence,” I said softly.
“Hoping I could ask. Vision or no. I love you, you know. Can we… can you give me a chance?”
My heart swelled, and I slipped my hand into hers, squeezing. “Vision or no, huh?”
“I respect your choice if you want to honor your… your fate. But I want—”
“Cadence, you’re the one I’ve been waiting for,” I laughed. “We’re right here.”
“We’re right—” She looked up, and I saw the moment she clocked it—here under the passionoak in front of Marveille Station. I heard her breath catch, her hand squeezing tighter on mine. “Oh. I didn’t—I swear I didn’t do that on purpose—”
“I know,” I laughed. “I don’t think that vision was telling me where to find my true love. I think it was telling me to come back—to give us a chance.”
She sniffled, taking a long, shaky breath. After a second, she said, “Lumi’s going to freak out.”
“Ah… it’s basically all she ever does.” I squeezed her hand. “I love you, too, Cadence. I’ve got to… I’ve got to go. Um… catch the next train. But—I love you. Even if we’re apart for the summer, do you want to—”
“I do,” she said, blurting it out with her eyes shining. “I do want to. I want to be with you. If you’ll have me. Whatever it might look like.”
I laughed, short and breathless, feeling like I was seeing stars. And not just from getting hit in the back with a blunt weapon. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I want to be your girlfriend. Want to spend every waking hour of the summer texting you little things, maybe book a ride to where you live and visit you, maybe vice versa, want to walk into that graduation ceremony on your arm so everybody knows I’m yours, want to come back to Starfall in the fall and throw myself into your arms first thing. ”
“That sounds wonderful,” I said thickly. “That sounds… that sounds perfect to me. But there’s one more thing before I go…”
“What?” Her expression turned inquisitive, and I grinned.
“Let’s fly.”
Her jaw dropped. “Do you… have…”
“How do you think I got here from the car?”
“Oh, saints, Summer, did you—what? Your first time flying, too? That is so dangerous!”
“I wanted to see you!”
“I wanted that too, but I don’t want to see you in the infirmary!”
I laughed, and when Knot tugged on our wrists, I agreed with him—leaned in and captured her in a kiss, sweeping her into me, and it felt like every beautiful vision of every beautiful future coming true all at once.
“I’m still mad,” she said with a pout once I pulled away.
“Aw. Well, I’ve owed you some repayment for a long time now. Maybe a little flight tour of the Citadel with me before I go? And a trip out to each one of the places we harvested ingredients?”
She swallowed hard, nodding through tears. “Let’s skip the one with the stone dragons.”
“Yeah, good call…”
“We can cross out the one in the bloody thrashers’ den too…”
“Yeah—I was thinking that also—”
“But aside from that,” she said, settling into my front, pressing a kiss against my cheek and resting herself against me, “I’ll go anywhere you want to take me.”
“Hold on tight, then,” I said, and she did—Knot moved to let her use her arm, and she wrapped them around me, holding onto me while I swept her up in a bridal carry, Knot fixing her to me as I tapped into the magic again and lifted up off the ground, and together, we took to the sky.