CHAPTER 3
LEANNA
It was a sleepless night for Leanna.
As the sun came up she crept toward her back gardens, Thorn panting behind her as the pup sniffed every spot of grass. “It’s a new day, girl,” Leanna said, petting the dog’s sleek coat. “And we are going to be long gone once it’s over.”
Thorn looked at her, rather judgmentally in Leanna’s opinion.
The wicker basket was tucked under her arm as she pulled the pennies’ worth of flowers from her mother’s abandoned garden.
Magical daisies were not of any value at the markets that traded money for the plants and their mystical properties.
Daisies’ power was in their ability to cheer sad souls, but to the public that wasn’t worth very much.
To Leanna they were worth everything. Pulling them from their place in her yard was painful, but she needed it to look believable and to do this, some sacrifices had to be made.
“And you missed me terribly.”
“I did.”
Damn the wine. It never led to good decisions, but it had been the truth.
When Edward had gone, he’d taken a sliver of her heart with him, perhaps a bit more than that.
The constant source of lightness that was their relationship left with him and everything had changed.
Her mother became more distant, her father grew angrier, and Leanna had become very good at being alone.
But she thought of Edward often anyway and wished just as often that she would not.
She’d likely never see him again after the day was through, and for some reason that certainty made her chest tight and her heart ache. Before, there had always been the possibility that Edward would return, but Leanna herself could not return after what she was about to do.
Sneaking out into the misty dawn, the cool air kissed her bared shoulders, her cloak dragging on the ground behind her as she inched closer to the guarded garden on her neighbors’ estate.
The red roses glowed as they always did, brimming with magic that enhanced a person’s beauty.
The most valuable commodity on the market in a vain society, one could fetch enough for two of Leanna’s family homes and three would cover the debt her father had selfishly left behind.
All she need do was wait for the guards to change shifts. Not yet, not yet. NOW! As the nightshift men slipped around the corner Leanna dove for the dirt, taking a fistful of flowers, not counting how many she had, and tugged. They didn’t move.
Shaking with nerves, her hands tugged again, her heart pounding at the risk she was taking. The crime of stealing from another’s garden was the highest to be committed in the kingdom of Marigold Lane.
If she was caught, she’d hang.
Voices carried over the stone wall on the other side of the house. The next shift of guards. Leanna tugged harder, frantic. They still didn’t budge, as if they knew she was committing a selfish act and would not make it easier for her.
“Leanna?” Edward’s voice caused her head to jerk up, her wide eyes catching his. A good distance away but his strides were long enough that he’d be over to her quickly.
Too quickly.
She pulled her knife from her pocket, cut the stems, and ran.
“Leanna, don’t!” Edward yelled, bolting after her. Her footsteps pounded, Thorn barking and following close behind. She sprinted further, pushing until her hair was blowing behind her, the soles of her feet screaming in pain.
She wouldn’t stop, and didn’t.
Until she reached the dark wood, drawing up just before the foreboding trees, the uninviting chill that shivered through her.
“Leanna stop! You’ll be killed!” Edward boomed, desperation in his voice.
But Leanna was desperate too.
She entered the dark wood.
And screamed.