Trevor springs from out of nowhere. “Crystal! What’s up!”
She doesn’t know what to do with his proffered fist bump, so she closes a hand around it. “Kristin.”
He casts around. “Is Dad here, too?”
Alex and Kristin exchange a loaded look. “Unfortunately, he was busy,” Kristin answers with a polite smile. “But he’d love to stop by at some point while we’re in town.”
“Excellent. Well, let me give you a tour!”
I follow them awkwardly while Luna reintroduces herself, her eyes two round globes, flickering to me every other second to assess my reaction. She prattles on for a bit about how tall and mature Alex looks, until I realize there’s no reason for me to hover and I return to the sunroom to work on my flower crown. I’m so addled that my nervous fingers keep snapping the myrtle in half.
Trevor’s voice drifts in my direction, footsteps nearing. “Zelda does all the book stuff. Even arranges book signings with otherparanormal mystery authors—we’re part of Catriona Boyd’s virtual book tour next month, which’ll bring good business.”
My ears perk up. Trevor’s either mentioned the loan already and is trying to talk us up, or he’s leading to the subject.
“Right this way, you have the Garden.” An arm in the doorway gestures, and the second Alex enters my personal haven, my hands forget how to work. A roll of tape and sprigs of lemon leaf fall to the floor. Trevor hides his laughter behind his sleeve, but Kristin and Alex barely notice. The former has buried her face in white dittany, breathing in its fragrance; the latter’s face is a smooth void.
“You’re pretty much like a florist, then?” Kristin says.
“I’m a practicing magical-floriographer, orflora fortunist.” My speech is well-practiced. “Meaning, if a customer tells me a little about their romantic state of affairs, I create a custom flora fortune for them that helps coax their needs and wishes to life. While I can brew teas and put together charm bags promoting health, prosperity, peace, et cetera, my specialty within flora fortunes is romance.”
Kristin blinks. “Do you... but do youactuallythink you’re a...?” Her voice falls to a hush.
“A witch?” I prompt. “All the Tempest women are.”
Alex frowns. “You believe in that now?”
“Yes,” I reply primly.
“My Romina is the real deal,” Trevor boasts, poking my cheek. I slap his hand away, before remembering that I’m supposed to be head over heels in love with him. Faltering, I give him a lively pat on the bum.
“She knows all the local folktales, too,” Trevor continues, once he’s recovered from that. “Some are even folktales about Romina herself.”
I send him a questioning glance.
“The moths!”
“Oh.” I fiddle with my plants, then fill up a watering can. It isn’t a watering day, but I need to keep busy or I’ll detonate. I can’t believe Alex is in my shop. This is mysacred space. “That one’s about my sisters, too.”
Alex’s words are hot, dragging down my skin. “I thought you didn’t believe in that.”
“I was narrow-minded.”
“Your mind seems to have...expanded... quite a bit.”
I glare at him, because I can tell that isn’t the word he wanted to use. But I make myself say, pleasantly, “It has! I’ve grown up, embraced my identity. Turning into exactly the person you see standing before you was my destiny.”
Kristin divides an odd look between Alex and me. “I don’t understand. What’s this about moths?”
“My grandma had prophetic dreams. Her dreams almost always came true—that my dad would step on his glasses and break them, that Luna’s child would be a brown-haired girl, that Zelda would be stung by a bee on her thirteenth birthday. She dreamed that my sisters and I would someday, all in the same year, fall for the men we’re meant to spend the rest of our lives with. We’ll know it’s our year of findingthe oneonce we see a silver luna moth.”
“Which you didn’t used to believe in,” Alex inserts, “not only because those moths aren’t silver, they’re green, but also because when she had that dream, you were already in love.” Something in his eyes shifts. “You never saw any strange moths at the time.”
“The prophecy wasn’t about falling in love with just anybody, it was about falling in love with the people we’re going to spend the rest of our lives with.” I give him a bland smile.
His mouth tightens. I watch shadows roll over Alex, a coolness settling in their wake. “Have you seen the moth since you started dating Trevor? Because if you haven’t, apparently, then you two aren’t going to last.”
“Alex,” Kristin chastises gently under her breath.
