“You came into contact with something that unlocked your powers, just like I did. It’s a trait of our family line.”
Aunt Vera poured herself a glass of wine and beckoned me to the couch, where she sank into one of the deep, cloud-like cushions. “I think it’s time you tell me everything.”
I spentthe next hour filling Aunt Vera in on everything from the moment I had seen something strange in the microscope in Professor East’s class at SCC through an overview of my recent classes. I left out the Root and Vine Society,theVanished Compendium, and the extent of the threats to the academy. The last thing I needed was for her to be concerned about anything in the world she had just learned about.
I waited in tense silence for her response. My aunt was rarely quiet for so long.
Finally, she let out a soft “huh.”
“Huh, that’s interesting? Or huh, you think your niece has gone crazy?”
“It’s more of a huh, that feels right.”
I let out a breath of relief.
“Thanks for telling me. I’m happy to know my dealings with the flowers weren’t all in my imagination.”
“You certainly have a floral affinity. I can run all the other tests on you to see if you have affinities for other plants, like I do.”
Aunt Vera surprised me by shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so. I haven’t felt a connection to any plants except for the flowers. And maybe a little something when I’m baking. That would mean I had a… What was it? Herbs affinity?”
I nodded.
She continued, “But I don’t want to get tested for the rest. Despite how fascinating this is, it doesn’t change much for me. Bryce and I just started our life together, and it’s a good one. I can already tell that what you’ve been learning at Evergreen Academy is going to take you far away from here. I suspected that before I began to connect with the flowers. And I’m happy for you. You’re a lot like your mom in that way. But me? I’m content right here.”
Something like relief coursed through me, with a sprinkle ofdisappointment that Aunt Vera didn’t want to know more. I couldn’t imagine not learning everything there was to know about my affinities. But our life paths were different, and I respected that.
“I’m not saying I’ll never ask for details down the road, especially if plants start growing out of my ears or something. But for now, I trust you, and I believe everything is how it’s meant to be.”
“Okaaay,” I said. “But if you do ever decide to add a florist business to your café, I think it will be wildly successful.”
Aunt Vera glanced at the bouquet on the coffee table, which was arcing toward both of us. “You don’t think the clients would wonder what was withthatlittle trick?”
“You’d be surprised what people don’t notice if they aren’t looking for it.”
Chapter Forty-One
The sweet scent of almond blossoms floated through the tree house window, a reminder of how close we were getting to the spring equinox. While a weight had come off my mind when I told my aunt about her powers, the days since had been filled with new blooms sprouting everywhere, a living countdown to my one chance to save the academy.
That night, as Callan and I sat in the tree house, the stress of it all was clinging to me. Not even the orange blossom tea was calming my nervous system. For our plan to work, I would need to be skilled in making new Floracantus by the spring equinox. But Leonardo da Vinci’s riddle, despite how simply it read, was proving to be difficult to unravel.
The Root and Vine Society had spent countless hours reviewing his known riddles and answers to try to get a feel for his style, but we could never quite crack the code. I had eventried reciting the riddle verbatim, backward, and searching it for anagrams, but nothing had worked.
The sound of a page flipping caught my attention, and I watched as Callan scanned an aged sheet of an old book. We were poring over the private journals and known works of da Vinci, looking for any scrap of information that could help solve the riddle.
As it neared midnight, I slammed my notebook shut. “We’re not getting anywhere.” I sighed, which turned into a yawn.
“What’s infuriating is that the riddle sounds so simple, yet it’s too vague to do anything with,” Callan said, echoing the thoughts I had been having.
“Exactly. We don’t have enough information to make the riddle usable.”
“Too bad we don’t know any descendants of the other Renaissance botanists in the book, besides Oren,” Callan said. “We could see if any of them still hold knowledge of how to create a Floracantus. These riddles have been locked away in this book, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some familial knowledge out there somewhere.”
“Too bad Oren didn’t know anything more about the Floracantus we used to unblock Frank. He seems nearly as in the dark about his family history as I am.” I let my mind skim over Callan’s words again. “Familial knowledge…” I said, the term unlocking something in my memory. I sat up straighter, all traces of tiredness gone.
“What are you thinking?” Callan asked, catching on to my body language. He was sitting on the stool next to me, and heturned away from the book he had been combing through to face me.
“Do you remember our first year at Evergreen Academy, when Eli used a Floracantus from his tribe to increase the nutrients in the soil and get the recharge to hold on the verdant shield?” I asked.
