“Yes!” he chirped. “I can fly and talk! Like Edge!” And at that, Warty started floating away, back toward his best friend. Now, they could be in the air together as equals. Just a magical crow and his sidekick rodent soaring around the world.
Huge bangs came from Ludwig’s wagon, like a battering ram trying to burst through the wood. Ludwig frantically undid the latch, still arguing with Edge, and then someone tumbled out onto the dirt road, rolling all the way to the edge of the gate. I ran toward the gate, flinging it open with my magic without even thinking, and careened into that hulking figure on the ground.
“You’re alive!” Rosie screamed happily, immediately hopping up onto her feet and hoisting me like a baby into her arms. She held me close, crushing me only a little with her hugs.
“You’re here!” I said. I took her head in my hands and kissed her rosy cheeks.
“Well, ole Ludwig here told me you might want a friend and that I could hitch a ride with him, so here I am!” She gave me another painful squeeze. “I knew you’d miss me!”
“Of course I did!”
“Oh, and I brought a surprise,” Rosie said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Patti found out I was headed to you, and she thought it might be nice to expand her business—she’s trying to franchise, you know. So she sentthis.” Rosie opened the wagon door and pointed to the inside.
The wagon was now an entire ecosystem all of its own. Like Patti’s shoppe had sprouted legs and traveled all the way here. Where there were once slats of plain wood, there were now beds of moss, creeping ivy, and flowers from all over the realm. Dwindle would love this.
Rosie noticed my look of astonishment.
“I know,” she said. “Patti got this idea into her head and wouldn’t stop working until it was finished. She scarcely ateor drank. I kept putting plates of food outside of her oak tree to remind her that sustenance was necessary.”
“I understand that, my friend,” Hesper said, now inspecting the wagon of wonders.
Rosie looked at Hesper, then back at me. I gave her a knowing smile, and Rosie’s jaw dropped.
“Is that so?” Rosie couldn’t hide her excitement and began bouncing up and down. “Are you two…”
I nodded.
“I love her, Rosie,” I said proudly.
“YOU WHAT?” Rosie dropped me. But my protector was there just in time, catching me swiftly before I hit the ground. As she had since the very beginning.
What was I supposed to do with all of thesefeelings? I could vanquish a force of evil, but I still couldn’t hack how to be happy without worrying what might be around the next corner. But with a wagon full of flowers, my best friend, and the person who very well may have been my soul mate next to me, I thought that maybe all the “next corners” were finally over.
That was, until Eldrene arrived.
Heart magic had opened up pathways to Eldrene once more. So, in my tiny cottage in Dwindle, a Goddess and her twelve companions, plus Ludwig, Rosie, and Angus, all piled in.
Despite having vanquished Eldrene’s greatest enemy only hours ago, the meeting had a somber note to it all. Hesper fidgeted with her leathers, undoing and redoing her armbandsrelentlessly. I rubbed the edges of my apron to the point of fraying, then I took to individually plucking at those threads. Too much silence filled the room, but I couldn’t find any words to fill the void.
The only thing I could manage to think of was Hesper, her bargain, and what happened next. Eldrene surveyed us all, managing to look the picture of regality even as she sank deeply into a well-cushioned chair near the hearth. Agnus and Angus sat right next to each other—Angus twiddling his thumbs, Agnus looking straight ahead. Their names were a letter apart; their demeanors could not have been more dissimilar.
“On the Goddess Celebration night,” Eldrene began, her eyes resting on me. My apron was done for. “I touched you, Clara. Briefly, more of a graze than anything else. It was in that moment I knew you had heart magic.”
“Your magic,” I cut in, my mouth moving far before my brain. “I’m so sorry,” I said to her and Agnus. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s quite all right,” Eldrene replied gracefully. “Yes, my magic. But your heart was shut off—I could not tell how powerful you were. You might have had a hint of the magic; you might have had more than anyone could dream. When Hesper alerted me that you two were being followed, though, my suspicions were raised. However, until you showed signs of that magic, we had to lie in wait.”
“Yes, it took me a while,” I said, trying to smile. “I’m still not sure how to use it completely. Other than the obvious.”
The Forest Train looked on in question.
“You know, with the Prince and all.”
They still seemed confused.
“The part where I vanquished him? Am I not making sense?”
“You’re making perfect sense, Clara; they just do that to unnerve people. And you need not worry. In time, you will learn your magic anew. Until then, there is much to be done,” she said, a ghost of a smile haunting her face.
