But there was a child holding out her hand to me, askingmeto be friends. I hesitated, worry gnawing at the blooming hope in my heart.What if she’s playing a trick on me? What if she’s like Mother and Father? What if she only offered me this kindness to take it away again when I need it most?
I could run. She had let go of me, and while I couldn’t fight her, I could outrun her. And it seemed the bees wouldn’t come for me after all. I’d make for the forest, steal what I could on my way out of town, and keep to myself until I figured out the rest of my life. That’s what I wanted anyway. That way, the only person who could ever hurt me was myself.
Fate had other plans, though. Much better plans.
I placed my small hand in Rosie’s, and the blooming hope in my chest exploded.
All I remember was one moment we were sitting on a bench, and the next, there were so many tiny yellow flowers around us that the world looked coated in sunlight.
“Neat trick!” Rosie beamed.
“Very neat, indeed,” Sylvie replied, suddenly appearing, a small smock just my size in her arms. “So you’ve got garden magic then?”
“No, I-I don’t,” I fumbled the words, sweat gathering on my forehead, followed by the terribly familiar feeling of my chest closing in, the world swimming in and out of focus.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Rosie’s voice broke through the gathering haze, her large hand encasing my small one. Immediately, the suffocating feelings vanished. I could breathe again; the world was back on its axis. My chest loosened, and I leaned into Rosie’s touch.
More flowers grew, vining their way up Sylvie’s leg.
“Well, well, well. That changes things a bit. I wanted to offer for you to stay with me. But if you’ve got that magic, there is a place you could live on your own if you’d like to—”
“On my own,” I said quickly.
“All right, Miss Curmudgeonly.” She winked. Sylvie’s eyeswere a warm golden brown, her hair and skin matching in suit.Honey magic really just makes everything extra sweet, Rosie had said. It must make people look sweet, too. Even if she had given me a less-than-satisfactory nickname.
Then Sylvie told me of a cottage on the outskirts of town. The Town Gardener was leaving in a few weeks’ time, and the position needed to be filled. I’d never heard of a Town Gardener before, but I could learn. Garden magic, she had said, was the only requirement, and I possessed ample amounts of it apparently.
I don’t have magicI desperately wanted to say. Whatever they had just witnessed, the flowers around us, it wasn’t me. I’d tried ever since I could remember for a drop of magic—all I could ever manage was a few petals, nothing more. But this place, these people,theymust have given me magic. For in my chest, a warmth spread—like the humming of bees right where my heart beat. I’d never experienced anything like it before, not until I stepped foot into Moss.
But what happened if they realized I didn’t have magic? What if I didn’t become Town Gardener? Perhaps Sylvie would let me stay with her for a bit, but she’d get sick of me just as quickly as my parents did. Iftheydidn’t love me, there’s no reason for these people who had never met me to love me.
And maybe it wasn’t just Moss’s magic, maybe Moss awokemymagic. The magic my parents had been told I would possess. The magic I’d failed to ever discover.
I wouldn’t find out until much later just how wrong I had been.
I was quite young to take up the position of Town Gardener, but Sylvie said she believed in me.
Someonebelievedin me.
I gained a friend and belief all in one day.
“That is, if you choose to stay,” Sylvie said, finally. Choices… I never had those, either.
“Forever,” I said before I knew it. “I’d like to stay forever.”
Home, my heart screamed that day.Home.
But if I didn’t leave this bed to find the tulip, there might not be a home after tomorrow.
“Sylvie, I lost it. It’sgone.” My voice cracked pitifully on the last word.
“What? The Crown Flower, or whatever it’s called? Oh, dearest, it’ll find its way back to you, I’m sure.” She lifted the bedcovers by my feet and applied her famous healing salve to the cuts. I winced, but the pain began to ebb.
“What if it doesn’t find its way back to me? What then? You know how important it is.”
“Dearest, if it is so important, then I’m sure the Goddess herself will have a spare!” She covered my feet with the blanket again. Nothing in Sylvie’s life was anything to fret over; nothing upturned her ever-present belief that everything would always come out in the wash. But this was different,thisloss was insurmountable. And she had to know it, even if she tried her best to comfort me.
I finally cracked open my eyes to look at the room around me, a wave of nausea rolling over me. Everything was too bright. I took a calming breath, and the world slowly started coming into focus.
