Repeating that phrase with a different emphasis was doing nothing at all to help me process the emotions.
But at last, I accepted what I hadn’t been able to for the last few weeks. Each flower that kept cropping up every step of the way must have been me—my magic.
All my life, I’d convinced myself there was nothing I could offer other than my sheer will to complete a task. I thought the only reason I had much worth at all was because I could use Moss’s magic.
But it was mine all along.
Of course it would bloom in Moss if the magic was connected to my heart. I didn’t have a home before then, I didn’t have a place for my heart to land. I did such a good job protecting my heart that I never let it beat freely.
Then there was Hesper, who broke through the cage I’d built and freed it all.
Dwindle would have a garden.
I would go home.
Even though home was looking more like a honey-yellow cottage and a shadowy protector.
“To town, princess,” Hesper said, taking my hand in hers. “Andthen, we train.”
An all-expenses-paid craft-shoppe visit is foreplay; there is no other explanation.
—opening line attempt 639
Our trip into town was the most charming day of my life. Could it have been due to the fact that my lifelong struggle with magic was finally over, and now I had a whole new part of myself to learn? Perhaps.
It was like receiving a new seed catalogue and memorizing all of the details: sowing times, growing seasons, how much shade, how much sun.
I knew the journey ahead would be long, but that was future Clara’s problem. Today, I could celebrate.
The town bustled—as much as it could with only a few shoppes open. Children darted in and out of the streets, a few folk stood on ladders trying to repair signs, smoke rose out of the coffeepot spout, the smell of sugar cookies filled the air, and even the closed shoppes had their doors wide open.
Why all the hustle and bustle? It almost looked like the town was prepping for something. As if hearing my thoughts,two pixies flew right in front of my face. Their pink skin shone radiantly in the sunny beams of the day, and their green hair matched the trees beyond them. With all the summer sun, the forest seemed much less gray than it had before. The whole town even.
“You’re here!” they said in unison.
“I am,” I replied with a warm smile.
“I’m Annie!” said the one on the left.
“I’m Andie!” said the one on the right.
Well, that was something I was never going to remember.
“Uh, hi, Annie and Andie. Why is everyone out and about?”
They shared a quick look at each other and then smiled widely at me.
“The sun!” they chirped together and then swirled in the air in celebration.
The sun? Of course the sun was out; it was the middle of the summer. Why would it not be? Before I could question them further, they flew off together, still dancing and laughing.
Extremely poor singing replaced the pixies’ titters of delight. Just up the road, a green door was open, and dust poured out of it in thick clouds. The shoppe sign above, a giant ball of yarn with two knitting needles sticking out of it, read: You Have Me in Stitches.
“A craft store,” I said lovingly. My poor knitting needles had gone up in flames on Irk Road, along with my coin to boot. “I wish I had—”
Hesper placed a jangling pouch in my hand.
“I know you lost almost everything in the fire.”
