Page 31 of Evergreen Conservatory
“All I’m saying is don’t hold yourself back because of other’s intentions. Take your opportunities—or challenges—and make them your own. That’s what you’ve taught me to do.”
Callan turned around then, and I almost ran into him. He touched my arms gently, steadying me. “That’s good advice. Thank you. I’ll try.”
I startled, not expecting him to agree with me that easily. Maybe the emotion behind my words had come through despite my efforts to hide it.
Callan removed his hands from my arms and turned back around. “The silk-cotton tree is coming up on our left. Do you want me to grab the fibers for you? How much do you need?”
I walked him through my instructions but couldn’t stop noticing the ghost of the feeling of his hands on my arms. I was a candle, and Callan was the wick whose light lingered on me with the briefest touch of flame.
When I got back to the academy, I went straight for the library, hoping to read, sketch and clear my head. I settled onto a cushioned seat in the window and opened one of the da Vinci journals. There was a lot to distract me from learning more about my ancestry, but I wanted to at least skim through the journal that was available to me every few weeks. I noticed new details to da Vinci’s sketches with each subsequent viewing of a page.
After about thirty minutes of copying some of da Vinci’s sketches into my own notebook, a soft tapping sounded on the window behind my seat in the library, and I turned. Leaves were swirling outside. With a glance in either direction to make sure that I was alone, I opened the lower window, let the leaves in, then sealed it closed again. I found the note mixed in with the leaves.
As my eyes scanned the paper, my excitement morphed to a sharp curiosity. The only person who had sent me notes this way was Callan, and this was not his handwriting. The note wasn’t handwritten at all but instead contained raised typeface text, as if created by a typewriter.
Follow the lights at midnight. Come alone.
Chapter Nineteen
The din of the library faded away as I flipped the note over, scouring for anything I might have missed. The back of the paper contained a stamped logo consisting of roots and swirling vines. A feeling of déjà vu came over me as recognition dawned. The same logo had been carved into the tiny fairy-sized arch I had seen embedded on the brick wall on the summer solstice. I read the note again.
Follow the lights at midnight. Come alone.
That didn’t sound daunting at all.
What on earth was this? Some kind of invitation, clearly, but to what? And who had it come from? Was I really going to wherever these so-called lights led in the middle of the night—by myself?
And who uses typewriters these days?
I cleaned up the workspace where I had been studying, stuffed the note in my pocket, and headed to my room. When I entered, Yasmin was there, everything seeming perfectly normal. She waswriting in her notebook at her desk, the moonlight shining through our window like an iridescent beacon.
My first instinct was to tell her about the note, but thecome alonepart was a clear warning to keep this secret. Could the message have been from Professor East? But why wouldn’t he just invite me to his office if he needed to meet?
Yasmin stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “I’m beat. Affinity studies were hard core today. Professor Sato is really pushing us second-years.”
“I’m sure you crushed it,” I assured her.
We got ready for bed, but I didn’t try to fall asleep. Instead, I kept an eye on my watch and snuck out of bed just before midnight once I heard the soft breathing that indicated Yasmin was sleeping. I dressed in dark colors, made sure the note was in my pocket, then snuck out of the room.
I tiptoed down the stairs and through the central atrium, not spotting another soul. “Follow the lights,” I whispered, scanning each area as I passed through it.
Once outside, directly beyond the front entrance to the main atrium, I spotted a moonflower, altered for bioluminescence, glowing with a soft white light.
As I scanned the area, I saw another incandescent white flower in the distance, near the line of trees where the forest began. From there, the flowers appeared in roughly twenty-to-fifty-foot intervals, leading deeper into the forest. The white petals were like solar lights, guiding me forward.
“Hopefully, this isn’t some kind of strange prank,” I murmured. Tension was coiling through my body, my instincts debating whether this was a good idea.
But despite the tension, the feeling of inquisitiveness I was experiencing was even stronger. Despite the novelty of the mission, I was encouraged to keep going. I eyed the flowers suspiciously. Were they emitting some kind of calming fragrance?
At aflash of light above, I craned my neck and saw that one of the flowers was growing in the canopy of the trees.
I realized I was expected to tree walk and wished I had access to my powers. But then I looked ahead and saw the dark imposing figure of the brick wall. It appeared the flowers were leading me over the wall, where I would be able to use my affinity powers on the other side if they were needed.
A jolt of excitement hit me as I spotted wooden foot panels on the tree closest to the wall. Taking that as a sign, I used the panels to climb the tree more easily. At the top, a pendant exactly like the one Meadow had leant me on midsummer was hanging from a branch beside a moonflower lamp. The words Carry Me were printed on a delicate paper tag.
Was this whole thing some scheme of Meadow’s?
I palmed the Shasta lily pendant then carefully stepped across to a large branch of a tree on the other side of the wall where another flower was glowing.
