“It is amazing,” he said, referencing the enormous Australian banyan he’d just been telling me about.
I took his arm and turned him toward me. “Not it. Well, itisamazing. But I meant you.”
His face rearranged itself through the strangest sequence of expressions, as if he couldn’t figure out what I was talking about.
I let out a laugh. He was adorable.
And then our eyes met, and it was like everything I wanted to convey to him about how much he meant to me, how welcome he’d made me feel, how supported I had been by him throughout my journey as a magical botanist, was reflected in his eyes.
For that moment, I forgot what we were there to do. The whole forest revolved around the two of us in this magical place among the trees that was a supersized mirror of all the nights we’d spent getting to know each other in the treehouses at Evergreen Academy.
He slipped an arm around my waist, a wisp of air enveloping me with it, setting goose bumps across my skin.
I lifted a hand to his cheek.
His voice dropped an octave, and he dipped his forehead to mine. “Not a day has gone by this past year that I haven’t thanked my lucky leaves I met you, Briar Whelan.”
I sucked in a breath but couldn’t help biting my lower lip into a smile. “Are you sure about that because I think there was this one time when we were working on math problems that I?—”
I was cut off with a warm press of his lips to mine. Suddenly, I had no idea where I’d been going with that sentence. All that mattered was that the world smelled like sandalwood and peaches and Callan Rhodes was kissing me.
Every inch of my body warmed as I was aware of all the places we were connected. His hand on my waist and one delicately in my hair. The warmth of his cheek just before I dropped my hand and slid it around his back. And our lips, his warm and caressing, mine tender and eager.
There was a loud crash nearby, and we broke apart as I jumped, surprise ratcheting through me. Callan tugged me toward him and looked around, wind whipping around us, then I felt his body relax.
Holy leaves. I could feel Callan’s abs through his T-shirt.
“It must be limb removal day,” he said with a soft laugh. He turned back to me and took my face in both of his hands. “I’d love to stay up here and dothat”—his gaze dropped to my lips then returned to my eyes—“all day with you but my number one goal is to get you through this mission safe and undetected. You ready to tap in?”
I nodded, smiling at the echo of the words he’d used in the pivotal moment of Capture the Roses last year. My head was fuzzy, brimming in a buzz of happy chemicals from the most heart-stopping moment of my life. I finally knew what it felt like to kiss Callan, and one kiss was definitelynotgoing to be enough.
But Callan was right. We needed to stay focused. So I took a deep breath and nodded. “Lead on, captain.”
Callan grinned and picked up my hand. He gave the back of it a soft kiss—eyes locked on mine—and walked backward a few paces before turning to lead the way.
My heart rate kicked into high gear again.By the leaves, I was in trouble.
Chapter Fifty-Two
“We need to head to the library. The archival area where the quill will be stored before going on display is in there.”
I followed Callan down a swirling staircase that wound inside the tree we’d just reached. There were exits at different levels, leading to treehouses and platforms throughout the conservatory.
As much as my heart was racing from what had just happened between us, I hadn’t forgotten what Yasmin had said about the conservatory libraries potentially having books on the Renaissance botanists. While I knew that wasn’t a priority while we were here, if I had an opportunity to peek, I was sure as sunflowers going to take it.
When we reached the forest floor, there were wooden signs pointing toward a variety of research rooms including signs for Transgenic Breeding Lab, Bonsai Garden, and Agronomy. The one labeledLibrarywas pointing north. Callan headed straight for it, never glancing at the sign.
Being on the ground floor of the tree conservatory was strange. There were layers of treehouses and trails aboveus, so in some ways it felt like there was a roof over our heads, but in many ways, it also felt like we were outside, with smooth dirt and moss making up the floor. Mushrooms were scattered across the ground like gumdrops, coalescing around the bases of the trees.
Callan came to a halt, and I looked around for the entrance to the library. It was like we were in any part of the forest, except the trees around us were massive and each was adorned with an antique-looking brass lantern about eight feet up their thick trunks.
Callan seemed to read my mind. “You’re looking at it. Each tree is a different section of the library. They’re hollowed inside like the tree at the Evergreen Academy library. The archival area is in a tree hollow toward the back.”
We wended our way through the library, where botanists were flitting in and out of tree hollows. Thankfully, none of them gave Callan or me a second glance. While this place was enormous and there were likely hundreds of people here, Patricia being on a first name basis with him at the entrance hadn’t boded well for us going incognito. But Callan had previously assured me that he knew very few of the workers here. His parents mostly hobnobbed with the higher-ups, who came in for special occasions or were locked away in high-level meetings.
“I wish I had more time to look around the library,” I said wistfully.
“Actually, I think that may be in the cards for you today, local.”
