Page 66 of Balance

“No, the tree is perfectly fine.” Titus smiled, eyes twinkling with barely concealed excitement. “For now,” he added. “Though, eventually, now the tree will rot and die. Such a waste.”

“What do you mean?” Why did he look sohappyabout a tree dying? What was this foreboding atmosphere; even Julian and Damen had halted their previous actions, the weight of some hidden expectation resting on me.

I was missing a crucial piece of this puzzle. “Howdid these trees become diseased?”

“Well, you see”—Damen stepped forward, throwing his arm over my shoulder—“that’s how Miles leaves behind a trail. He’s actually quite terrible with directions, so this allows him to find his way back to society.”

“Excuse me?” I must have misheard. We lived in a modern world with marvelous technology. Why couldn’t the man invest in a GPS system, or, if it had to be something rudimentary, tie strings in branches to mark his trail?

Was this magic? It had better be, because it was actually poisoning them…

“He’s not hurting the trees.” Julian rolled his eyes, shooting both Titus and Damen disapproving looks. “Don’t get her all worked up. Look, Bianca.” He took my hand, bringing us closer to the offending growth. “See how the color is unnaturally orange? It’ll fade away, and they will fall off once Miles makes his way back.”

“Yeah,” Damen added, grinning playfully. “There’s no mushroom naturally that color. You study plants. You should know this.”

“Mushrooms arenotplants.” No one under my watch would be allowed to continue with that particular misconception. “Howis he doing it?”

“Witches are grouped into the Earth element,” Julian explained, his voice echoing distantly behind me. “Even though some have an affinity for many different elements, the source of all their power lies in the earth. That’s why, in many different spells and in pop culture, you’ll see them use soil in their practices.”

Graveyard dirt, buried jars… I did know of some things from initial research. I just never knew what aspects were correct.

“Some witches even use herbs in their practice,” Damen added. “And plants gain their nutrition from the earth in order to grow.”

“So… themagic mushrooms,” I prodded, not needing this unprovoked science lesson.Thiswas the important thing right now.

“Wherever Miles goes, he leaves behind a trace of his presence. Plants thrive just being near you, and if you wanted to, you could increase that power. It’s the same for Miles. He might not affect plants themselves, but, when he wills it, he can, uh…” Julian’s voice trailed off, and I glanced at him. “Well, it’s hard to explain,” he said in response to my questioning look.

“He’s a fertilizer.” Titus smirked.

Damen snickered. My annoyance faded and I was, once again, left wondering if these were grown men or children.

“So,” I ventured, not giving into their childish antics, “he can control how healthy the soil is. Mushrooms do tend to grow in nutritiously dense areas.”

“Wood might control Earth, the way the roots break through the soil and can ruin a perfectly good foundation. But in the end, don’t plants still need dirt to grow?” Damen asked suddenly, his question, seemingly, off-topic. It wasn’t until I looked at him, noting the way the humor had faded from his expression, that I understood he was trying to tell me something important.

“If a controller thinks theyonlyexist to subjugate the opposing element, then there’s not very much balance in that relationship, is there?” he finished, his gaze narrowing briefly on Julian.

“It’s the Unseelie you need to watch out for.” Julian’s lips pressed in a serious line, and his body thrummed with forced patience. “If you’re looking for an example of an element out of balance, start there.”

“The Unseelie?” I’d completely forgotten about Xavier’s request. “What do you mean?”

“It’s something you were working on.” Damen suddenly frowned, stroking his chin. “I’m not entirely sure. Every element has a dark and a light; but they seem to be getting further out of control lately. You might need to ask Caleb. Even though he’s a ghost, he should still be able to teach you faery lore. That was his job. But you might be out of luck. I haven’t heard of him being around in quite a while.”

Crap. Mr. Weaver.

My spine tingled as the familiar feeling of having remembered something very important slammed into me.

“It’s probably because you threatened him,” Julian was telling Damen. “Of course he moved on. Who wants to be eaten by a shikigami?”

That wasn’t true. Mr. Weaver hadn’t moved on at all.

In fact, the last time I’d seen him, he had been very muchstill herein a spiritual sense. He’d been free to come and go as he wanted until, in my moment of panic, I’d told him that he wasn’t allowed to leave Ms. Protean’s office.

Surely that didn’t mean he wasstillstuck there?

Lord, I hoped not.

Guilt washed over me. When I’d left, he’d been visible to Ms. Protean, and they were bickering.