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Chapter One

“ F olium volare ,” I said, straining as I concentrated all my energy on the bright-green palmate leaves of the Big Leaf Maple tree just off the trail. The leaves didn’t so much as quake.

Huffing out a breath, I began to volley off some nonsensical, nonexistent Floracantus.

“Leaves levitate. Foliage flight. Le—” I cut myself off quickly at the sound of shoes crunching along the trail.

One of the many downsides of only being able to practice my botanical magic outside of Evergreen Academy grounds was that—unless I went somewhere very remote—I was constantly on guard for nonmagical people, also known as residents of the city of Weed, California.

I began to walk away from the sound so that if anyone saw me, they’d assume I was just another person out for a summer stroll on the Wildflower Trail. It had been about time to give up for the day anyway.

“Darn you, Callan,” I murmured. At the end of the school year in May, Callan—my tutor and a very powerful magical botanist with a tree affinity—had made me an enticing promise.

If I could figure out how to tap into my advanced tree affinity powers to send him a message across country via the leaves, he would text me.

So far, I’d had no luck in figuring out that tricky bit of magic, and the result was radio silence from Callan. The man knew how to hold out and keep his word, I’d give him that.

I had my copy of Compendium Floracantus , the reference book for all magical botanical spells, but there was some trick to the leaf communication method beyond simply reciting a Floracantus that the book didn’t explain.

I was learning that while the established Floracantus had been fairly well documented in the ancient book, there were many nuances that hadn’t been recorded.

Apparently, a lot of this was passed down through oral tradition, and since I’d learned I was a magical botanist barely a year ago, I hadn’t grown up with any of that insight.

I reached the parking lot without encountering anyone else and headed straight for Vera’s Café, the bakery my aunt owned where I’d been pulling a few shifts over the summer.

“Check out the display,” my aunt Vera said as soon as I entered the café, a hint of excitement in her voice. I scanned the pastry counter, where my eyes were instantly drawn to vibrant cookies and cupcakes decorated with flowers for midsummer.

My aunt, whose pale olive skin and long dark curls were looking stunning as always, was wearing a vibrant red flower crown made with real flowers.

The sunlight caught on the diamond ring that had been on her left hand for a few weeks, and the gem sparkled, casting rainbows around the room.

She had never looked happier or healthier, and I was counting down the months until she and her fiancé Bryce officially tied the knot.

It had been a long time coming for those two.

Aunt Vera placed a purple flower crown on my head, and I noticed that the other employees were wearing them as well.

“We’re celebrating midsummer all week!”

Right , midsummer. While I couldn’t tell my aunt much about Evergreen Academy, she did know that we’d had an event on the last winter solstice as well as activities on the fall and spring equinoxes.

And I’d brought up midsummer to her last year before I had known what was really going on at Evergreen Academy.

Her imagination had run with the rest.

“This looks amazing. Everyone is going to love it.” I situated the purple flower crown—composed of violets, gladiolus, and bellflowers—more securely on my head then went to wash up.

I had been trying to distract myself about this week’s upcoming midsummer—the longest day of the year and an important one for magical botanists, especially those at Evergreen Academy.

The summer solstice was one of four nights of the year where the campus’s verdant shield was recharged. This could only be done by founders’ descendants, of which Callan was one.

I still didn’t know if Callan would be coming into town to charge the shield this week, which would keep the academy hidden from the community and strengthen the other magical protections the shield provided.

I shivered at the memory of the shield’s most recent recharging on the spring equinox as I pulled an apron over my head. The magic of the founders who had created the shield had fought back when I had dared to try helping charge the shield, which had been failing due to poisoned soil.

At that time, Professor East thought there was a chance I was a founder’s descendant and could use my magic to strengthen the shield. As I had painfully found out, I was not a founder’s descendant, and now the founders’ curse made it so that I could no longer use my powers on campus.

Callan had saved the day by investing too much of himself and been seriously injured for nearly a month.

After that incident, neither of us were sure if Professor East would let Callan continue to charge the shield or if our professor would find alternative solutions, like inviting alumni founders’ descendants to assist .

“Can you deliver a wedding cake order later today? They want it there before the ceremony starts at four,” Aunt Vera said.

I peeked in the fridge to see a three-tier cake, beautifully adorned with floral baubles made of fondant and buttercream, carefully wrapped and ready to go.

“Sure, where to?”

“It’s a riverbank wedding. I’ll send you the GPS coordinates. Oh, I think it’s not too far from the Evergreen Academy grounds.”

I straightened at that bit of information. Since I wasn’t a founder’s descendant, I wasn’t invited to the midsummer events at the school, which was closed for the summer. But the idea of getting close to it again was irresistible, especially today.

“I’m on it,” I said a little too eagerly.

Aunt Vera raised her eyebrows but didn’t ask any follow-up questions. She was far too busy at the peak of tourist and wedding season to wonder why I might be eager to go by my school’s campus in the summer.

The shift flew by, and soon, I was on the way to the riverbank wedding, the back of my car filled with securely packed cupcakes and the multilayered cake.

The car rambled along the bumpy road as I followed an old road map.

Cell service was spotty in this part of the forest. There were scattered colorful fabric streamers tied to the trees, letting me know I was on the right track.

I parked near the other cars and then took both loads of sweets to the ceremony site, leaving them with the bride’s mom at the picnic tables. There were colorful wildflower bouquets on each table, and I hurried away when I noticed them bending their blooms in my direction.

As I navigated out of the ceremony site, I considered how close Evergreen Academy might be. I was still feeling a strong pull to at least cruise by. The academy was slightly due west of here, and I didn’t want to have to go all the way back out to the freeway.

Seeing a dirt road to my left, I decided to take it.

Twenty minutes later, I smiled in satisfaction as I glimpsed the massive brick wall that surrounded Evergreen Academy’s grounds. I pulled over near a tree, deciding to hop out and get my bearings. I wasn’t sure which direction to take to get to the front gate.

As I scanned the brick wall, an anomaly in the weathered, moss-covered brick caught my attention. There, built into the brick, was a tiny arch that met the ground. It looked like what I imagined a fairy door would, compact and well-blended with its surroundings.

I remembered the previous summer when Maci had jokingly claimed that the ring of stones outside the Evergreen Academy gate was a fairy ring.

Curious, I walked closer and crouched to examine it.

In the center of the arch, there was a carved symbol of roots and swirling vines.

The symbol looked familiar, but I couldn’t recall where I might have seen it before.

Most likely, I had come across it in one of the many textbooks I’d been absorbing like an oversaturated piece of moss throughout the past year.

I ran my fingers across the engraving on the rough brick.

Just then, I heard a rustling overhead and looked up automatically. My heart rate accelerated as I scanned the canopy. I knew that sound. Someone was tree walking above.