Page 51

Chapter Fifty-One

W hen we approached the door, Callan made a subtle motion with his hand, and I heard a soft whooshing to my right. Before I could look, Callan stepped forward and pressed an intricate knot in the wood—I assumed a doorbell of sorts.

I startled as a rounded piece of bark to the side of the door hinged open silently, and a woman’s voice called through the curtain of green vines.

“Credentials?” she asked.

Callan turned his face toward the window, and I looked up at the thick tangle of vines with white flowers that seemed to be pointing directly at us, tucked into the canopy above the door.

Smaller, yellowish leaves were swirling around the front of the flowers, as if a miniature tornado was taking place only there.

I glanced at Callan, understanding dawning.

The wrist flick and whooshing noise. He had sent the swirling leaves up there to cover the flowers.

“Patricia, is that you? I’m Callan Rhodes, and this is a friend, both lead tree affinities. ”

“Callan Rhodes? I didn’t know you were coming,” the woman’s voice called.

There was a clicking sound, and the door swung inward. Callan stepped through first, and I was right on his heels. As soon as I crossed over the threshold, I felt access to my powers cut off, just like at Evergreen Academy.

“Good to see you, Patricia.”

“Callan, this is quite the pleasant surprise.” Patricia seemed a little flustered, despite her words. “Usually, someone calls ahead if a member of the family is visiting. We would have made arrangements for whatever you need.”

“Don’t worry about it. Last-minute decision. There is no need for anyone to accommodate us.”

“Are you sure? I can call one of the research assistants to come?—”

“I insist,” Callan said, voice kind. He reached into his backpack. “And I brought something for you. Fresh cider from Evergreen Academy.”

Patricia beamed, finally relaxing. “No one makes cider like they do. Thank you.” She unstopped the cork of the glass bottle and took a sip. Her eyes briefly closed. “Delicious. Okay, let me get visitor badges for the two of you. Make sure your friend signs in there.”

Patricia was reaching for a stack of green lanyards on the counter when her eyes suddenly went a little fuzzy.

“That’s our cue,” Callan whispered, and with a touch to the small of my back, he gently pushed me forward.

“Please tell me that wasn’t what I think it was,” I said, moving steadily through the narrow chamber of bark, Callan’s hand still gently propelling me forward.

“Depends what you think it was.”

“Something to erase her short-term memory, like you and Kaito planned to do with the rest of the Root and Vine Society if we didn’t opt into the group? ”

“Invoking my rights against self-incrimination,” Callan said. “I feel kind of bad about it. Patricia is a sweet lady. She’ll be fine, though. I mixed it to only block out about a minute of memory.”

We were climbing a set of narrow stairs carved into the tiny tree entrance, as if going to another level. “And the swirling leaves outside… I take it those were blocking a scouting vine?”

“The entrance is riddled with them. I thought it was better if they didn’t have anything to report except for a little wind.”

We emerged out of the dark tree hallway, and I drew in a sharp breath. We were standing on a slatted trail, which swung softly as we stepped farther onto it. Thin handrails made of vines stretched from our tree to one about twenty feet away.

There were a series of slender wooden trails identical to this one running across the forest in every direction. Some were an even height to ours while others were above or below, giving the illusion that the forest was a skyscraper, with botanists working in treehouses on every floor.

I reached out to a floating, glowing orb the size of a raindrop.

“Bioluminescent sap,” Callan explained.

The orbs were sprinkled through the air, casting light throughout all levels of the forest. They resembled fireflies but in slow motion, floating with a carefree, silent magic.

“What happened to all the moisture?” I asked. While the humidity had been intense outside, it felt drier in here.

“There’s a shield, kind of like the one at Evergreen Academy.

Douglas Vitalis, my ancestor, was credited with the magical technology that put the shield into place.

He did something similar here so that the conservatory could be open to the sky but not susceptible to the quantity of rain that occurs in the surrounding forest.”

“I feel like I’m in some kind of Amazon kingdom. The lost city of trees.”

“That’s not too far off.” He pointed toward a collection of trees to our right. “That’s the tree hall of fame. We have moon trees— trees grown from seeds that went to space with an astronaut who was a magical botanist?—”

I cut him off with a shocked look. “A magical botanist was an astronaut?”

“I told you, local. Friends in high places.”

I rolled my eyes at his joke, and he continued to point out trees in the hall of fame.

“There’s a sycamore. An American chestnut, planted here before the blight wiped so many of them out.

That one’s a dragon’s blood tree…” He continued to describe various unique trees, spinning little tales about them.

I became completely entranced in tour guide Callan, his love of these trees coming through brighter than he could possibly have imagined.

“You’re amazing,” I said when he finally came to a pause in the presentation.

“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, it is amazing. 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 do that ”—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 definitely not going 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.