Page 23 of Growing Memories (Valley of Sylveren #2)

Ollas poured imbued mineral additive into a tray, adding a healthy scoop of worm castings before wetting the lot with enriched water and giving it all a rough mix with his hand.

He picked up a glass stirring rod with an icy blue core.

“If you were a grovetender or I was a better one, we could use magic to augment the mix in the pots I’ve already got started.

It’s not hard, but it works best with consistency, and my magic isn’t that. Easier to just do it the mundane way.”

He demonstrated, showing her how to move the rod throughout the tray he’d assembled, dispersing the line of blue from within the glass.

It came out like a gel, wanting to clump rather than spread.

Ollas showed her how he kept a finger in the soil at all times, feeling the cold tingle of the ice magic.

Then he offered the stirring rod to her. Eunny took it, hesitating with the glass still held aloft. “Me? What if I screw it up?”

“That’s grovetending,” he replied with a smile. He cleared his throat, head ducking down as he mumbled, “I was, uh, hoping you’d want to be involved.”

Eunny gave him a curious look, her lips quirking in a playfully suspicious moue as she set the tip of the rod into the mix. But she did it.

Ollas picked up a fresh rod. “Too much and it clumps or goes blocky. Too little and it won’t feel even.” He nudged a sodden blob near the edge of the tray with his stirring rod. “Go until the rod is clear and the mix feels cool but kind of fluffy.”

Eunny speared a clump. “Why didn’t we do this with the other ones?”

“This is a lot of imbued amendment to throw at it. Most seedlings would die, but these plants are… strange. It’s like they absorb magic.”

Eunny didn’t comment. He watched her from the corner of his eye, trying not to be too obvious. She frowned down at her mix, brow furrowing in concentration. She held the rod in a death pinch, fingertips going white from the pressure.

“Little softer. Treat it like a pen,” Ollas said. “It won’t jump away from you.”

She complied, somewhat, letting blood flow back into her fingers, though her motion was still rigid.

Her other hand, the one monitoring the mix, was another story.

She traced through the material with her index finger, the rest curled loosely against her palm.

On occasion, she would let one dangle, like dipping her toes into water, as she followed the tray’s rim.

She moved from the wrist, graceful, minute turns for changes of angle.

“Am I doing it wrong?” Eunny asked, raising her brows at him. “You’re staring, Professor.”

Heat surged through his groin. Which he really, really didn’t need right now, not when there was a good chance that her very presence would pique his cock’s interest even more.

He didn’t have the handy escape of going to check on other students.

And if Eunny noticed… Gods. He’d have to leave the country.

If he didn’t drop dead from embarrassment first.

“I’m admiring.” He gestured toward the tray. “Your technique.”

Eunny snorted, giving the mix a vigorous stir.

Ollas spun around and pretended to rummage through the pots on the opposite counter. “How does the mix feel now?”

“Cold. Kind of dry, but not really, because I can see how it took up the water.”

Ollas nodded as she talked, nudging his troublesome cock up and trapping it behind the confines of his belt. Taking advantage of the trailing vines hanging from the ceiling, his movements were decently hidden.

“I guess it’s fluffy.” Eunny held up her now-clear stirring rod. “Does this mean it worked?”

Ollas resumed his place next to her and tested the mix, nodding with approval. “It’s prepared correctly. We should have an idea of whether or not it’s doing anything in a day or so.”

He made a shallow impression for the new plant, gently pressing the roots down into the mix before putting a thin layer of it over the top.

“Great. Waiting. My favorite.” Eunny carried the tray into the rear antechamber and placed it next to its sibling plants on the lower shelf. When she straightened, she nudged Ollas’s arm. “We should probably talk about how you don’t need my help anymore.”

The quiet statement was enough to make his cock droop. It softened, falling free from his waistband, limp and sad as he felt.

“Thanks for this. Letting me help. I know I kind of bullied you into it.” A sheepish grin lit her face. “But it’s been fun, being back here. Doing the school thing again. I’d forgotten what it feels like.”

“To be a student?”

Eunny wasn’t looking at him, her gaze drifting around the greenhouse. Taking it all in as if for the last time. “To be a part of all this,” she murmured. “I’ll miss it.”

“But you already are. What about the work you’ve done for the school?” Ollas protested.

Her gaze was fixed on the window, but her focus was somewhere else.

Inside. Lingering over that which he couldn’t see.

“Maybe I was once, but I’m not a part of this place anymore.

I left and never looked back.” She tilted her head toward him, a sad smile on her face.

“Until you. I don’t know what to think about that. It feels like it should be wrong, but…”

He didn’t understand. Was on the cusp of saying as much, but Eunny already seemed to know.

She sighed. “It’s never felt… right, coming back.

To the town, to the school, the Valley. Take your pick.

Not because I’m uncomfortable with magic.

I’m mad. Because it fucking failed me. It failed when I needed it most, and I don’t know why.

It failed in the worst way possible. I’m supposed to heal people, and instead my magic ruined you. ”

“You didn’t,” Ollas murmured. He ached to say more, to take her guilt and anger and tear it into shreds, but she stopped him with a weary shake of her head.

She picked a dead leaf from the length of vine nearest to her and began tearing it into pieces.

“I’ve been able to call light since before I could walk.

Could imbue Auntie Yerina’s cold remedy blends before I could see over the counter.

I don’t know what magic is like for you, but I’ve known mine forever.

It was like breathing. So for it to go so badly, for it to have been so natural and then become unknown…

I don’t know how to come back from that.

I’m trained, Nev, I did all my schooling.

I learned what the consequences are supposed to be of pushing beyond your limits, same as everyone else.

Magic fails sometimes, but then it should’ve failed me.

Should’ve hurt me, not you. But it didn’t. ”

His hand twitched toward her, hesitating in midair. He wanted to touch her, hold her, absorb any of her sorrow that he could if it meant that she would carry less of it.

When she didn’t move away, he placed his hand over hers.

She gave him a grim smile. “I don’t remember much of that day. That part is true, but it’s by choice. When I think about it, when I remember… I can’t just remember it. I have to live it, and that sucks.”

He squeezed her hand.

“It was the only time my magic’s ever gotten away from me.

” Eunny laughed once, the sound devoid of any mirth.

“Everyone harps on me to get my magic back, because how could you want to go from magic to mundane if given the choice? Gods, it was so easy.” Her fingers wrapped tightly around his.

“The life I used to have? Apothecary work. I don’t want—” Her head jerked sharply. “It’s not for me anymore.”

For a while, neither spoke. Ollas looked down at their entwined hands.

At hers, still so beautiful in his eyes.

But her hands were not without pain. Not so innocent, despite appearances.

He wouldn’t claim to understand all the horror she’d felt, but Ollas couldn’t call himself a stranger to such feelings, either. If only.

“I’d never seen the Sentinels kill before that day,” Ollas said, his voice low even in the quiet emptiness of the greenhouse.

“We’d gotten into some scrapes, fights with poachers, rogue mages trying to sneak across the border, that sort of thing.

Had to cull an entire herd of elk over by the Earthen Run one winter when disease broke out.

We train more to subdue, bring them in for the Order’s magistrate to sort it out.

I’d never struck at someone and meant for them to stay down. ”

Eunny mulled over his words, her gaze back to some point far beyond the window.

“Six years later and I’m still”—he shrugged—“conflicted.”

“And now you can’t get real closure. I took that from you,” she murmured. “I’m so?—”

Ollas chuckled softly. “I don’t need to be swinging a sword around to feel my feelings. Eunny, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Having a positive attitude about me turning you into a safety liability doesn’t make it not my fault.”

Hesitantly, Ollas reached for her, fingers soft against her cheek as he coaxed her to face him. “I can still do routine forestry work. I like that stuff. And now with teaching full time again…” He slowly lowered his hand. “It all works?—”

Eunny caught his hand, held on as she asked in a fierce, low voice, “And you’re happy with that?”

“Yes. The Sentinels gave me so much, especially when I was young and just this gangly weed, too shy to make friends.” Ollas let himself lean ever so slightly into her touch. “But I was never a real ranger. I’m a gardener. This way, I get to do both. I just wish things could’ve been easier for you.”

“You’re really okay with—with this? With everything?” Eunny clasped his cheeks between her hands.

Ollas tried to nod.

“ Really ?”

He laughed, earning the beginning of a smile from her in return. “Yes, really.”

Eunny peered at him with exaggerated scrutiny, then slowly released his face.

Ollas thought he felt a slight quaver run through her fingers, but she smirked at him, patting his chest before turning back to the counter.

“Well, that settles that. Gods, we got dreary for a moment, didn’t we?

” She gestured at the rest of the greenhouse, then gave him a pointed look.

“Still doesn’t change that you’re healed enough to not need me around anymore. ”

“There’s a place for you here, if you want it,” he said. “There’s plenty of work to be done still, even if I don’t strictly need the physical help. I’m not going to turn it away.”

“You do remember that I’m not a grovetender, right? I’ve been here for a month, and I’m not sure I’ve actually grown anything myself. At all.”

“I think I can convince Rai.” In a hesitant voice, he added, “We’re ready to start evaluating the healing properties in the plants.”

“Apothecary work, eh?” Eunny sounded tired, but not outright against it.

“Assessments. You could do it using the mundane approach. We need to test use cases for anyone doing restorative work, anyway. No magic required.”

“Really don’t want to get rid of me, eh?”

“No,” Ollas said, voice serious despite her joking manner. “I-I want you to stay.”

Eunny blinked at him. “I—” Her mouth quirked up. “Well, if you’re going to say it like that, then I accept. Or rather, I’m fine with staying until I’m told to go.”

“Really?”

“I mean, we’re talking about research that directly affects Dae.” She shrugged. “And you’re a good teacher, Nev. You make it… easier, to be here. Be around magic.”

“I’m glad.” Ollas hesitated, then said softly, “Thanks, for telling me about all of it.”

“Feels weird. It’s usually easier to pretend.”

“Why did you stop?”

She glanced sidelong at him. “I guess because I didn’t want to like you earlier.”

Ollas was silent for a few long, full seconds as her words rang through his ears. Slowly, he swung around to face her. “Does that mean you do now?”

“I…” Eunny tried to sound nonchalant, but a spot of pink was back on her cheeks.

They both startled as the outer door to the greenhouse banged open. Gransen bustled in. “Olly? You in here?”

“I’ll—” Eunny glanced down. In their surprise at being interrupted, she’d bumped against Ollas, her arm brushing his thigh.

Heat rose in his face. And other places. Ollas coughed nervously, angling his torso away, flush intensifying when Eunny tried, and failed, to smother a cackle.

“I take it back,” she murmured, grabbing an armload of the planting supplies they’d used. “Guess I can make one thing grow.”

If there was a time in his life where Ollas had ever been more mortified yet painfully aroused at the same time, he couldn’t recall.

Eunny winked at him, then in a louder voice, she called, “What do you want, gremlin?”

Ollas heaved an inward sigh once her back was to him and she’d gone to intercept Gransen. In a maneuver that was becoming far too practiced, he flipped his hardened dick back up beneath his waistband. And he tried, with little success, not to think about Eunny’s wicked delight in making him grow.