Page 43 of Growing Memories (Valley of Sylveren #2)

“We figured you had your reasons, for all of it,” Dae added. “And, if you ever wanted to tell us, you would.”

Eunny gave Calya an expectant look. “How’d you know?”

“I didn’t at first, but when I ran into Dae while I was visiting, she had the sample you sent up and was weird about it.” Calya’s lips formed a thin, smug smile. “I didn’t leave until I got answers.”

“I could sense your magic in it, too,” Dae said. “What I could remember of your magic, anyway. The cutting, Eun, it’s special. There’s definitely healing magic in it.”

Eunny gave her a blank look. “Yeah, I got your note. A good preventative?—”

“It’s more than that. We moved it into soil from a containment zone, and look!

” Dae pulled out a sealed vial from her pocket and handed it to Eunny.

“Its properties altered when exposed to the higher concentrations of poison. Our sample died, but we were able to work with most of it. The rest is with Ezzyn for testing, but he’ll be down here soon. ”

Eunny squinted at the vial. Inside were dried leaves from a delegation plant, but its veining had a distinct shimmer. “What do you mean? How?—”

“Natural augmentative properties. You said the seeds were from the trade delegation? We think they might be Eyllic, or were designed by Eyllic earth mages to react?—”

“Much as I love the arcane plant babble, of which I understand nothing,” Calya said in a dry tone, “could Eunny remind us again why she was sitting here in the dark?”

“It— It’s because of my magic.” Eunny tried, failed, to smile. “And Ollas. And my mother.” She sighed. “There’s a lot of shit going on.”

The story spilled out of her, some parts more rushed than others.

She didn’t linger over the violent rescue or how her magic had damaged Ollas’s ability to accept healing.

She explained what she could of Zhenya’s theory about an imprinting spell on the seeds that still lived on in the plants—that Eunny’s last few drops of magic had gone into the seeds, binding them to her and Ollas when her magic lashed out.

They already knew how she’d sworn off magic and her apothecary ways.

The years of being a magic desert had been easy.

If not for the plants’ bloom cycle triggering when she came to help Ollas with his teaching duties, she could’ve lived without magic forever.

Only, the plants required more magic to flower, their narrow window to complete the cycle rapidly coming to an end.

She confessed her secret uses of magic under Ollas’s eye, how she’d thought she’d fooled him, too.

The disastrous attempt to push one of the remaining plants to flower, and Eunny’s resulting panic.

Their fight, if it could be called such a thing.

“An argument, at best,” Calya said, nose wrinkling. “Is it really a fight if you both aren’t speaking to wound?”

“I was pretty nasty to him,” Eunny said, shame-faced.

“Then you were being a jerk?—”

“Caly!”

“—but that’s not really a fight.”

Dae clapped a hand over her sister’s mouth. “Keep going,” she urged Eunny.

Eunny told them of the theft and catching Bioon in the loft. Her “offer.” Its cost if Eunny refused to cooperate.

“People call me a cold-hearted bitch.” Calya clucked her tongue. “I’d admire her if she wasn’t the enemy.”

Dae gave her sister an exasperated look before refocusing on Eunny. “What do you want to do? Whatever it is, we’re with you.”

The others nodded.

Eunny stared at them. Her lips parted, but emotion clogged her throat. Maybe that was for the best, because it forced her to pause. Look down. Really think about what came next and what she wanted.

And what she didn’t.

“I miss my old life. I don’t want to be afraid of my magic anymore,” she said quietly. “But I’m afraid I’ll hurt someone again. How can I use it if my control is so…”

“I can’t say for certain, but it might’ve been the imprinting spell.” Zhenya tapped her chin. “Sometimes that kind of spell is used to enforce security measures. It makes sure the goods can’t be transferred beyond preset bounds. In this case, you and Ollas.”

“Lovely,” Eunny said, tone sour. “That sounds like the Coalition.”

“Aggressive magic paired with you already spread thin healing everyone from the rescue. That can tip over the strongest mage,” Zhenya murmured. “We’re most likely to have accidents when fatigued, mentally or physically, and you were both.”

“If we’re with you, we might be able to help if you feel yourself slipping,” Dae said. “You know us, and we don’t have the same fear memory that you had with Ollas.”

“You’re elementalists, though.”

“All magic is rooted in light,” Zhenya said. “If you have a surge, we’d probably feel it. And it’s more about preventing one from happening in the first place.”

“We’ll be with you the whole way, if that’s what you want,” Dae said, nudging Eunny’s shoulder.

It sounded too easy, based on faith Eunny wasn’t sure she shared. Their trust in her was triggering the deep-seated urge to distance herself from such caring.

She forced herself to take a deep breath, hold it, and release at an equally slow pace.

She’d said she was tired of being scared.

Tired of running. That she wanted the life she’d abandoned.

The life that had lost its spark. Yet, now, that passion had been rekindled, in so many ways.

Ollas. She was tired of feeling guilty, of being scared, and using those feelings as reason to deny herself a different future.

But those thoughts and words were empty if Eunny wasn’t prepared to do some work.

“What do you want to do about the last plant in the meantime?” Dae asked. “Hide it?”

“If the Coalition already knows about it, then that won’t work for long,” Calya said. “They have a lot of sway with the Council of Standards.”

A faint tugging sensation flared in the back of Eunny’s mind. It was a soft, slow gathering of tension, the tiny strands of life in the cutting beginning to pull taut.

Eunny stared at the vial of dried leaves Dae had given her. They hummed at her. No, they weren’t humming. They were vibrating , the minute movements creating a whisper against the glass, resonating with a pull coming from further away.

Eunny couldn’t say why, but there was a sense of finality to the last cutting stowed somewhere in Trunk and the way it felt in her mind. To her magic.

Her fingers closed protectively around the vial.

Hang on a little longer, baby duck, she thought. Don’t go dying on me now.

Eunny took another deep breath, rolling her shoulders back as she exhaled. “All right. How do we stop my mother?”