Moon's Flower (Kingdom, #6)

*

Calanthe had stolen the seed. She shouldn’t have done it, if the head mistress discovered her thievery she’d be in big, big trouble. But tonight was almost a full moon.

It was the perfect time to seed.

The moon flower rarely ever grew, in fact, it was so rare as to be just another tale in a land full of them. But under the right conditions the fairy seer—Miriam the Delighted—had promised that it would. Only the light of a nearly ripe moon on the thirtieth day of the month could bring the treasure forth.

Calanthe was a flower fairy, the need to discover a new genus of flora was an almost obsessive compulsion. Surely Galeta the Blue would understand. Of course, sneaking into the head mistresses’ home while she was away in a far off land was probably not going to earn her much in the way of sympathy should she get caught.

Biting onto her lower lip yet again, nearly breaking the flesh in her anxiety that the moon do as it aught, she held her breath with breathless anticipation.

Casting a worried glance over her shoulder at the booming snap of a twig, she jumped to her feet. June—her garden mate—stepped into the clearing.

With her nearly glowing orange curls escaping the snail shell fixed firmly upon her head it was obvious she was a snail fairy. Brown moth’s wings buzzed almost angrily behind her back as she tapped her barefoot in a manner as if to say, “you’ve been caught.”

Yanking on her tree bark dress, she crossed her arms over her chest, and fixed stormy gray eyes on Calanthe’s face. June shook her head. “What have you done, Calanthe?”

Rushing up to her friend, she yanked on June’s hand, dragging her behind as she ran back to her mound. “June you can’t tell anybody, do you hear me?”

Shaking her head even harder, June tried to yank out of Calanthe’s grip, but fear made her stronger than usual. The snail fairy could not budge.

“I knew when I couldn’t find you at the races that you’d done it. All those years of defiantly telling any and all that one day you’d steal the moon seed…” She sighed and rubbed her nose, “Calanthe, do you understand that Galeta will have your head for this? She is not a fairy to be messed with.”

But Calanthe was no longer listening because there was a definite rush of air coming at them. Twirling her head, her eyes widened as the electrifying beauty as the moon’s bolt descended from the heavens, slamming into the mound at her feet.

The towering trees to either side of them swayed dangerously.

A slow smile spread across Calanthe’s face as the buzz of excitement built and spread within her very bones.

“Cal—”

“Ssh!” Calanthe snapped a finger over her lips, shushing June, then pointed at the mound. She’d waited to see this her whole life. She’d not waste a precious moment of it blathering on about what a terrible idea this was.

Obviously it was stupid and if she was caught, well… it wouldn’t go good for her no doubt, but none of that mattered.

“Oh, June, look,” she breathed as the first buds of green shot through the dirt.

Clenching each others fingers tight, the girls jumped back as the land beneath their feet began to buckle and sway. Heart pounding, and a jubilant cry trapped in her throat, Calanthe watched as the buds turned to stems. Then to stems with heavy bulbs on the top, until finally, finally a bloom.

The flower unfurled ever so slowly, as if knowing how very special it was. Eyes wide, mouth curved into a tiny “o”, Calanthe inhaled the sweet, indescribable fragrance of the moon flower.

In all her years, and granted she’d not had many, Calanthe had seen thousands upon thousands of flowers. From the wonderful talking blooms of Wonderland, to the exotic waxy petals of eastern Kingdom that dripped myrrh and honey. She’d even once held the bloom of the bell heart from the Seren Seas. But she’d never seen anything so perfect as this one.

“Calanthe,” June whispered, as if she too were entranced by the ephemeral beauty.

This flower was unlike any she’d ever seen. Star shaped, it sparkled like glass infused with stardust, the bloom itself was the silvery-purple of moonlight.

Dropping to her knees, Calanthe bent forward and began to croon at it.

“You are such a wonder, little flower.” She trailed her finger across its glassy surface, delighted to feel that not only was it smooth, but also surprisingly very warm to the touch.

Lost in a daze, she crooned and caressed it over and over until something strange happened.

“June?” she squeaked when it first happened.

“What?” Her friend knelt down beside her, the worried scowl back on her face.

Wondering if maybe she’d imagined the shiver, she shook her head and began running her fingers along it again. “I thought that maybe—”