The words were composed in a sloppy scrawl, and though Eliana had always known Than’s handwriting to be neat, she imagined that, in haste, it could easily be this messy. With the fervor of the moment that had just passed between her and Kiki, she read:
Danny has been badgering me to tell him if Ashna is here, but I’ve been ignoring his messages. He’s bound to come here and demolish the whole town either way, but at least I can buy her a little time to complete her mission first. I don’t want to put you in danger by telling you this, but I don’t know who else to trust. If you can in any way help me defer suspicion from Ashna, I would greatly appreciate it.
“Did you read it?” Eliana asked, her voice barely audible with the shock of this evidence. Kiki was just as speechless, nodding absently as she stared at the note. “He didn’t address it to anyone. Who do you think he meant to give it to? Or—or means to give it to?”
“I…I didn’t even think we’d find any real proof,” she whispered incredulously. “Sexy Than is a terrorist. And we’re—we’re sneaking around his office!” Without warning, Kiki tore the note from Eliana’s hand and shoved it back into the book. “This guy is probably a murderer! Imagine what he’ll do to us when he finds out we were—”
“He’s not going to find out,” Eliana said, but as the words flowed from her mouth, a familiar consciousness entered her awareness—one that had the potential to ruin this whole operation. “Fraco is coming up the stairs.”
Blanching, Kiki’s protruding eyes snapped toward the door. “There’s no reason he would come in here.”
“We should still hide!”
“Where?” Kiki hissed, but Eliana didn’t have the opportunity to consider her question before the door handle began to jangle. Fraco, for some horrible reason, was coming into Than’s office.
There was no time to run or hide. Luckily the vice principal’s hands were too slippery to effectively twist the knob, but Eliana sensed through his mind that he was close to opening it. Likewise, she sensed through Kiki’s mind that she knew Fraco would go directly to the new principals and inform them not only that the girls had snuck into a teacher’s office but also that one of the teachers was a Wacko. With the Reggs’ potentially malicious intentions, the primaries couldn’t afford to divulge any new information to them.
So, Kiki hastily performed the first action that whizzed through her brain: She shoved Eliana onto Than’s desk and mounted her.
With Kiki’s legs straddled over her, Eliana could barely manage to blink up at the veil of long hair that nearly obscured the other girl’s face. Producing a coherent stream of words proved even more impossible. “What—you—why—”
“Just go with it,” Kiki hissed as she lowered her face toward Eliana’s, both of their heads shielded from view by a curtain of strawberry blonde hair. When Kiki’s lips got close enough to graze Eliana’s cheek, she instinctively shied away, her heart hammering much too rapidly for her to construct an opinion on this situation. “Stop squirming! I’m not even kissing you!”
“It—seems like you are.”
“You would know if I was kissing you, Eliana,” Kiki breathed against her skin, and the sensation of it silenced Eliana just as Fraco succeeded in opening the door.
Though she couldn’t see him from her vantage point, she did hear him muse a little, “Ah, there we go,” to himself as he stepped into the office. His footsteps halted a second later at the sight of two students sprawled atop Than’s desk.
“Students—students are—no—no! I can’t witness—” he stammered as if he were a malfunctioning computer. “Children should not be engaging in sexual relationships! And—and certainly not here—”
Kiki sprung up, face flushed and breaths heavy, as if she actually had been making out with Eliana. “Ugh, Fraco!” She threw her hair dramatically over her shoulder before hopping to the floor. “You had to interrupt us?”
“I—you—you’re in a teacher’s—it’s Mr. Leve!” Oil flew from his pores with his indignation. Eliana’s paralysis from being straddled by Kiki morphed into giddiness, provoking her to giggle. The sound only enraged Fraco further, and he was so disturbed that he had to step out of the room to pace about the corridor. This gave Eliana and Kiki a quick moment to shove the books back into the bookshelves and then scurry out into the hallway, grinning goofily.
“You—will—both receive detention for this!” Fraco fumed, pausing his strides to glower at the girls.
In her state of ecstasy, Eliana emitted another hiccupping laugh.
“Will we, Fraco?” Kiki challenged, tilting her head. “What did we do wrong?”
“You were—kissing—in a teacher’s office!”
“Do you have proof?”
“Well—well—”
“See you around, Mr. Leve.” Kiki shot him a wink before grabbing Eliana’s hand again. Fraco continued spluttering and seething to himself, and even once they were submerged in the stairwell, Eliana could still hear his frantic, puzzled thoughts. Her elation remained—until Kiki released her hand and Eliana noticed her expression had sobered severely.
“Do you want to tell Calder, or should I?”
Eliana’s lips parted; she wasn’t quite sure where this coldness had derived from. Even Kiki’s thoughts closed off, fortified behind a barrier stronger than she had ever procured. “I-I can… I can tell him.”
Insecurity overcame her, especially when Kiki pivoted on her heel and departed with an icy, distant, “Good.”
26
Rainbow Rose
Flowers and Plants was probably the least visited shop in Periculand. Ackerly had worked at the florist’s for more than two weeks now, and within that time not a single customer entered. Perhaps it was because the town was essentially under martial law, or perhaps it was because the population was so small and, as much as Ackerly hated to admit it, not many people appreciated greenery as much as he did.
Either way, his afternoons spent at the shop usually consisted of working in the greenhouse and growing plants or sitting behind the checkout counter and reading about plants. His boss, whose Affinity was the ability to eat endlessly and never suffer the consequences, knew very little about any sort of vegetation, which was clear by the fact that he’d named the shop “Flowers and Plants,” as if it didn’t sound redundant.
Ackerly voiced none of these judgmental sentiments and maintained his status as a good employee. Even if he had despised his boss, he wouldn’t have quit simply because the job provided quality time for practicing his Affinity, an opportunity he’d lacked in training over the past couple weeks. All the Rosses wanted to do was teach them how to fight, and all Ackerly had gained from it was a few bruises and sore muscles. At work, though, he’d improved his Affinity to an extent not even Tray was aware of.
That was why, when the door to the shop chimed open and a customer strolled in while he was performing one of his more advanced techniques, he actually toppled off his stool.
“Ow,” he grunted, pain lacing up his arm at the impact of his elbow against the wooden floor.
His glasses had slipped off his face with the fall, and as he searched for them, he distinctly heard a female’s voice blurt, “Oh my God!” before a figure hurried behind the checkout counter.
Squinting, he peered up to see an indistinguishable face hovering above him. He might not have recognized her if that rainbow hair wasn’t so utterly unique. Cheeks aflame with humiliation, Ackerly finally recovered his glasses and fumbled to stick them on his face. Even in the dim lighting of the shop, her iridescent eyes glittered, and her appearance was even more stunning than the water lilies positioned behind her. Scrambling to his feet, he could only gawk.
Over the past two days, Ackerly had been in Ashna’s presence more than anyone else’s, but his shyness pervaded. She’d slept a few feet away from him and seen him in the morning when his hair looked like a bush, and she’d even tackled him in training yesterday, yet his hands wouldn’t stop trembling. He hoped she couldn’t see i
t—or feel it with her nerve-related Affinity.
“Are you okay?” she asked, examining him worriedly. “You didn’t break your wrist again, did you? I sense pain in your arm—”
“No—no, I’m fine.” As he said the words, he realized they were true. The sharp pangs in his arm had dissipated, and his lips quirked when he processed why. “Um, thanks…for taking the pain away. Are you here to buy some flowers?”
A soft smile materialized. “Oh, no. I’m here to see you. Tray told me you work here, so…I figured I’d come visit.”
“Oh, that’s…” He paused when his eyes locked onto what she wore—the familiar flimsy sweatshirt and green cargo pants. “Where did you get those clothes?”
“Oh…I found them in a box in the corner of our room. They’re a little loose, but they fit well enough,” she said as she toyed with the fabric. “Ex-girlfriend’s stuff you’re too afraid to give back?”
“What? No—” Her grin broadened, and he knew she was joking, but he still felt it was necessary to clarify he had no ex-girlfriends. “They’re Adara’s clothes. We’ve been keeping them in our dorm, since she’s in jail. I’m not—I wasn’t—Adara and I are just friends.”
“Mm. She’s very possessive of you for a friend.”
“I-I told you she thinks of me like a brother.” When Ashna maintained an unconvinced expression, he sighed, “She’s…got a crush on Seth, actually.”
“Ah,” she said with a nod. “I’ll tell Naira to stay away from him then. She’s the type to fall instantly in love with a boy and then cry about it for months if it doesn’t work out.”
“Well…it could work out. Not to betray Adara”—he cringed at the thought of her wrath—“but I don’t think Seth will ever return her feelings.”
“Still, I wouldn’t want Naira to cross paths with her and her fire Affinity.”
Ackerly’s eyebrows creased in puzzlement. “How do you know she has a fire Affinity?”
“I saw it flare in her eyes when we were at the police station. She’s not a very subtle person, is she? Besides, her shirt was burnt and she was covered in soot. Not sure how she managed to ruin this sweatshirt, though.” Lifting her arms, Ashna exposed the item’s ripped underarms and shrugged. “It doesn’t look burnt…”
“That was Calder—uh, the blue-haired boy with the water powers. Cocky smirk, likes to drown people for fun, kind of a jerk…”
“Yes, I know who you’re talking about,” she affirmed with a light-hearted laugh. “The sweatshirt does smell a bit like water—like stagnant, rotten wa—” Her words halted when her eyes locked onto the counter at Ackerly’s side and the plant he’d been experimenting on when she’d arrived. He’d completely forgotten about it, but now it was all she would look at, and there was no way for him to hide it. “How did you…”
Trailing off, she took a step closer to the counter and ran her hands along the massive plant. Flowers akin to the color of lilac budded from the lengthy purple vines; there were so many that the bean they’d sprouted from was nearly invisible. That Ackerly had grown this without the aid of dirt, sun, or water was apparent to Ashna, because after studying the plant in awe for a few moments, she raised her gaze to gape at him.
“How long did it take you?”
Ackerly scrunched his face as he recalled, “Twelve-point-six seconds, I believe. I’m trying to get below ten seconds, but it’s a little tricky…”
“This—is insane. I didn’t know it was possible to grow anything without soil… You could, hypothetically, hold a bean in your hand and it would just sprout.”
“Well, yeah…that’s what I did.” He scratched the back of his head. “It’s not really that impressive… You, uh—like plants, huh?”
“I love them. They’re so fascinating.” Gently, she cradled one of the flowers in her hands. “Hyacinth, right?”
“Y-yeah. You know it by name?”
“I know most flowers by name. Water lilies behind me, bloodflowers over there—hey, do you have any gazanias?”
Ackerly had to close his mouth before answering to stop himself from drooling. “Yeah—yeah. Up in the greenhouse.” He nodded toward the ceiling. “I can take you up there…if you want.”
“I’d love to,” she breathed as she carefully placed the flower back on the countertop. “But…will you get in trouble?”
“Nah,” he assured before guiding her through the shop. Hundreds of plants cluttered the back, many of which would never be purchased, and behind the forest of flowers was the door leading to the stairwell. “My boss isn’t around, and no one ever comes in here.”
“Oh, that’s good,” she said, causing Ackerly to pause at the bottom of the stairs and glance back at her. With heating cheeks, she amended, “I mean it’s good that we’ll be alone. You seem more comfortable when you’re not in a crowd.”
“Oh, yeah,” he agreed as he began to climb the steps. “I’m an only child, so I never really got used to having a lot of people around—and I was homeschooled, too, so I never really had any friends until I came here.”
“That sounds lonely,” Ashna commented once they both stood on the second floor. A steel door awaited them at the top of the staircase, and Ackerly busied himself with unlocking it to avoid her eyes.
“I never really minded… It’s been nice to make some friends, though, like Tray and Adara.”
From the corner of his lenses he saw Ashna open her mouth to reply, but the creak of the door interrupted her. Once the greenhouse was in view, whatever she’d meant to say died on her tongue.
Resting on the roof of Flowers and Plants, the greenhouse was even more spectacular than the ground floor. Rows upon rows of different types of vegetation filled the narrow space, and through the glass that encased it, they could see the night sky, along with the entirety of Periculand. Ashna didn’t seem too interested in the outside scenery, though; all of her attention was swiftly gobbled up by the gazanias, which she immediately spotted in the far corner.
As he followed her to them, Ackerly took a quick moment to remotely grow the flowers, causing them to sprout upward and outward with even more volume and vibrancy. Ashna, apparently, was too sharp not to notice, because she wryly said, “I saw that.”
Thankfully, she was too focused on the plants to see how profusely he blushed. When he joined her, she lovingly brushed her fingers along the gazanias, pale skin against fiery petals. It churned a sense of passion in his gut that he’d never experienced before.
“I’ve always loved these.”
“Me too,” he said too eagerly. Toning it down a bit, he added, “They remind me of Adara, for some reason.”
“You’re telling me you don’t have a crush on a girl you think of when you see these beauties?” Ashna teased, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I—well—it’s only because they’re the most difficult for me to grow. They’re so stubborn…and Adara is, too.”
“Fair enough.” She removed her hand from the flowers to survey the rest of the greenhouse. “For the record, though, I’ve always found gazanias the easiest to grow.”
“You grow flowers? You like to garden?”
Her smile faltered with that, and she eyed him with such intensity that he knew he must have sounded far too desperate. “I…have a hard time being honest with people. I’ve never felt like I’ve had a family, and I’ve never felt there was anyone I could trust, except Naira and Cath. People like to…exploit me because I’m young and they think I’m naïve, but I’m not, and…” Puffing out a breath, she ran a hand through her shimmering hair. “You’re the most genuine person here—I know you are. Tray has secrets, I can tell, and Seth talks too much, and the mind reader freaks me out a bit—”
“E-Eliana? Eliana freaks you out?” Ackerly injected, unsure if he was more baffled by this unexpected spin on their conversation or that someone thought innocent Eliana frightening.
“She’s got this—this look in her eyes.” Ashna made an explosive hand motion beside her own eyes. “Lik
e, she’s quiet, but she’d gladly kill someone if they crossed her path.”
Ackerly snorted in an attempt to contain his chuckle. “Eliana? Well…it’s clear you’re not a mind reader.”
After letting out a laugh, Ashna bit her lip. “What I’m getting at is that…I want to have faith in you. Can I have faith in you, Ackerly?”
“O-of course. If you have something you want to tell me…I won’t say anything to anyone. I promise.”
She nodded, inhaling a deep breath before her gaze fell to a bed of white chrysanthemums on Ackerly’s left. “You know your teacher with the flower Affinity—er, Miss Smith, I think?”
“Oh, yeah, Floretta—that’s what we call her, anyway… She’s—um—a nice lady.”
He expected her to make a jab about him having a crush on Floretta like practically everyone did, but Ashna’s face remained pensive as she studied the chrysanthemums. For a long moment, he thought she was preparing to divulge her secrets, but then Ackerly saw it and felt it at the same time: The thin white petals unfurled further, blooming to the perfect degree. It wasn’t the sight of a rapidly-growing plant that bemused him but the fact that he hadn’t been the one to do it.
“I have that Affinity too,” she said quietly—so quietly Ackerly almost didn’t catch her words. “A flower Affinity.”
His eyebrows furrowed so severely that he was sure he’d give himself a headache. “This—this doesn’t make sense. Plants don’t have neurons like we do…and even if they did, you don’t have the ability to make things grow in humans—”
“My Affinity isn’t just the ability to inhibit nociceptors,” she interrupted slowly, allowing the truth to sink in. “I’ve been lying to everyone—always. The Wackos, at first, thought my only Affinity was for flowers. My intention when coming here was to make everyone believe it was my only Affinity too, but…then you fell.” She stared at his wrist as she continued. “I couldn’t let you be in pain, so I gave away that I have a nociceptor Affinity, and now I can’t let anyone know about my Affinity for flowers. The Wackos…were starting to discover the truth, which was why we were so desperate to escape.”
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