I hold my hands out, keeping the magic right where it is, ensuring every last drop of water has been turned to ice.
The water comes to a halt, and everything falls silent.
I stay where I am for several seconds, breathing heavily, making sure no more water melts and no more trees fall.
I stare at the mountain, at the trail of water frozen to the side, clear of the trees and brush that stood there moments ago. I slowly release Mr. Burrows’s magic and send it shooting back at him in a rush that makes him lose his balance.
The barley looks golden in the sunlight, and it sways in the light breeze, unaware of how close it came to death.
Spring surrounds me again, and I’m no longer cold.
“That was truly impressive,” Mr. Burrows says when he’s regained his composure.
“I didn’t do it for you,” I say.
“Clara, you can make me out to be the bad guy all you want, but these tests are meant to stretch your magic, to challenge your control. And they work. Look how far you’ve come.”
He begins to say something else, but I storm off toward Sang’s truck and slam the door behind me. Sang gets in a moment later and starts the engine, leaving Mr. Burrows and Ms. Suntile behind.
After miles of neither of us saying a word, he takes my hand and looks over at me. “Okay, but that was truly impressive,” he says.
I shove him in the side, but then I pause. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“It was,” Sang says.
He catches my eye for the span of a breath.
And before I know what’s happening, he pulls over to the side of the road, and I’m closing the distance between us, crawling onto his lap and wrapping my arms around his neck. I kiss him with the urgency of the water roaring down the mountainside and my magic rushing out to meet it.
His arms are tight around my waist, and we breathe each other in, desire edging out all my anger from before. His hands find my hips and his lips drift down my neck. My head falls back and I arch into him before returning my mouth to his.
I kiss him until the sun sets and the moon rises, until my entire body hums with want. Until it’s so dark that I feel him more than see him, fingers trailing over skin, lips following in their wake.
And when we’re both out of breath, our bodies aching from the cramped space, we crawl into the bed of his truck and watch the stars.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Plants have a way of discerning between good and bad. They will not grow and bloom for just anyone.”
—A Season for Everything
The days get progressively warmer. Campus is so vibrant with color and fragrance, it’s hard to believe winter ever touched us. Flowers are blooming and grass is growing and the air smells of petrichor, sweet and fresh and earthy, the unmistakable scent of rain.
During periods of little rainfall, plants secrete oils that build up in the dirt and rocks, and when the rain finally comes, those oils mix and release into the air, filling it with a scent reminiscent of the forest floor. That’s why spring smells so crisp, so fragrant and new. It clings to my skin and my clothes.
When I walk into the greenhouse for class, the room is already full. I look around and find a place next to Paige. I drop my bag to the floor and slip off my sweatshirt. Mr. Mendez heads to the front of the room and dives into a discussion of weeding and extraction.
The greenhouse door opens, and Sang walks over to Mr. Mendez, smiles, and shakes his hand. I knew he was coming, and yet my heart still races. My face heats with the memory of his body under mine, his face tilting up to me, his mouth on my neck and his hands in my hair. I feel Paige’s eyes on me and pretend not to notice.
“Great, our special guest is here,” Mr. Mendez says. “This is Sang, our advanced studies student. You’ve probably seen him around campus or in the field, training with Clara.” Sang looks at me and smiles, and it feels so intimate even with all my classmates around. “What you probably don’t know is that while he’s unquestionably talented on the field, his passion lies in botany.”
Botany is usually looked down upon by the witches who focus on weather, but Sang’s unbridled joy in what he does makes that impossible. Even Paige keeps her mouth shut, sitting still next to me. She respects greatness in people, regardless of where it’s focused. I hope she can’t hear the way my heart began pounding when he walked through the door. I hope she can’t feel the electricity radiating from my skin, the way it used to do for her.
I take a deep breath and try to relax.
“My Sun, Clara, get your shit together,” Paige says out of the side of her mouth. “Are you this much of a mess when he trains with you?”
“Ms. Lexington, is there something you’d like to share with the class?” Mr. Mendez asks as I die from embarrassment.
“No, sir,” Paige says.
Sang quirks a brow at me, and I shake my head. I’m mortified. I want to tell Paige that, for the record, I haven’t always been such a mess. It’s only started happening recently, when echoes of his mouth on mine and his fingers on my skin and the way he breathes out when I kiss the notch in his neck flood my mind when I see him.
And it’s only spring. I can’t image what summer will be like.
Mr. Mendez continues. “Sang has been working on a project that is going to revolutionize the way we uproot weeds and aggressive plants. You are the first
