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Prologue
Decades before the events that took place in Earth’s Nexus and Earth’s Magic, just outside of town, in a forest that’s been around longer than anyone can remember...
“Annie!” Mindy bellowed for her best friend whose idea it had been to come to the forest at night. A spooky forest replete with creepy noises and moving shadows that made her wish she’d slashed the tire on her bike so she could have bailed and not gone along.
“What?”
The sudden reply from behind Mindy had her uttering a screech that probably woke every sleeping animal in a several-mile radius. She whirled and glared at Annie. “Don’t scare me!”
Her best friend, wearing red overalls and a shirt plastered in yellow rubber ducks, grinned showing off her new braces. “If I was going to scare you, I would have stayed hidden, rattling branches and making the occasional grunting sound.”
“Not funny.” Mindy pouted. “You know I hate being outside after dark.” Blame her vivid imagination.
“Don’t be a pussy,” Annie retorted. “We need to be out here at this hour if we’re going to pick a blooming moonflower.”
“There were some in Mrs. Kilpatrick’s garden.”
“You want us to steal?” Annie slapped a hand to her chest. “I am shocked! Shocked I tell you. And proud.” She grinned mischievously. “I really am a bad influence.”
She was, which was why Mindy had adored her BFF since kindergarten. Who wouldn’t love a girl brave enough to come to school wearing red galoshes, green shorts, and a t-shirt that read, Pie Eating Champ? Annie hadn’t personally earned that title, but not for a lack of trying.
“Wish my mom would let me plant a garden,” Mindy grouched. “But no. The whole yard is a giant patio now, with no plants because of her allergies.” The unfairness of it! As a witch with an affinity towards the earth and all things growing, it was ironic her mother couldn’t handle pollen.
“Sorry the goats mowed down the one at my place.” Annie offered an apology. She lived on a farm and had acres of places for stuff to grow. Alas, she also coexisted with animals who ate all those things.
“How much farther do we need to go?” Mindy asked. The headlamp she wore still shone bright, but she’d been binge-watching horror movies of late. She knew it could go out at any time, and once it did… They’d probably die horribly. Strung up in a tree with their intestines yanked. Dragged into a burrow to feed horrible monster babies. Spun into a cocoon for a spider snack.
“I don’t know exactly how far. When I was here last week looking for Figus—” the horse that decided to go wandering—“I found them growing by the base of this enormous tree!” She held out her arms wide.
“There’s a lot of big trees,” Mindy pointed out. Her Earth based magic connected her to all living foliage, and though she loved them—each and every one—that love didn’t mean they weren’t spooky at night.
“You know, you could try asking your green, leafy friends for directions.”
At the reminder, Mindy could have slapped herself. “Duh. I guess so.” She placed her palm on the nearest trunk and closed her eyes to concentrate. Hello, Ash. It’s Mindy. I don’t suppose you know where I can find some moonflowers? I hear there’s a patch by a really big tree.
The reply came in the rubbing of branches and the creak of bark shifting.
Mindy frowned. “That’s odd.”
“What is?”
“Ash said we shouldn’t go near the flowers because they’re by a certain tree.”
“What’s wrong with the tree?”
“Supposedly it’s bad.” Her nose wrinkled.
“As in evil?” Annie clapped her hands. “Epic.”
“More likely it meant it’s rotted, and Ash is worried it will fall on us.”
Annie snorted. “Fall on us how? There isn’t even a lick of wind tonight. We’ll be fine. Do you know where it is?”
“It didn’t say. But I have an idea.” Mindy crouched and placed her hand to the ground. An old tree would most likely have roots that had spread far and wide. Maybe she could trace one back. Easy in concept, but it turned out this forest had a mess of roots. Too many for her to sort.
She leaned back and blew out a breath. “It’s not working.”
“You barely tried,” Annie remarked.
