“I know what you can do to hold it back.”She nodded.“Stellar convergence.There’s a celestial event when the planets align—a planet parade, if you will.Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune will appear to line up.That’s when you need to act.”
“When does that happen?”
Her eyes didn’t flinch.“Tonight.”
Of course.
But something else clicked in my head.If the planet parade was happening tonight, and Voss gave me the ticking clock—then did he know it was happening?Did he know my window of opportunity was shrinking?Did he intend to remove me as Guardian no matter what?
I flipped open the seed catalog to the page I found with the note and turned it to show her.“That note was stuck between these pages.”
Madeline peered down at it for the longest time.“Moonpetal.”Then her gaze flicked up to mine.“Do you have some?”
“Yes, in the cooler in the shop.”
“Good.”
She rose and crossed the room to the bookshelf.She pulled down a weathered book with a cracked leather spine, then returned to me, flipping it open.The language was exactly the same as in the grimoire.My heart pounded so hard I thought it would beat out of my chest.
Madeline paused at one of the pages, then placed it open with care on the coffee table next to the vase of flowers.
“You need this.”She tapped the page with her fingernail.
“What is it?”
“An enchantment.And you’ll need the Moonpetal flower but I’m afraid I can’t help with the potion.Only Alice knew that.”
So there was an enchantment and a potion.But I was still lost.
Madeline looked at me, then reached for me.She placed her cold hand on mine and gave it a little squeeze.
“You don’t know what to do.”
I shook my head.
That got me thinking about the other scrap of paper I found and the grimoire.I pulled the book from my bag.
“Owen and I found this in the town archives.”I showed her the book.
Recognition flickered through her gray eyes.“The town archives?”
I nodded.She took the book from me and started flipping pages.“This belonged to Alice, though I don’t know why it ended up there.”
“Maybe for safekeeping?”I suggested.
As she flipped pages, I saw it.The torn page.
“Wait,” I breathed.“Go back.”
She flipped back and there it was, sticking out of the binding of the book like a puzzle piece waiting for its mate.
“The page is missing,” she said.
My hands were shaking when I reached into my bag once more.I opened the folded page that I’d found in the cash register and held it up.The jagged edge looked like a perfect fit to the book.
Oh.
With a shaking hand, I placed the page against the torn one.
