“That was not the answer I was expecting,” he admitted.
“I want my family to know I’m alive,” Terlu said. “And happy.” She was ready, at last, to reach out. She wasn’t the same as she’d been when she’d woken cold and alone in the woods, the island wasn’t the same as it had been when she first walked through its wonders, and the world beyond… it wasn’t the same either.It’s time.
“Ahh,” Yarrow said. “Yes. I’ll make us lunch while you write. There’s a quiche recipe I’ve been wanting to try…” He continued to tell her about the quiche with the same adorable enthusiasm as when he talked about planting garlic.
Snow began to fall again, lightly, on the trees and the cottage and the greenhouse. The winged cat met them by the door of the cottage, and the three of them went inside.
While Yarrow broke several eggs and began whisking them, Terlu sat at his desk and pulled out a clean sheet of paper. She dipped the quill tip into the inkwell.
Dear—
She paused.
Should she write separate letters to her parents and her sister? What about her cousins? Aunts, uncles, grandparents?
Dear Family,she wrote.
She paused again.
“Tell them you’re well,” Yarrow advised.
She wrote that. And then once those first words were there, she kept writing. She told them about when she first came to Alyssium, full of hope and fear. She told them about the library, how proud she’d been to get the job and how disappointed when it turned out to not be what she’d imagined it would be. She told them about how much she missed home, how much she missed them, and why she hadn’t returned—because she wanted to find a place where shebelonged and had purpose, and she knew it wasn’t Eano, as much as she loved them. But it wasn’t Alyssium either. As it turned out, it was Belde.
This place. With this man.
She smiled as she wrote about Yarrow and her life here.I found a place I want to be and a future I want to have. I’m happy, and I hope you are too. Please write back.
I miss you.
Love,
Your Terlu
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
After a few weeks, the final crack was sealed.
Terlu had been expecting it—she knew the talking plants were working on their final dead greenhouse. In fact, this morning, she’d shortened her daily swim with the sea turtle, in hopes that she wouldn’t miss the moment. So when she heard the cheers in the distance, she knew exactly what it meant. When it happened, she was working on spell variations in what she’d dubbed her practice greenhouse, the one where she and Yarrow had nearly suffocated inside one of her earlier attempts.
Lotti burst in with the news. “We did it!” she caroled. “All the glass is fixed!”
“That’s wonderful!” Terlu said, celebrating with her. The little rose danced around her with her petals shaking in the air, and Terlu spun to watch. It was indeed a tremendous achievement. After thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of cracks, the glass was at last whole. Every greenhouse could host life again.
“We need a new spell to do.”
Terlu laughed.
“I’m serious.” The little rose widened her petals, as if she was trying to look more earnest. “It’s spectacular that the glass is fixed, but there’s much more to be done.”
“I don’t have a new spell yet.” Terlu waved at the pages she wasstruggling with. She’d written out reams of notes and tried countless variations, but no success so far.
Lotti hopped closer to the pages. “What’s this one do?”
“Ideally, if it’s working right, it forms a protective shield just within the glass—it’s what makes it possible for some rooms to be hot and humid enough for tropical plants and others to grow vegetables so close to the winter solstice.”
“But it’s not working yet?”
So far, she’d managed a bubble that was permeable enough to allow people to walk through and sturdy enough not to burst—she’d cast it each time fromoutsidethe ring of ingredients, to be safe. However, it also didn’t hold in heat, which was the point. She was confident that if she tweaked the spell enough, she’d get it eventually. She was closer to understanding how the phrases interacted. But the key word was “eventually.” “Not yet. How about you get Birch and the others to teach you how to plant seedlings?”
