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“No, you’re not!” Wrenley screams, falling in front of me. “She ran away!”

I gasp in the thick air. We’re picking up speed. The glowing gateway is getting closer, but the gap is closing, no bigger than a door’s width.

I’m not my mother. I couldn’t power the gateway.

You’re here, Rosalina, Farron says in my mind.

Mother stayed in Orca Cove. She didn’t return. But I did.

I’m not like her.

And maybe that’s not a bad thing.

I tilt my head back, spot clouds covering the edges of stone. We were so close. Just a little more.

But how can I begin to bridge that gap? I’m no better than a human. How can I save us? How did I survive in Castletree without magic?

Memories spring to life. The briars in my cell shifting so I could sneak out between the bars. A doorway opening to show me a new path.

The briars of Castletree obeyed me. Helped me.

Because I am magic.

Even now. I just need to go back to the beginning.

With a scream, I thrust my hand down far below to the earth.

Grow, grow, grow.

Grow like my lettuce and cucumbers and turnips and squash and radishes and grow like my carrots. I can still grow things.

The line of light around the Celestial Landing is rapidly closing. And beyond it nothing but clouds and sky.

Grow, grow…

Grow!

Something shoots up from the Celestial Landing.

A golden briar.

16

Rosalina

It…worked. I grew a briar.

I grew a briar!

Quickly, I split it off into seven stalks, wrapping around each of us. We stop with a jolt.

The princes and Wrenley stare at me with astonishment.

“I did it,” I gasp. “I did it.”

“I knew you could,” Ezryn says, and I don’t even have to see behind the helm to know the look he’s giving me; I feel it in my heart.

“Not to ruin this moment—and amazing job, by the way, Blossom,” Dayton says. “But that gateway is closing quickly, and I think if it does, it might chop your pretty briar in half and then we’re back on our way to being pancake princes.”