Page 49 of Flowerheart

Her jaw was clenched tight. She tipped her head towards the door. “Go home.”

Xavier fished around in his pocket, procured a golden calling card, and passed it to me.

“Goodbye, Miss Lucas,” he said, giving a little bow of his head before he ducked back into his shop.

Madam Ben Ammar snapped the door shut behind him and pressed herself against it. Her brown eyes sparkled with tears. Was she angry? Disappointed? Afraid? To think of her as anything other than fearless was chilling.

“I know you lied for him,” she said. “Please, Clara, tell me—if you’re being coerced—”

“I agreed to the vow,” I said, each word hot and dry and painful in my throat. “I came up with it in the first place; I did it so that he’d help me hea—”

Suddenly, my tongue began to burn like I’d eaten a hot pepper. I gasped, pressing my hands to my mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“So it’s a vow of secrecy.” She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. “Just tell me this. Is he asking you to do anything illegal on his behalf?”

“No,” I said.

“Are you in danger?”

I didn’t know. I didn’tthinkso. Xavier’s service as my teacher had come with a dangerous condition; a price thatstill pained me to think about. But he’d alsoguaranteedme that he would help me heal Papa. Perhaps I’d finally be strong enough the next time I attempted a blessing. Perhaps I’d finally be good enough.

I shook my head. “I’m safe. I promise you.”

She sighed. Her eyes were shining and mournful. “Then you’ve made your bed, Miss Lucas, and I’ll let you lie in it. I won’t interfere with your lessons. At least not until I have proof that he’s been irresponsible.”

Madam Ben Ammar held her hand against my shoulder. “I’m going to fetch Robin and inform them of the situation. The two of us will continue to treat him.”

“What... what about the next time?” I asked. “When I attempt to bless him again, what if I make him even worse?”

“It’s possible, Clara. Your magic is... unusual. I cannot tell you if you’ll succeed in healing your father, or if he will ever be healed.”

My eyes stung with tears as I looked back at him, shivering, grimacing,in pain.

Her gloved hand against my cheek shocked me into looking at her again. “Because it was your strange, unique magic that caused this, you are the only one who can cure him,” she said. “But you, little tempest, have a brave and noble spirit. I can see that you fight your magic every minute. Don’t surrender to it. No teacher can create the strength that I already see in you.”

The tears in my eyes made the lights in the room dance. “When I said the blessing, I couldfeelthe magic in my hands. It felt as if I really was helping him.”

“Perhaps you were. Perhaps you only need a little more time.” She faced the door and wrapped her gloved fingers around the doorknob. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

As she stepped through her portal into a house on the outskirts of Queensborough, I sat on the floor beside Papa, my head propped against the arm of his sofa.

“Are you leaving for Xavier’s on Monday?” he asked, his voice groggy with fatigue.

In the vase by the window, the peonies Xavier had given me glowed in the sunshine. “Yes,” I said. “Did... did you feel any better at all, Papa, when I was saying that blessing?”

“I did... I felt this great, warm sense of hope spreading in my chest. This sense of elation. It felt like gold.”

I turned back to him, my eyes narrowed to scrutinize him, to be entirely certain he wasn’t lying just for my sake. He smiled, his hand against his chest. He looked... nostalgic. Thankful.

“Maybe it’ll work next time,” I whispered.

“I’m sure of it.”

He dangled his hand off the edge of the sofa. I clung fast to it.

“Something’s different,” he said, his voice soft, distant, and dreamlike. “You seemed more confident. And hopeful.”He hummed a little laugh. “I think it’s your teacher.”

My blood chilled. I longed to tell him all I knew—and all I didn’t—about Xavier. About the secret arrangement we had made.

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