Page 47 of Rock and a Hard Place

“What the hell happened here?” I asked, trying not to laugh.

“I’m sorry. I must have made a mistake. Iris was teaching me how to speed up the process of getting a cutting to root…”

Iris. The green witch. Hadn’t her husband Alex always warned that she was trouble?

“Well, I did it successfully twice, with her on the phone. So after I hung up, I decided to see if I could get my other plants to grow so I could take some cuttings. But when I tried it by myself, nothing really happened, or else it was growing so slowly I couldn’t tell. I was tired, so I went and took a nap. And I didn’t tell it to stop growing. And then…this happened.” She pushed a piece of hair which had escaped her messy ponytail back from her face.

“I know, I know. Iris told me to be careful and limit how much magic the spells used. But I didn’t really know how. She said I could just tell it to stop after each time, and it would work the same. But I didn’t know it was actually running. I thought since nothing was growing that the spell didn’t work…”

Yes. And while she was napping, and replenishing some of her magic, the spell continued on its merry way with her none the wiser. It was a rookie mistake every magic user ran into at least once in their life, so I’d heard.

This was when I realized she still looked exhausted despite her nap. She’d let her magic run unabated, and it had drained her.

“Have you told it to stop now?”

“Yes. I stopped the spell. No more magic is being used. I think. I’ll clean it up, I promise. I’m so sorry about the walls.”

I gathered her into my arms. “It’s okay. Breathe, Kitten. Shit happens. We’ll clean it up together. But first, you need to eat, rest some more, and recover. Being drained of your magic is dangerous.”

“You’re not angry about the walls?”

“They’re just walls. Actually, I kind of like them with leaves. But we might need to give them something better to climb in the future so they don’t do any structural damage. Perhaps a bark wall like they have at the botanical garden.”

I guided her to the couch and grabbed her a soda from the fridge. “You. Sit. Tell me what to do, and I’ll fix it.”

I grabbed a sharp knife and under her instruction wrangled the wayward plants back under control. Before long, we had row after row of what she called “three-node cuttings” lined up on my coffee table. She picked up one that already had roots growing out of the bottom and stuck it in a glass of water.

“This one already has a buyer. She’s in Darlington too, so I don’t even need to pack it up and mail it.”

“A buyer?”

“It wasn’t the one she wanted, but we left that one at my apartment. This one’s better. It’s got three nodes, and there’s new growth on it already.” She pointed at the paler chartreuse-colored leaf that was started to unfurl. “I hope she’s happy with it. I was going to make the exchange tomorrow downstairs in the lobby.”

“You can use the Redrock offices if you like.”

I recalled the dozens and dozens of plants I’d left behind at her place. Many of them had only one or two leaves, smaller versions of these “cuttings” we had now. I didn’t realize she’d been growing them for sale.

She’d certainly done well at restocking her supply today, though I had a feeling she hadn’t been ready for this level of success. She looked at the rows of plants with an overwhelmed look on her face. “We need to get these cuttings into water, or better yet, some coir or sphagnum moss.”

“I’m up for a trip to the plant nursery if you are. If we hurry, we’d make it before it closes.”

“Really?”

“Sure, as long as we grab food after. I’m ravenous.”

As we headed downstairs, she told me about her conversation with her former co-worker, and we both agreed that it sounded like Dr. Shen could be paying Holly and other people at Lillian’s previous job for information. It also explained the way they’d conveniently let her go at just the right time.

We picked up everything we needed at the nursery and were waiting for our takeout when Lillian’s mood started to change.

“Do you feel that?”

“Feel what?” I stood still, watching and listening for a warning that something was wrong. Nothing dangerous stood out to me. Whatever it was must be magic.

“It feels like I’m being watched.”

I looked around, but didn’t see anyone trying to take pictures of us “Does it remind you of the feeling you had back in the bathroom of The Howling Wolf? With that lady?”

She grimaced, tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips. “What lady?”

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