Chapter Eleven
It was so early in the morning that the moon was still visible in the dark sky, with just a tinge of light on the horizon to herald the rising sun. Emma trudged after Juliette, her cell phone’s flashlight scanning the path in front of her. They made their way down the forest trail that wound along the perimeter of Bethany Andrews’s B&B, the rich scents of evergreen and damp earth kicking up around them with each step.
Emma yawned, wishing she hadn’t forgotten her coffee in the car. She was barely awake and grossly unprepared for this stealth operation. The soft broomstick skirt she had dragged on over her hiking boots that morning wasn’t the best choice, but that’s what happened when you had to function before coffee.
“What time is it, anyway?” Emma asked.
“It’s almost five o’clock. The sun’s on its way,” Juliette said, searching the edge of the trail. She always knew when the sun was going to rise. It had something to do with her affinity for plants and their need for daylight.
The trail wound in a circle around a small pond, and instead of staying on the path, Juliette stopped at the edge of a copse of trees. “We need to go this way.” She pointed into the thick undergrowth.
“Are you sure?” Emma peered into the thick foliage. “It looks pretty wild and, you know, woodsy.”
“Exactly. The night-blooming jasmine is growing through there.” Juliette charged ahead, ignoring the overhanging branches and thick ferns in her path. It wasn’t that she was being careless, she just didn’t need to worry about them. Emma watched the ferns and evergreen branches sway as though caught in an underwater current, bending away to let Juliette pass.
Emma, on the other hand, had no such treaty with Mother Nature. She stepped off the jogging trail and tripped over an exposed root. “Jules, hold my hand!” she whispered loudly.
“Are you still afraid of the dark?” Juliette teased.
“No,” Emma said testily. Even though she was, a little. She should never have watched that scary movie when she was in fourth grade. Scarred for life by the bogeyman. “It’s just that if you’re touching me, the plants behave. And I’m not in the mood to be smacked in the face with a tree limb this morning.”
Juliette backtracked and grabbed Emma’s hand, hauling her across the thick undergrowth. “It’s down this way, near the pond.”
A few minutes later, Emma could make out a shimmer of water through the trees. The sky had grown lighter, and she could now see the moonlight reflected off a tiny pond in the middle of a clearing.
The scent of jasmine filled the air, and Juliette let go of Emma’s hand, running to the plants. “Here you are,” she said to the delicate flowers.
Dropping down on one knee, she pulled cutters from a satchel slung over her shoulder and began clipping sprigs of jasmine. Every once in a while, she murmured to the plants. It would have been unusual for anyone else to see, but Emma was used to it. Juliette always talked to plants, and they seemed to listen.
Emma dug around in the satchel for the bag of blackberries Juliette had brought from her garden. It wasn’t even blackberry season, but Juliette’s plants either didn’t know or didn’t care. She bit into the wild berries, savoring the tart, sweet flavor. “These are crazy good.”
“I know,” Juliette said absently. “I put a spell on the blackberry bushes last year so the birds and rabbits wouldn’t be tempted. Now I can pick all the ripest, juiciest berries and they’re right up high, out in the open.”
“Nice,” Emma said around a mouthful of berries. “Can’t get much better than that.”
“Sure it can.” Juliette threw her a mischievous smile. “I also made it so those bushes don’t have thorns. Now picking blackberries is easy as pie.”
“Mmm, pie,” Emma said. “You should make me one for my un-birthday. It’s today, in case you’re wondering.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Juliette said. “Right after I give Icarus a bath.”
Emma popped another berry into her mouth. “Who’s Icarus?”
“My flying pig.”
Emma shook her head. “Meanie.” She ate another blackberry. Juliette had absolutely no interest in baking or cooking and they both knew it. Her idea of making dinner involved picking up the phone and ordering pizza.
“Okay, I think this is enough,” Juliette said, clipping the last of the jasmine. “Bring me the basket.”
Emma crept forward, congratulating herself for only tripping once. She waited as Juliette filled the basket, wondering if their magic “Go Away” cupcake was really going to work.
“Do you know I planted these back in high school?” Juliette said. “I had that crush on Logan O’Connor, remember him?”
Emma took a seat on a spongy patch of moss. “Of course. You used to write his name with hearts all over your notebooks. You wanted him to ask you to the prom.”
“At the time, that was my plan. I planted all this jasmine out here, coaxing it to grow and thrive. Then I was going to lure him to this pond for a romantic picnic. I thought if I could surround him with the scent of flowers that bind the heart, he would fall madly in love with me. Jasmine is magical like that. Wherever it shows up, love soon follows. That’s why we’re putting it in the ‘Go Away’ cupcake. Mixed with our other ingredients, it’s going to make Hunter fall head-over-heels in love with the tropics. It’ll bind his heart to the idea so he can’t imagine living anywhere else.” Juliette gave her a wicked smile. “It’s gonna be amazeballs.”
Emma frowned. “I don’t seem to remember it working out very well with Logan O’Connor.”
“That’s because I chickened out,” Juliette said with a laugh. “I just couldn’t get up the nerve to ask him. I waited after school every day for a week, trying to find a way to talk to him. But he had that girlfriend, which sort of put a damper on my plans. And anyway, his parents never would’ve approved of me.”
Emma gathered a sprig of jasmine and inhaled the rich, buttery sweetness. She tucked some behind her ear and stared up at the moon. “Weren’t his parents on the town welcoming committee, or something?”
“Yeah, but they weren’t very welcoming to our family. They used to cross to the other side of the street if we happened to be on the same sidewalk, remember?”
Emma remembered that part. It always hurt her feelings when people shunned them. She had always wanted to fit in, but that could never really happen. Not when she was a Holloway. There was always someone to remind her that she and her family were the resident weirdos. “It was his loss, Juliette. He probably didn’t deserve you, anyway.”
“I know.” She placed the jasmine into the basket and stood. “He wasn’t the guy for me.”
Juliette had only had a few boyfriends growing up, but nothing serious. She always said if the right person came along, Mother Nature would let her know. Emma often wondered how Juliette could be so sure. Emma once felt sure about Rodney, and look where that had gotten her. Nowhere good.
Sighing, she slapped leaves off her skirt and stood. Juliette drew a small vial of liquid from her bag and murmured something over it, dropping several jasmine petals into the jar. The wind kicked up and swirled around the women, whistling through the trees like an elusive lullaby.
“What are you making?” Emma whispered, not wanting to disrupt the light magic that ebbed and flowed around the small clearing.
Juliette placed leaves from the plant into the liquid and exhaled softly. “I’m just doing a trial run for the jasmine essence I’m going to make on the solstice. This is supposed to invoke yearning.”
“How will you know if it works?” Emma asked.
Juliette screwed the top on the glass vial and dropped it in the basket. “I haven’t decided yet. I was thinking I’d mix it in a tincture and sprinkle some on Bonbon, then bring Luna over to visit him.”
“If you can get Luna the Hellcat to yearn for Bonbon, then you will be the most powerful Holloway that ever lived.” Emma took the basket from Juliette. “We should get moving. Bethany’s B&B will be up by now, even if she isn’t. It will look really weird if we’re seen emerging from the woods in her backyard at this hour.”
They walked back to the jogging trail, Emma holding on to Juliette’s hand as much as possible. At the edge of the trail, they lowered their voices and rounded the corner to the B&B. The kitchen in the little house was lit from within, and Emma could just make out the cook starting breakfast.
Someone was coming toward them on the jogging trail, moving fast. Emma gripped the basket tighter as Juliette yanked her arm, pulling her toward the trees. The basket wobbled, spilling some of the fresh-cut jasmine onto the path. Emma stooped to gather them up.
“Leave it,” Juliette hissed from behind a tree.
But it was too late. Emma stood up fast and the shadowy figure slammed into her, grunting in surprise.
She fell backward, scattering the contents of the basket onto the ground. Strong arms reached out and grabbed her before she hit the ground. She jerked away in reflex, and the man tumbled forward, landing on top of her.