Moon's Flower: Book 6 (Kingdom Series) (3 page)

Calanthe was a flower fairy, the need to discover a new genus of flora was an almost obsessive compulsion. Surely Galeta the Blue would understand. Of course, sneaking into the head mistresses’ home while she was away in a far off land was probably not going to earn her much in the way of sympathy should she get caught.

Biting onto her lower lip yet again, nearly breaking the flesh in her anxiety that the moon do as it aught, she held her breath with breathless anticipation.

Casting a worried glance over her shoulder at the booming snap of a twig, she jumped to her feet. June—her garden mate—stepped into the clearing.

With her nearly glowing orange curls escaping the snail shell fixed firmly upon her head it was obvious she was a snail fairy. Brown moth’s wings buzzed almost angrily behind her back as she tapped her barefoot in a manner as if to say, “you’ve been caught.”

Yanking on her tree bark dress, she crossed her arms over her chest, and fixed stormy gray eyes on Calanthe’s face. June shook her head. “What have you done, Calanthe?”

Rushing up to her friend, she yanked on June’s hand, dragging her behind as she ran back to her mound. “June you can’t tell anybody, do you hear me?”

Shaking her head even harder, June tried to yank out of Calanthe’s grip, but fear made her stronger than usual. The snail fairy could not budge.

“I knew when I couldn’t find you at the races that you’d done it. All those years of defiantly telling any and all that one day you’d steal the moon seed…” She sighed and rubbed her nose, “Calanthe, do you understand that Galeta will have your head for this? She is not a fairy to be messed with.”

But Calanthe was no longer listening because there was a definite rush of air coming at them. Twirling her head, her eyes widened as the electrifying beauty as the moon’s bolt descended from the heavens, slamming into the mound at her feet.

The towering trees to either side of them swayed dangerously.

A slow smile spread across Calanthe’s face as the buzz of excitement built and spread within her very bones.

“Cal—”

“
Ssh
!” Calanthe snapped a finger over her lips, shushing June, then pointed at the mound. She’d waited to see this her whole life. She’d not waste a precious moment of it blathering on about what a terrible idea this was.

Obviously it was stupid and if she was caught, well… it wouldn’t go good for her no doubt, but none of that mattered.

“Oh, June, look,” she breathed as the first buds of green shot through the dirt.

Clenching each others fingers tight, the girls jumped back as the land beneath their feet began to buckle and sway. Heart pounding, and a jubilant cry trapped in her throat, Calanthe watched as the buds turned to stems. Then to stems with heavy bulbs on the top, until finally, finally a bloom.

The flower unfurled ever so slowly, as if knowing how very special it was. Eyes wide, mouth curved into a tiny “o”, Calanthe inhaled the sweet, indescribable fragrance of the moon flower.

In all her years, and granted she’d not had many, Calanthe had seen thousands upon thousands of flowers. From the wonderful talking blooms of Wonderland, to the exotic waxy petals of eastern Kingdom that dripped myrrh and honey. She’d even once held the bloom of the bell heart from the Seren Seas. But she’d never seen anything so perfect as this one.

“Calanthe,” June whispered, as if she too were entranced by the ephemeral beauty.

This flower was unlike any she’d ever seen. Star shaped, it sparkled like glass infused with stardust, the bloom itself was the silvery-purple of moonlight.

Dropping to her knees, Calanthe bent forward and began to croon at it.

“You are such a wonder, little flower.” She trailed her finger across its glassy surface, delighted to feel that not only was it smooth, but also surprisingly very warm to the touch.

Lost in a daze, she crooned and caressed it over and over until something strange happened.

“June?” she squeaked when it first happened.

“What?” Her friend knelt down beside her, the worried scowl back on her face.

Wondering if maybe she’d imagined the shiver, she shook her head and began running her fingers along it again. “I thought that maybe—”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence, because this time the flower most definitely shivered, almost violently.

Sucking in a sharp breath, she giggled with delight. “It did, it trembled. Did you see it?” She grinned at her friend, who wasn’t even looking at the flower, but back over her shoulder.

“Calanthe, as much as I adore you and you know that I do, we really must return. If anyone else discovers we are missing they’ll come searching and if they come searching they’ll find us and—”

“Bloody hell, June,” Calanthe rolled her eyes, “I hardly think this the death sentence you seem inclined to believe it is. If anyone should come they’ll see a flower fairy playing with a flower.”

“Unlike any known to man or beast!” June shot to her feet, and growled as she stomped her foot. “We cannot stay. And I do not like that… thing!” She pointed angrily at the flower. “It is not natural.”

“Anymore natural than a talking flower you mean?” Calanthe snapped and instantly felt contrite when June wrapped her arms around her waist. Sighing loudly, shoulders drooping as all fight left her, Calanthe whispered, “Then go.” Standing, she dusted her hands upon her dress. “I am not angry with you and I do not wish to get you into any trouble. But please, just keep my secret. Please.” Lacing her fingers together, she implored her dearest friend.

“Calanthe. Please, just come.”

Giving June a tight-lipped smile, she shook her head. “I’ve waited my whole life to see this, you know I can’t.”

But as she turned to gaze down at her most prized treasure her heart fractured and a wounded cry spilled from her throat.

“Oh no!” Sinking to her knees, she cupped the flower in her hand, trying unsuccessfully, to hold it together. But it was literally dying in front of her. The precious flower was wilting at an alarming rate. The petals were turning an ugly shade of brown, curling up at the edges. The mirrored surface turned dull, opaque and then, in just a matter of seconds, it was gone.

Nothing but a scattered pile of dead petals lay at her feet.

June’s hand clamped onto her shoulders. “Calanthe, at least you can say you saw it. That is more than most will ever get.”

The joy of getting to witness its birth soon gave way to the heart-wrenching ache from its death. Rubbing the spot of her heart, Calanthe gazed up at the moon. She couldn’t explain it, could barely even understand why it hurt so bad. She’d witnessed many flowers die, it was the natural cycle of life, and yet this one had physically hurt to witness.

Unshed tears burned behind her eyes. Knuckling at her left eye she sniffed.

“I waited my whole life to see that, and now it’s gone,” she turned to June.

June’s face tightened into a frown. “There will be more, Calanthe, there always is.”

“No,” she whispered, knowing in her heart that what she’d witnessed tonight had been nothing short of a miracle.

There would never be another flower like this. Because this hadn’t just been a flower to her, it’d been possibility and wonder and something so grand and majestic even she could hardly begin to describe it.

Touching the petals, it’d been like touching a soul. A soul she ached for, craved.

No, nothing would ever compare to the moon flower, she knew that with every fiber of her being.

~*~

Gasping, body quaking and shivering, Jericho closed his eyes, swallowing gasping a lungful of air.

She was leaving him. The light was surrounding her again, her and her friend. In no time they’d shrunken down to miniature and flew off, but he could no longer follow her.

His body was to weak to even hold itself up. Slumping to the ground beneath him, he rested his elbow on his knee and wondered what had just happened.

Because as impossible as it was to believe, he’d felt her touch. The silken glide of her fingers all over him. Her whispered words as she’d spoken directly to the flower, it’d caressed the shell of his ear and he’d been awash in her heady scent of roses.

Calanthe was her name.

Closing his eyes, body burning, yearning for the erotic caress of her touch yet again, he wished he’d been strong enough to stay there. But with the death of his flower, he’d been snapped back to this godforsaken existence of stone and darkness.

Somehow, someway, Jericho would find her.

He would make her his.

Chapter 3

“Oooohhhh,” a choir of girlish giggles escaped the children as they clapped their hands, pointing at Danika. “How romantic,” several of them murmured all at once.

“Did he find her, Dani?” the little primrose asked, as several sets of eyes locked in on Danika.

Smiling, she shrugged. “Well I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, no?”

“Oh, I hope he found her,” the calalily crooned. “I want him to kiss her and woo her and…”

An eruption of giggles resounded and Danika had to clap her hands to regain order. “Enough ladies, if you carry on like a bunch of squawking baboons I’ll never be able to finish this tale. Now do you want to hear more or not?”

From the corner of her eye, Danika noted Genevieve’s head poking out from between branches. Snorting, she realized the churlish sprite hadn’t left at all, but was actually hanging on to her every word.

Well, and why not, Danika was a damn fine storyteller. Everyone in Kingdom knew it.

An expectant hush fell around them.

“Now, as I was saying, Jericho was determined to find his beautiful Calanthe…”

~*~

Jericho paced his balustrade. Siria had flooded the sky with so much sun today that’d it’d very nearly blinded him and forced him to hide in the deepest recesses of the floating castle in the sky.

But now his moon was growing stronger and soon it would be his turn to rule the skies.

Impatient now, he pounded his booted feet back and forth, back and forth. The electrical charge of Siria’s presence failed to ignite the potent rage he’d known for so long.

All he felt was a driving need to see Calanthe, to be where she was. He hoped she’d stolen another seed. He wanted her touch, wanted her smell of blossoms to drip all around him…

“You are distracted this night,” Siria’s husky tone set his teeth on edge.

Well, apparently there was a little rage still.

Crossing his arms behind his back, he looked at her. “I suppose I am.”

She was dressed as seductively as ever. This time in a gown spun from fire. It whipped and crackled around her, licking at her toned flesh. Tossing out little bits of sparks with each step she took toward him.

“How do I look today, Jericho?” she inquired with a flirty grin, twirling on her toes.

She was beautiful. In fact, he could even admit that she may be more beautiful than Calanthe.

But beauty was superficial, skin deep. It meant little.

Last night, he’d seen Calanthe. Felt her soul slide upon his. Her purity of heart, her joy and verve… it’d awakened him, made him want in a way he never had before. Siria could never compare.

He shrugged. “You look fine.”

Shocked, she jerked back as if he’d smacked her and then glowered. “This is not why I brought you here.”

Nostrils flaring, he dared to take a step toward her. “Then why did you bring me here? To enslave me? Hmmm?”

Big, fat tears dripped from the corners of her large tawny eyes. But she may have well been made of wax, apart from the tears her facial features did not change. “To love me, as you did back then on Earth.”

Scoffing, he curled his upper lip. “That was a long time ago, do not mistake my feelings for you then, with what I feel for you now. You tricked me, Siria. I will never forgive you for what you’ve done.”

His heart quickened as he noted the radiance of her countenance slowly began to fade.

“You will love me!” she shrieked in a final, fiery burst before vanishing from the strength of his darkness.

Rolling his neck from side to side, he forced Siria’s mood from his thoughts.

Tonight he did not need to think long or hard about what he wished to see. There was only one he wanted to watch and that was Calanthe. In seconds her image coalesced before him and every beat of his heart was a yearning to get closer.

One more day, one more day and he could go to her.

“Calanthe,” he whispered to the image forming before him. He didn’t know what else to say, or if there was even anything else to say… just saying her name felt too big.

Emotions warred within him. His body hummed, the blood sang in his veins, raged through his ears and though he couldn’t smell her now as he had when he’d been that flower, he could vividly remember the wash of her roses, the silken glide of her fingers.

All throughout the night he studied her, learning her, and falling very, very deeply in love…

~*~

Calanthe tiptoed out of her cottage and headed straight for the head mistresses’ home. Swallowing hard, ignoring the revelry all around her she had a mission, and that was to grow another moon flower.

Her obsession had only grown as the day continued. This was foolish, asinine, and all sorts of ridiculous, she understood that. Stealing once from Galeta might be overlooked, stealing twice… she shivered.

No, she bit down on the inside of her cheek, it was downright wicked.

But she had to do it. She couldn’t explain it. From the moment the flower had bloomed for her, it was like a part of her soul had entwined with it. Her heart ached. Literally hurt in her chest, each beat was a throb that bled anew with the thought of never seeing that flower again.

And yes the flower was pretty, and rare, but it was more than that. She didn’t know why, or how, she simply knew that it was.

Shadows crawled menacingly up the sides of Galeta’s enormous mushroom cap cottage. The blue mushroom head gleamed in varying shades. From an electric neon, to a dusky hued navy and everything in between.

A plume of smoke curled from the chimney. But that didn’t mean the head mistress was home yet, she was still in eastern Kingdom, dealing with an improper use of fairy magic infraction. Which was rather ironic considering what Calanthe was in the process of doing.