Aunt Bea is watching me closely. “It’s a third of the Stone of Carrefour. When the town was founded, Eléonore and the other two queens channeled a huge amount of magical energy into a piece of obsidian And when they cast the protective charm, the stone itself was so laden with power that it split into three. The reigning zandara queens in Carrefour each have one, passed down to them on their seventeenth birthdays.
“Only a zandara queen can harness its strength,” she continues. “Once you put it on, it will hang from your neck until you die, or until you pass it on to your own daughter on her seventeenth birthday. If someone tries to take it from you, the magic within the stone burns them. And as long as you’re wearing it, it’s all you’ll need for minor charms.”
“You’ve lost me,” I say, confused.
“As long as you’re touching the stone with your left ring finger,” Aunt Bea explains solemnly, “you can channel any herb or flower, without actually having it in your grasp. The queens designed it that way so that they didn’t always need access to their gardens. Actually holding the plants in your hand always makes a charm stronger, but the stone is sort of like a backup plan.”
I touch the stone, and it throbs with possibility and foreboding.
“If you channel a specific herb while you’re using it, somewhere in the world, one of those herbs dies,” Aunt Bea continues “Zandara always requires balance, which means power always comes from somewhere.
“Now,” she adds, looking up at me, “about your mother’s letter—”
“It sounded like she knew what might happen with Main de Lumière,” I cut in, “and like she thought I should do all I could to learn about zandara.”
“But that’s an easy thing to say in the abstract, Eveny. You were just a baby when she wrote this. She never had the chance to know you as a young woman, and she didn’t have a chance to see you blossom outside of this town. She assumed that your choices were already made for you, like hers were for her.”
“But my choices are made, aren’t they?” I ask. “If I walk away, the town will get weaker, until Main de Lumière figures out a way to destroy us.”
“On the other hand, perhaps if zandara wilts here, we’ll fall off Main de Lumière’s radar,” Aunt Bea says. “Maybe losing its magic is the one thing that will allow Carrefour and zandara to survive.”
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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17
That evening, I wander out to the garden, the place I feel closest to my mom.
I have no doubt that Bea has my best interests at heart, but in the last fourteen years she has watched her sister take her own life, assumed custody of a child she never expected to raise, and left behind everything she ever knew. All because of zandara. It’s no wonder that her feelings about magic would be less than glowing.
But if my mom wrote me a letter telling me that the only way through the storm is to stay strong and tap into everything inside of me, there must be a reason. Suddenly, it occurs to me that there might be a way to ask her directly.
My heart thudding, I stand up and put my left ring finger on my Stone of Carrefour like Aunt Bea told me to do. “Come to us now, Eloi Oke, and open the gate,” I say uncertainly. “Come to us now, Eloi Oke, and open the gate. Come to us now, Eloi Oke, and open the gate.”
There’s an almost imperceptible shift in the air, and a small gust of wind picks up around me, swirling like a miniature cyclone. I take a deep breath and realize I don’t know what to do next.
“Eveny?” A concerned voice from behind me startles me, and I release the Stone of Carrefour and whirl around. In an instant, the air pressure regulates and the air stops spinning.
It’s Boniface, and he’s holding pruning shears and staring at me worriedly.
“Oh, hey,” I say casually, trying to act normal.
“Sweetheart, what were you doing?”
“I was trying to talk to my mom.” I feel suddenly silly and childish.
His expression is sad as he shakes his head. “I’m afraid you can’t. Her spirit has moved on. Zandara queens can only communicate with spirits in the nether.”
“Oh,” I say.
Boniface puts his shears down and pulls me into a hug. “What brought all of this on?”
“Aunt Bea gave me a letter from my mom, I was just trying to find some answers.”
I sit down on the edge of one of the big rose planters, and Boniface settles beside me. After a moment he says, “This is all very new to you, isn’t it?” When I nod, he adds, “And very unsettling.”