The Poison Season(20)

Leelo shot Sage a look. Hollis Harding was the boy Leelo had once had a crush on. She’d liked him for months, until one day he made fun of Tate for not having magic. After that, she’d considered him an enemy, and she hated it when her Watcher duty overlapped with Hollis’s. “Why?” she asked.

“Because their daughter is also leaving.” Ketty shooed Sage away from the pie. “Now wash up. We’re expected in an hour.”

Sage went upstairs with Leelo following. “Why didn’t you tell me we were going to the Hardings’?” she asked when they reached their room.

“I forgot. What difference does it make? At least it’s something to do.”

Leelo couldn’t ignore the sting of Sage’s words. “Something to do? We’re about to send Tate away. I have plenty of other things I’d rather be doing.” She changed out of her tunic and leggings and grabbed the first pieces of clothing she found in the wardrobe, a black skirt embroidered with red flowers and a white blouse. “I didn’t realize Hollis’s sister was incantu.”

Why would he make fun of Tate if his own sister lacked magic? Unless that was the reason. Sometimes sadness made people lash out at the very people who could understand their hurt the most.

To Leelo’s surprise, her mother was dressed and waiting when Leelo and Sage came downstairs. She was pale from the effort of standing, but she was there, clearly trying for Tate’s sake.

Leelo looped her arm through her mother’s, and all of them, including Tate, left the house together. Leelo told herself to be grateful for this time and not to dwell on the future. Ketty had given Tate the pie to carry, a generous gesture from their aunt, who usually never entrusted her baked goods to others.

Sage was on the other side of Fiona, helping to steady her, wearing her dress from the spring festival. It was a bit special for a dinner at the neighbors’, but she looked very pretty in it.

“Oh!” she said in realization.

“What is it?” Fiona asked with an amused smile. “Did something bite you?”

“It’s nothing,” Leelo replied, scrambling for an explanation. “I just remembered something I want to pack for Tate.”

She looked at her cousin again, who was using her free hand to smooth her hair. Was it possible this was what had prompted Sage to say she never wanted to fall in love? Could she have feelings for Hollis Harding? Sage’s expression was as serious as always, but Leelo had never known her to dress up for dinner at a neighbor’s house.

The Hardings’ cottage was in a different sector of the island, about an hour’s walk from their home. Some families kept wooden carts and ponies to travel from one end of the island to another, a two-hour journey by foot. As much as Leelo liked walking, she hoped Mr. Harding would offer them a ride home. Fiona was making an effort to appear comfortable, but it was just that: an effort. Her breathing was labored and her face was pale except for two bright circles of color high in her cheeks. Aunt Ketty strode ahead at her usual brisk pace, oblivious to her sister’s struggle.

“We can rest, Mama,” Leelo said, but Fiona shook her head, as Leelo had known she would.

“I’m fine, dear. I suppose this is what comes from spending so much time in bed.” She managed a smile, and Leelo returned it, because she knew that was what her mother wanted.

“If you would sing more, you wouldn’t be so weak,” Ketty said over her shoulder. “There are consequences to missing so many rituals.”

Fortunately, they reached the house not much later, and Leelo made sure Fiona was comfortably seated before she left the adults to find the other children in the yard.

Mrs. Harding had a wonderfully green thumb, and her garden was a riot of colorful flowers and the loud buzzing of various pollinators. She traded her flowers with the islanders, some dried for teas and tinctures, others fresh simply because they were beautiful. Sage and Hollis were sitting on a bench underneath an arch dripping with wisteria, while Tate and Hollis’s little sister, Violet, played with a litter of kittens near a hydrangea bush.

Leelo managed a tight smile as she approached Sage and Hollis. She didn’t know if he remembered her crush, but she couldn’t look at him now without thinking about how humiliated she’d been when Tate confessed that he’d revealed her secret. Needless to say, Hollis had not returned her feelings, calling her pale and scrawny.

Since then, he’d grown into a hulking brute of a boy, with golden curls Leelo had once been so desperate to touch that she found any excuse to be near him. One day, a leaf had fallen in his hair, and she’d been elated at the prospect of removing it for him. She chuckled to herself at the memory, finding it hard to believe she’d ever acted that foolish over a boy.

“What’s so funny?” Sage asked. Her hands were fisted in her skirt, and when she saw Leelo looking at them, she quickly released the fabric and attempted to smooth it out.

“Nothing,” Leelo said, taking a seat on the grass. It was still late afternoon, and the ground felt warm and alive beneath her. “How are you, Hollis?”

He shrugged. “All right. I’m getting tired of Watcher duty. Kris can’t seem to stop talking.”

“I’m sorry about your sister.” Leelo ran her fingers through the grass, only vaguely aware of the earth vibrating beneath her touch. “I didn’t realize she was leaving until today.”