Read The White Rose Page 17


  “Don’t say that to me,” I say. “Ever.”

  “All right,” Sil says slowly. “But you need to calm down.”

  I can’t calm down. The heat inside me is searing and the more it burns, the higher the flames leap, until the kettle is engulfed in them. I jump up and back away.

  “What’s happening?” I say. A potted plant on the windowsill bursts from its ceramic home, its roots crawling across the kitchen floor, its leaves swelling up to twice their normal size. The plant is a worm in the pit of my stomach, growing stronger as the roots slither toward me. I shriek and water explodes out of the faucet in the sink—the fire inside me quenched—but I feel like my skin has melted, slipping around on my bones like it might slide off into a puddle on the floor.

  “Out of the house,” Sil commands. “Now!”

  I fly through the back door, the roots veering in their course to follow me. I slam the door on them and collapse on the wooden steps of the porch, holding my head in my hands and gasping for breath. I don’t want to touch anything. I’m afraid to look up. I feel like I’m falling down the incinerator shaft again, as if my insides were all mixed up and my stomach had lodged itself in my throat. I grip my neck in my hands, reminding myself that everything is as it should be, skin and bone and muscle. I am whole.

  It may be only a minute but it feels like much longer before Sil comes out to join me. She gives me a pat on the back, which hurts more than comforts.

  “Don’t worry,” Sil says. “It’s not the first time I’ve had a plant explode or a fire in this house. Not by a mile.”

  “I can’t . . . I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

  “Oh, that’s plain as day.”

  “Maybe you should leave me alone. I don’t want to hurt you.” I don’t know what this new power is, but I feel like it’s dangerous. Like I’m dangerous.

  Sil chuckles. “You don’t scare me. I know exactly what you’re going through, and I’ve been doing it longer, and if you want to learn how to live without going insane, you are going to have to listen to me.”

  She shoves a mug of tea into my hands. The steam caresses my face as I grip the mug. It’s nice to have something normal to hold on to.

  “How did I do it?” I ask. “How did I save her?”

  Now Sil laughs a full-throated belly laugh, slapping her hand against her thigh.

  “How should I know?” she says. “What, you think we’re all the same? Is every tree in the forest out there the same? Every drop of water in the pond? Of course not. Nature made us all different. But you . . .” She whistles through her teeth. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re some sort of healer. Maybe it was a fluke. Or maybe you just love that damned girl so much.”

  I sip my tea. It’s chrysanthemum, the kind my mother always made.

  “What happened in the room?” I ask. “What did you see?”

  “A windstorm,” Sil says. “Like I said, it isn’t the first time things have been broken around here. Four elements, remember. Air. Earth. Water. Fire.”

  I think about the flames leaping up from the kettle, how I felt them inside me, like I was on fire. I shudder.

  “I didn’t feel like me,” I say. “It was like . . .”

  “You give up part of yourself,” she says quietly. “You embody the element. It takes some getting used to.”

  “So what do I do now?” I ask.

  Sil stands. “Come with me.”

  I put down my mug and follow her across the field. Stars dot the night sky. The air is cold on my skin, but it doesn’t penetrate the way it did when I was tied to the birch tree. It’s like the fire is still smoldering inside me.

  Sil stops at the edge of the pond and looks up. The stars twinkle. The moon’s light reflects on the pond’s surface. I am so aware of the water, its quiet smoothness. I want to touch it.

  “You have the power to connect with every blade of grass in this field, every drop of water, every branch on every tree. They will react to you. But, remember, you do not have power over this force. You are only ever its equal. You must be worthy of that. You give yourself to an element, as it gives itself to you.”

  I bend down and place my palm on the pond’s surface.

  “You become the water,” Sil says.

  Instantly, I sense a connection, like my fingers are fluid, malleable, as if they had become the very water beneath them. The feeling travels up through my arm and into my chest, melting me, molding me—it’s scary and exhilarating at the same time. Waves ripple out from under my palm and I feel myself rippling, too. The wind stirs my hair and tickles the back of my neck. Everything is so peaceful, still, and yet so full of life. A quiet, thrumming power. I am awed by it. It is so much more than any Augury.

  “Look down,” Sil says.

  I pull away from the pond’s surface and my hand feels solid again. I stand and gaze, awestruck, as a tiny patch of white flowers blossom around my feet. But even as I watch, the petals wave at me, opening and closing, and then brown at the edges. In a few seconds, they have all withered and died, leaving behind no trace of their existence.

  “Azalea’s were blue her first time,” Sil says, staring at the spot where my flowers used to be. “Mine were the darkest red I’d ever seen. Like blood.”

  “Does that . . . what was that?” My voice is so quiet. I don’t want to disrupt whatever just happened.

  She claps a hand on my shoulder. The gesture is jarring in this moment, even though her grasp isn’t that hard.

  “That’s life,” she says.

  Then she walks back to the house, leaving me alone. I sit down and press my hand against the grass. Each individual blade feels different to me. Another little white flower sprouts between my fingers, curling and twisting, reaching up toward me, before it inevitably wilts.

  Beautiful, I think. It feels like a sigh, a half-formed, yearning thought. Suddenly, hundreds of white flowers blossom around my hand, wrapping their stems around my knuckles and wrist, their cheery white faces fluttering in the light breeze.

  I sit there for a long time, listening to the stars and the pond and the grass and the wind. I have never felt so connected to the world around me. Like I am a very small part of something so large it can’t be comprehended. It makes me feel insignificant and unique at the same time.

  It’s odd, but I somehow feel safer out here than I did in the house. In the wide-open space, with water and air and earth free and uncontained, I am calm.

  I think of the dirty streets of the Marsh and the filthy air in the Smoke. I remember what Sil said, how the royalty cut up this island and stitched it back together. I see the royalty as a giant spider, ensnaring everything in its web, engorging itself until its body becomes swollen, and still it’s not enough. They will never have enough and it’s time for them to be stopped.

  For the first time since this whole thing began, I start to feel like it is possible. Like I might be able to help the way Lucien wants. I feel so connected to it all, so filled with the power of the elements—maybe I can make a hole in their walls, break down the barriers, help unite the circles. I stretch my hand out across the grass and it swells up, growing to reach my fingers. I feel like I am growing, too. The blades tickle my skin.

  “Violet?”

  I whip around. Ash is walking toward me. The wind picks up.

  “I wanted to make sure you’re all right,” he says. He stops and looks down. “Whoa.”

  A trail of white flowers light up the ground. They swarm around his feet, growing over his shoes.

  “Is that you?”

  I nod.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s life,” I murmur. The flowers wither around him. “How is Raven?”

  “Still sleeping.” Ash sits beside me. “What you did back there . . . it was incredible. A little terrifying, but incredible.”

  “I think I might be able to help,” I say. “I might be able to do what Lucien wants. I think . . . I think I could break down rock
and stone. I think I could make this whole pond turn into a tidal wave if I wanted, or coax the wind into a tornado. So maybe I can carve out holes in the walls that separate this city.”

  Ash smiles my favorite smile and slips his hand in mine. “Well, if whatever went on in that room is any indication, I’d say you can. I think you can do anything you put your mind to.”

  “What happened?” I ask. “What did it look like, to you?”

  “You went very still,” Ash says. “I called your name, and Lucien did, too, but your face . . . it was like you weren’t there anymore. Your eyes were closed and you were so still. And then this wind started, slow at first, but soon it was throwing things around the room. I thought it was going to break the windows. Sil shouted at us not to touch you. You weren’t affected by it at all, like you couldn’t feel it or hear us. But your expression . . . you were so calm and yet . . . strong. That’s the only way I can describe it.” He hesitates. “What was it like for you?”

  I’m frightened by the idea that I caused something so violent without being aware of it. And I don’t want to share the cliff with Ash, not yet. It feels too private. But I want to give him some kind of answer.

  “I saw the ocean,” I whisper.

  There is a heavy pause. I can sense his disbelief. I keep my eyes trained on the pond.

  “What was it like?” he finally asks.

  “Endless,” I say.

  We sit in silence for a minute. Though it isn’t really silence. I can hear the grass growing and the water rippling and the air breathing.

  “Do you think,” Ash says hesitantly, “that what you did for Raven . . . could you do that for someone else?”

  We both know who he’s talking about.

  “I don’t think it works like that,” I say.

  I don’t mention the fact that we couldn’t get to Cinder now, even if we wanted to.

  “No,” Ash says. “I suppose not.”

  The wind blows a lock of hair into his eyes. He shakes it away.

  “I wish there was more I could do,” he says. “I wish I was more useful. Four years in a companion house and all I’ve learned is how to seduce women. There isn’t much value in that.”

  “You have plenty of value,” I say.

  “Do I? All my life I’ve only been worth what someone was willing to pay for me.”

  “I never paid for you,” I say. “And you are beyond priceless to me.”

  Ash cups my neck with his hand and pull in me for a kiss. His lips feel magnificent—soft and warm and full of life. I could devour him. I want to feel his skin on my skin again. I want to feel all of him in this new body, with these new senses. He pulls back, as another wave of white flowers swells up around us and dies.

  “You’re not bleeding,” he says, running his finger down the length of my nose. “Not like you did at the incinerator.”

  I rub the base of my skull. “No,” I say. “And the headaches are gone, too. This is what I’m supposed to do. It’s the four elements, Sil says—I’m connected to them, somehow. I’m not controlling them, or forcing them, or twisting them to something else.” I think about the fiery kettle. “They scare me, though. There’s so much power in them. And we never knew. I don’t even think the royalty knows.” I sigh. “I should probably go back inside. I want to be with Raven.”

  Ash tightens his grip on my hand. “Sil is cooking,” he says. “She suggested that you stay out here for that. Actually, she suggested that you stay out here all night. Apparently, you can do a fair bit of damage in your sleep. Or, I guess Azalea did.”

  “Oh.”

  “Raven will be fine,” he says. “Garnet and Lucien are with her.”

  “Right.”

  “Violet,” he says, his fingers brushing my cheek. “I’m staying out here with you.”

  “Oh no, Ash, you don’t have to . . . I mean . . . you probably shouldn’t. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “I know you’re alone in this thing, that I can’t possibly understand what you’re going through. But I can be here with you. For you. That, at least, I am capable of. So here I am.” He shoots me a sidelong glance. “Please don’t set me on fire in the middle of the night.”

  “That’s not funny,” I say.

  Ash rolls his eyes. “Sil told me you can’t create anything, only affect what’s already there. So unless you’re planning on sleeping with some matches and a can of kerosene, I think I’m safe.” He kisses my temple. “I’ll go get some blankets and pillows.”

  I grab his arm and hold him back. “No,” I say. “Stay here with me for a while longer.”

  Ash inclines his head and settles back by my side. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me against his chest. I breathe him in and feel his heartbeat, strong and steady under my cheek, his life and my life and the life of everything around us intertwined in this moment.

  We sit like that in the quiet of the night, as white flowers bloom and fade around us.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  Nineteen

  I WAKE AT DAWN TO FIND SIL STANDING OVER ME.

  She’s wearing her signature overalls and a thick woolen scarf. Clutched in her hands is a thin leather portfolio, sheets of yellowing paper sticking out around its edges.

  She puts her finger to her lips and jerks her head toward the trees.

  Ash is sleeping peacefully beside me. I untangle myself from his arms and the blankets as gently as I can—he sighs and rolls onto his back, but doesn’t wake. We slept in the shadow of the barn, so the trees are close by. Sil wanders through the edge of the forest, always keeping the White Rose in sight, until we are a good distance from Ash. On the far side of the clearing, gray light is kissing the treetops, hints of orange and gold peeking out through their branches.

  “I didn’t want to burden you with this last night,” Sil says, holding up the portfolio. “I know you had a lot to take in.”

  I nod. The air is chilly and I miss the warmth of Ash’s body. But at the same time, I can feel the whole world waking up.

  Sil stops at a huge sycamore. She groans as she lowers herself onto the ground, resting her back against its wide trunk.

  “Sit,” she says, patting the grass beside her.

  As I do, I become very aware of the earth beneath me, its rich, heavy texture, the roots that live and grow inside it. Somewhere deep below, I think I sense the rush of water. An underground river, maybe?

  “You feel it all, don’t you?” Sil says.

  “There’s so much,” I say. “How are you not . . . how can you . . . live normally?”

  She barks out a laugh. “I don’t.”

  The sun begins to rise, painting the sky with streaks of pink. Sil puts the portfolio between us.

  “You need to learn your history,” she says. “When this power came to me, I had no understanding of it. I was terrified. And I was alone. For years I wondered where it all came from, this magic that got twisted into the Auguries. Was it some failed royal experiment? Then Azalea came, and Lucien, and he had access to the oldest library in the entire city.”

  “The Duchess’s library,” I say. I remember the Duchess bragging at dinner one night about how her ancestors built the Great Wall, how it was her duty to preserve the literature of their time.

  Sil nods. “Lucien has been smuggling anything he could find out of that library for me. Piece by piece, I’ve put this puzzle together. Or at least, I’ve done the best I could. The only ones who could truly explain it are long dead.”

  She opens the portfolio. I pick it up with trembling hands—the pages are very old and I’m afraid that if I touch them they’ll crumble to dust. The first page looks to be a map. It’s the island, but without the city—there are markers on it that I’ve never seen. Several red Xs line the coastline. Other areas within the island are circled, with scribbled notes that I can barely make out. “To
paz deposit,” one says. “Rich soil,” another circle is marked.

  I flip to another page. This one is filled with thin, slanted writing. It looks like a list of names, but they are strange and unfamiliar.

  Pantha Seagrass

  Jucinde Soare

  There are twenty names in all. I would guess they are all women—the names feel distinctly female to me. And at the bottom of the page is a note that sets a chill creeping through my chest.

  Execution date, March 5, in the year of the Founding.

  The year of the Founding. The year the Lone City was formed.

  I turn to the next page. It’s filled with very crude illustrations—one shows a woman holding what appears to be a handful of flames. Another shows a young girl, her arms outstretched, a massive blue wave cresting over her head.

  Other pages are too smudged to read, with only a few words and phrases written clearly.

  . . . to stomp out the source at its heart . . .

  . . . ours to command . . .

  . . . mercy . . . of death . . .

  . . . riches . . .

  . . . promised . . .

  But it’s a page near the end that holds my attention. Probably because it is the oldest and yet the best preserved. I have a feeling that when Lucien recovered it for Sil, she took great pains to take care of it. It is almost entirely legible. There is a date at the top that I don’t recognize . . . was this document written before the Founding?

  I start to read, and the first sentence makes my stomach swoop, like I’ve missed a step going down stairs.

  The island was called Excelsior, the Jewel of the Earth.

  I look up. Sil is watching me with a steady gaze, her silver eyes sparkling in the early-morning light.

  “Yes,” she says. “This island had a name once. And it was not the Lone City.” She nods at the page. “Keep reading.”

  Legend spoke of its riches—thick black dirt where any crop could grow, lush green trees that sang when the ocean breezes tickled their leaves, wild animals of all kinds, striped cats and brilliantly plumed birds and scaly lizards. But most of all, caverns upon caverns of precious gems. Diamond, topaz, garnet, ruby, emerald, sapphire. All these and more.