Garden of Thorns and Light by Shylah Addante

Author:Shylah Addante [Addante, Shylah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult, fantasy, creatures, fairies
ISBN: 9781951710439
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Published: 2020-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

The next few days are some of the happiest of my life. Ben and I spend our days and most evenings together in the Gardens. By the end of our second day, we’ve culled the worst of the weeds in the entryway, and by the end of the fourth, we’ve successfully located and neutralized a large wasp nest Ben discovered hidden in the depths of one of the hedges.

But it’s not all work.

Our many breaks for water or lunch—or because Ben finds a den of baby bunnies in one of the beds he’s clearing out—are full of easy conversation where we trade information on the music we like and places we would visit if we had the money. There’s even one very heated debate over the merits of the Star Wars prequels, which only ends when Ben concedes my point that Padmé Amidala was totally worth suffering through Jar Jar Binks for as long as I agree that the explanation of midichlorians was an abomination that robbed the universe of some of its overall mystique.

And even though the fifth night in a row passes without one of Absynth’s messenger lights floating in through my bedroom window, my disappointment disappears as soon as I hear the rumble of the Camry in the driveway the next morning.

Our victory over the wasps means that we can finally get started on the hedges, which are so overgrown that many of the interior walkways are impassible. By “we,” of course, I mean Ben. He says it’s because there is only one stepladder and also because he has decided to limit my access to sharp tools, though I wonder if it’s because of my legitimate if slightly overenthusiastic defense of Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber.

So while he stands precariously balanced on top of a rickety ladder, hacking away at a bush with twelve-inch death scissors, I’m standing below, picking up the clippings as they fall.

“Hey!” Ben calls down. “Does this look level to you?”

I don’t even bother to look up from the pile of branches I’m collecting. “It looks about the same as it did when you asked me about it five minutes ago.”

“Thanks, Amethyst. Real helpful,” Ben says. I don’t need to see his face to know he’s rolling his eyes, but I glance up anyway so that he can see me smiling at his annoyance. He sighs, and then his face shifts, jaw tightening and eyes squinting down at my upturned face.

“What do you have on your face there?” he asks, gesturing too vaguely for me to know what he’s referring to.

“What? Where?” I ask, panic gripping me as I try to remember the last time I checked my thorns. My hand shoots up to my forehead, frantically feeling for any errant plant life.

“Relax there, Freckles,” Ben says, and realizing his meaning, I do.

“Oh, these,” I say, running my fingers over the bridge of my nose as Ben turns back to his hedge. “Yeah, they’re a new development.” Before I can continue, I’m forced to step away from the ladder as Ben works his clippers through a thick branch.

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