Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,96

of the Botanic Gardens’ most famous acquisitions.

Chapter 38

In August of 2015, the Denver Botanic Gardens made national news when a rare flower called Amorphophallus titanum bloomed for the first time. The name literally means “giant misshapen phallus,” but as fun as that name is, the plant’s nickname is even better: the corpse flower.

It takes fifteen years for one of these giants to bloom for the first time, and when it does, it emits a terrible odor that famously smells like dead bodies. The petals are also a dark purple, sort of like rotting body parts. The corpse flower evolved this way to attract carrion bugs, which pollinate it, but their rarity and the long gestation period make them something of a tourist attraction at gardens around the world.

As soon as I read the name, I remembered the news stories about the Denver corpse flower, which the Botanic Gardens had rather unimaginatively named “Stinky.” It drew huge crowds to the Gardens, and several of my family members went to visit it, but I passed on their invitations. Even back then, I’d smelled enough corpses to last a lifetime.

Stinky was housed inside the greenhouse complex, which was a straight shot along the cobblestone path where I was standing.

In just a few minutes, I was close enough to see the nearest door to the greenhouse building—and it was standing wide open, allowing weak light to spill through. My heart thudded with adrenaline, and I was so focused on moving quickly and avoiding the remnants that I didn’t see the long object lying across the cobblestones in front of me. I tripped, sprawling forward as the cell phone flew out of my hand and skittered away into the darkness.

I cursed under my breath, rubbing at my skinned palms. I wasn’t usually that clumsy. Rising to all fours, I turned around and squinted down to see what I’d stumbled over. There was just enough light coming from the solar lanterns for me to make out a black jacket, black pants, and a badge hanging on a belt. I gasped and fell back onto my ass. It was the security guard.

After I got over the initial shock, I quickly reached forward to check the carotid pulse at the man’s neck, hoping someone had just knocked him unconscious. Nothing. I held my hand in front of his nose, checking for a breath. But he was dead and, as far as I could tell from the little solar-powered lights, without a mark on him.

Fear turned my stomach into fluttery acid. I’d hoped that the draugr would wait to kill again until he learned whether or not Emil had succeeded in taking me. There was no way to know if he’d decided to “feed” out of boredom, or if he’d figured out that Emil was dead and I was still loose. I stood up on slightly shaky legs, trying to make a decision: keep going or go back and wait for help? But if I called Simon and Lily, Quinn would insist on coming too, and then the draugr could press him into doing anything.

The decision ended up being moot, anyway. Despite my efforts, finding the cell phone in the dark proved impossible. I had no idea where it had slid off the path, and it was one little object in an enormous cluster of plant life. I swore under my breath. So much for my plan to call Lysander when I got close.

Then I smelled it.

The stench wafting along the cool night breeze was almost comically bad. It did smell like a dead body, but also like Charlie’s poopy diapers from when Sam had been breastfeeding, and a little bit like rotten eggs. In fact, if those three scents got together and had an olfactory baby from hell, that would be the smell of the corpse flower. What else could it be?

But the corpse flower supposedly only smelled when it was blooming, and as far as I knew, that wouldn’t happen again for at least a few years . . . unless there was someone with power over life and death in there, manipulating it. I holstered the revolver and lifted the shotgun, stepping forward with my eyes trained on the open greenhouse door.

I crept through the open doorway into a short corridor with a cluster of drifting remnants. There was another open doorway just a few feet down the hall. He had turned on a bright light inside that room, and that’s where the smell was originating.