A Little Green Magic (The Little Coven #1) - Isabel Wroth Page 0,58

the sun. “I'm surprised, though, that he let you out of his sight.”

“He's busy with Abel and the lions, patrolling the woods and knew I'd be safe here. I needed to come home for a while and work in the garden.”

Rowena made an agreeable noise, plucking out a few more weeds. “Ivy, this is and always will be your home, and we are your coven, but you have to know it’s okay to move forward. I love the way Uriah loves you. I want him for you. I want you to be so happy you can't stand it.”

Ivy hadn't realized how much she needed Rowena to give her blessing until that moment. She tossed down her handful of weeds and turned to hug her best friend. “I am happy; he's everything I could have wanted and more. With this threat of someone coming for me, I'm scared I'm going to lose all of you.”

Rowena hugged her back tight enough to make Ivy's bones ache, but she couldn't bear to let go. “I won't lie and say I'm not worried, but Astrid hasn't found a single portent to say we're doomed to die. There will be struggle, a fight, but we're strong together.”

Ivy nodded, using Rowena's hair as a shield to peer into the shadows beneath the porch, not daring to speak above a whisper. She couldn't see either of the Brownies, and it felt like a betrayal to speak ill of them, but Rowena, the coven, they were her family.

“There was a flower left for me this morning, one I didn't grow at the edge of the forest. There was a message inside, and I don't know whether to believe it or not.”

“What message?” Rowena whispered back.

“Don't trust the little ones.”

Rowena nodded and leaned back, her expression as serious as Ivy had ever seen. “I wondered about that myself. When I made the agreement, I asked a lawyer to consult with me. I was worried about making a mistake when the devil is in the details. Everything seems in order, but I'm going to call him again and inquire about what sort of confidentiality clause I used.”

Ivy nodded, yanking out the last weed from the bed of healing herbs. The mint and rosemary were on the brink of anarchy, the echinacea flowers in beautiful bloom, the St. John's Wort bush so big it cast shade. She had some harvesting to do.

“I don't mean to push, especially with what happened this morning, but have you gotten to the end of your mom's journal yet?” Rowena asked her question gently, but it still made Ivy flinch, deep inside where she barely held it together.

“No. I'm struggling to deal with all the new revelations. I will,” she promised quickly, not wanting Rowena to think Ivy's personal problems were more important to her than the coven. “I won't let you down. I just needed a break. There are orders to fill, and I can't get behind. Astrid's doing so well with mixing herbs for tea; I'm going to put in a tea garden.”

Rowena gave a soft sigh, leaning back on her hand, waving the stalk of mint now bare of leaves in Ivy's direction. “I'm not worried about the orders, Ivy, or a tea garden. Although that sounds amazing. You're my best friend, and I'm worried for you.”

“It's amazing here, this life we've built because you decided to make us a coven. How ironic is it that I'm not really a witch?” In response to Ivy's morose grumble, Rowena burst out laughing. Ivy looked sideways at her coven leader, hurt by her laughter.

“Do you remember the day we first met?” Rowena asked, peering at her over the tops of her ridiculously large glasses.

Ivy sat back on her heels, twirling the stem of dark orange echinacea flower in her fingers. “Of course.”

“You'd already been at Haggara for a year when I arrived, fresh out of the hospital, alone. Le Doux was waiting on the front steps, looking down that beak of a nose at me. The way she introduced us.”

Rowena's voice dropped to a croaking rasp, imitating the Headmistress. “'Miss Little, this is Miss Greene. The two of you have much in common, both of you without a family at all to speak of. I expect you'll get along famously.'”

Rowena snorted, snatching up a rock from the garden bed to throw out into the yard. “It was such a horrible thing to say. I couldn't keep myself from crying, and you came down the stairs