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TWENTY-FIVE.2

Kayden had decided to go herb-picking for two reasons. The first was that scrying had been quite boring; staring at a bowl of water for over two hours had yielded nothing but a desire to drown the advisers who thought they could see something that clearly wasn't there. The second reason was to ditch Vincent. Constantly batting his arm away from her waist was extremely annoying. She also found it tedious to carry on a conversation with a soulless being who had once tried to kidnap her.

But Kayden had no desire to speak to Blaze either. She had tried to finagle herself into a different car, but Walter had gone out of his way to ensure they all were in his car together. And so that was how Kayden found herself wedged in the backseat of an eco-friendly clown car, squished between the window and Blaze, trying to minimize skin contact as much as possible.

She knew it was stupid to be mad at him. All he had done was try to make the best of a bad situation. The fact was, she wasn't particularly upset; she was tired. The day had been much too exhausting for her liking, and as much as she wanted to help out the Congregation, there was an equally large part of her that just wanted to curl up into a ball and fall asleep.

Once I get more sleep, I'll apologize, she thought, but she knew she was just making feeble excuses for herself. In all actuality, she found it easier to be slightly annoyed with Blaze at all times. That way she could ignore any feelings she had for him. She shut her eyes and pretended that she couldn't feel his arm brushing her bare shoulder and the gentle thrum of magic flowing through his skin.

When we kissed, there were sparks, came Lexi's voice floating through her head.

Shut up, Lexi, Kayden thought tiredly, thinking of her cousin asleep in bed, dreaming about who-knows-what. Keep living in your little fantasy world.

And not for the first time, Kayden found herself envying her cousin, though she couldn't pinpoint exactly what she was envious of.

They reached the farm in record time; a car, it appeared, could travel much faster than a school bus. The man who owned the farm split them up into groups of two to cover the list of ingredients, and Kayden was not at all surprised when she was paired with Blaze and sent off to the distant mint field.

Blaze carried their shared basket while Kayden shone a flashlight on the rows of cabbages and the lines of small trees bearing fruit. It was easy not to talk; Kayden spent most of the time watching her footing, trying not to trip in the darkness. She didn't want to look like a complete idiot in front of Blaze. Not that it matters, she reminded herself.

"Did we go too far?" Blaze asked after a few minutes of walking. Kayden turned towards him and accidentally shone the flashlight in his face. She smiled when his eyes slammed shut in pain.

But he had asked a logical question. She directed the beam towards the little white signs that marked the specific fields. "Carrots... juniper... Illicium ani—God, I can't even read that one."

"Oh, never mind," he said, pointing at a field just beyond the juniper patch. "It's over here."

They walked for another minute in silence before Blaze set down the basket besides a group of low-growing green plants. Kayden turned to see where everyone else was located, but the only person she could see was Walter; she caught a glimpse of his white hair in a field not too far away, but he was already hard at work picking leaves off of the trees around him. The other advisers could have been invisible for the most part; she couldn't see them at all.

"Shine some light over here?" Blaze asked. He didn't look at her as he spoke; he seemed to have gotten the hint. "I want to make sure I'm not picking weeds. I'd hate to ruin the potion component the second time around."