Thirteen-year-old Leona Everly lives in a house that whispers of the past. Within its Victorian walls, the echoes of generations intertwine with the scent of lavender and the faint melody of her grandmother Elara’s humming. But it’s the garden, a sprawling wilderness at the back of the house, that truly captivates Leona. This summer, the garden holds a secret, a pulse of magic beneath rustling leaves and tangled vines.
It begins with the lanterns. Thirteen antique glass lanterns, hidden amongst the ivy, ignite with an ethereal glow after sunset, each containing a miniature replica of the garden in a different season. One holds the pastel hues of spring, a miniature rainstorm forever suspended within its glass. Another captures the fiery dance of autumn leaves. Drawn to their light, Leona discovers these lanterns offer not just a glimpse of the changing seasons, but fragments of her family’s hidden history.
She witnesses her long-lost grandfather, Silas, laughing in a field of sunflowers, his image shimmering like a half-remembered dream. She sees a younger Elara whispering to a shadowy figure beneath an ancient oak – the Green Man, the garden’s enigmatic guardian, a being of myth and whispered stories.
Night after night, Leona returns, drawn deeper into the garden’s mysteries. She learns of Silas’s fascination with folklore and the garden’s unusual properties, of whispered pacts and desperate bargains struck beneath the watchful eyes of the willows. But the garden isn’t just revealing the past; it’s changing it. Roses bloom in winter, frost kisses the grass in July, and Leona’s own memories begin to blur, morphing with the scenes within the lanterns.
A hidden journal, filled with Silas’s cryptic notes, reveals a dangerous obsession – a plan to harness the garden’s power, a plan that led to his disappearance. As the garden flows backward in time, Elara’s memories fade, her identity unraveling, and Leona realizes the terrifying truth: the thirteen lanterns aren’t just showing the past; they’re rewriting it.
Armed with her grandfather’s journal and guided by the garden’s magical creatures – a wise old owl and a mischievous sprite – Leona embarks on a perilous quest to find the heart of the garden and break the Green Man’s hold on time. Her journey takes her through a kaleidoscope of shifting seasons, a perilous dance
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