Empire Island, Exile the First

Chapter 11

I was miserable when I woke in the morning. Miserable because of my missing sister, and miserable because I could feel the bonding magic beating in my chest in time with my heart. It was lodged there now and wasn't going to be denied. I was going to be hunted by it for the rest of my days. I would be haunted by deep violet eyes and lips like sexual rapture. I could still feel them burning on mine, I could still feel his fingers playing with me.

And I could still smell him on my hand, my body, in my head. His presence would haunt me for the rest of my life, there was no escape but I would keep running.

I got out of bed and joined the rest of the crew for breakfast. I supposed since I was new, I was given a little special treatment and got a banana along with the muesli and soy milk they handed out.

Everybody else was almost finished by the time I sat down, and when I stuck my spoon in, scooped and looked up, they were scattering. They seemed fearful, maybe of me because I was new.

I finished breakfast and briefly considered sneaking off to see my family but thought better of it. It was something that should be done under the cover of darkness.

I was assigned kitchen duties when I walked my dishes to the back of the mess hall. An older hippy lady with braided red hair intertwined with crystals and feathers among other things introduced herself.

"I'm Sacha, you'll be with me," she said with a kind smile. She had bad teeth, the kind that made you inwardly wince when you saw them because they looked painful, but they didn't seem to hurt her.

She had the vibe of a recovered addict, so I wasn't one to judge. If it hadn't been for Empire magic, I might have gotten hooked harder to heroin than I had. Then again, Empire magic was the thing that had driven me to drugs in the first place so it was a chicken and egg sort of thing.

"I suck in the kitchen," I warned her. "I can't boil water without burning something."

"You'll be doing dishes and cutting potatoes," she smiled. "You'll be fine."

And by the end of the day, I was fine. And I knew how to make a mean vegan stew after watching Sacha work her magic. And she had actual magic, but I suspected she didn't even know it. She worked with her fingers picking herbs and spices from different glass bottles stored along the countertop until I could barely see them move, they were so fast.

But she seemed to have an uncanny ability to choose exactly what a dish needed to make it perfect. Magic, although I didn't see anything obvious about her, I could see why she'd been lured to Wildwood at least.

After dinner there was a meeting to discuss an upcoming moon ceremony, but it devolved into a dispute between two work crews over who was responsible for hauling debris back up the cliff from the beach where they'd been building furniture.

I grew bored and anxious, the pressing need to find out about Phoenix overtaking any need to listen to people argue about things I didn't fucking care about. While they got heated, I snuck out of the mess hall and out a side door into the cool night.

Lights twinkled across the clearing from me and I could see movement in the woods just beyond. I was determined to find out what was happening, but when I stepped off the stairs onto the freshly exposed earth, I saw the bright beam of a flashlight cut across the open area.

I ducked behind a small shed and edged out just enough to see somebody moving on the other side of the clearing, somewhere in between out buildings and the woods.

I was about to dart across to my yurt for some solitude to sort out my whirling emotions over Phoenix and Sorin, but the flashlight was joined by others and the sound of voices stopped me in my tracks.