3. Isla
Chapter 3
Isla
SATURDAY
M y hands were still burning, and no matter what we did, nothing helped. The pain made it hard to do much, so Ma helped me cancel my appointments to look at apartments.
Magick and poison radiated from my hands, and Cassius hinted that my cure would probably be found at Greywood. ‘ There is always a price for magick,’ he’d intoned when I questioned him. The conservatory had claimed part of me when I unintentionally accepted a spot at the school, or so I’d learned. I grumbled at the voice in my head, but besides a mocking laugh, he remained frustratingly quiet.
Mom didn’t say anything when I told her what happened. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all to anyone after getting home. She pressed a kiss to the top of my head and went straight to bed without a backward glance. Ma reassured me that we would all talk that night, and everything would be fine.
She was wrong though.
It was almost midnight, but Mom still hadn’t come out of their room.
Unable to deal with my rising anxiety, I went to my garden, and focused on weeding the beds and savoring the rich earth under my fingers. The earth seemed to be the only thing that took the edge off the pain in my hands. My mind wandered to my earlier conversation with Demir. He had called to ask when I’d be free for lunch, and it made me remember that I hadn’t told him about Greywood.
To say Demir was surprised would have been an understatement. He was speechless and silent long enough that I pulled my cell back to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. He’d promised he’d be home soon to celebrate, but so far, no brother had shown up, and Mom wasn’t filling me in either. It was turning out to be a shitty and painful day all around.
“Little bat?”
I froze when Mom called out to me. Rocking back on my heels, I turned to see her standing outside of my garden, watching me with an apologetic expression. In her hands was a cup of boba tea, a silent apology for the wait or maybe the silence… Either way, it was a start.
“I didn’t mean to accept the invitation,” I told her quietly, not moving to take the olive branch she was offering. Hurt was clear in my unusually soft tone, but I pushed down my natural response of anger at her trying to act like a drink would solve everything. “Giving me the cold shoulder for something that wasn’t my fault isn’t fair.”
Mom’s shoulders drooped, and her smile wavered for a moment before she released a long sigh. “Giving you the cold shoulder wasn’t my intention. I needed rest after work, then I needed to get my words straight before I said anything I’d regret. I’m sorry it came off that way to you. I’m trying my best.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise, silently waiting to see what else she had to say. Mom usually wasn’t afraid to own up to her mistakes and apologize when necessary, but needing to take almost an entire day to find the words to make that apology… That was new.
Mom held up the tea again, and I stood up slowly, rubbing the dirt from my hands on my black t-shirt. I had more to worry about now than any mess I might be making of my clothes. Slowly, I made my way over to her and carefully took the cup. No need to accidentally give her a reaction to any of the plants I had been touching in the garden.
“Where’s Ma?”
“Inside, cleaning up some mess from Ariah. I heard something about a flooded bathroom and rushed out here.”
I chuckled at that while simultaneously wincing at the mess the baby had probably made. That little siren was already a handful considering this was the third time something happened with the bath… this week.
“You guys should set up an outdoor bathroom for her, make it heated or something, then you don’t have to worry about the clean-up.”
Mom cocked her head to the side and hummed. “That’s not a bad idea at all.” She smiled at me in thanks before her expression sobered up as she sighed. “But I don’t want to get sidetracked. I owe you an explanation.”
I took a long sip of the drink she’d brought me, savoring the refreshing peach flavor that hit my tongue. I was nervous to hear what could have upset my usually so put together mom.
“A woman I knew a long time ago went to Greywood.” Mom’s voice was husky, thick with pain, and she stared out into the darkness of falling night instead of meeting my gaze. “She went missing, and I never found out what happened to her. She sent letters for months until they suddenly stopped. When I expressed my worry, our hive leader dismissed my concern. Unwilling to accept that, I went to Greywood myself for information, but the school turned me away while refusing to even reassure me that she was alive. She was an adult, and what she decided to do with her friends was not their concern, or so they told me.”
Mom’s voice remained steady, but when she turned to face me, I could see the warring emotions in her dark green eyes—pain, love, grief. My breath caught in my throat, and it hit me. This woman she spoke of, she had loved her. I knew that my parents were hundreds of years old, but to me, it had always been Mom and Ma together, no one else. But this pain… There was no other explanation.
Her lips curled up on the right side. “It was a long time ago, Isla. Your ma has my heart.”
“I’m sorry you lost her like that,” I replied, reaching out to touch her shoulder before catching myself. My hand fell just short of her before I let out a ragged breath. “There’s new technology now, though. We can stay in touch.”
“Greywood has its own rules,” Mom replied ruefully. “But maybe you’re right, and that will help. Amara was so happy when she got the invitation, bursting with excitement. She danced the night away after getting offered a spot. It’s one of the last clear memories I have of her.”
“I’m not a dancer,” I replied, trying to lift the mood.
A surprised laugh escaped her, and she focused on me with a new light brightening her face. “Too true. I’ve seen you try, and it’s definitely not in your skillset.”
“Hey!”
“I’m just agreeing with you!” Her eyes twinkled with good humor. “But really, I’ve lived through centuries and seen dance evolve from Victorian dances to raves… You’re not a dancer.”
I gasped in “outrage” before I lost it. Tears slipped down my cheeks from laughing too hard, and Mom’s husky laugh joined me. Eventually, we managed to settle down, with only a few lingering laughs sneaking out as we tried to get ourselves together.
Mom settled on the ground outside my garden while I flopped down inside the black fence. I sipped the boba she had gotten me and enjoyed the easy silence between us.
The crickets had started singing into the darkness by the time I finished up my drink, and Mom inhaled deeply. I followed her lead and savored the richness of the garden around me, unable to smell much else.
Mom’s vampire senses must have caught something else though because her focus zeroed in on a patch of the woods off the left. The shadows grew darker where Mom was staring, and then I saw movement in the blackness. I felt my smile growing as a man ambled out of the darkness. Demir had come. He lifted a hand in greeting, and Mom grinned.
“Looks like we’re having a family party tonight. I’ll let Ma know and help her clean up whatever mess is going on inside.”
I nodded and thanked her as she carefully wrapped a napkin around my cup so she wouldn’t touch it with her bare skin. Demir gave her a hug as she passed, and they talked for a few seconds before she hurried inside. With her gone, my brother focused on me, his stare intense looking me up and down.
“You look terrible.”
Fucking brothers. Why was I looking forward to him coming, again?
I flipped him off and rolled my eyes. “So nice to see you too, Demir. I figured not living at home would have made you nicer, but it seems some things are just lost causes.”
Demir smirked lazily. His sable black hair fell over his shoulder, revealing how long it had gotten in his absence. It was past his waist now, straight as a board and gorgeous. It was so unfair how beautiful his hair was considering mine was a tangled mess unless I styled it every damn morning.
“You missed me, Isla, just admit it.”
“I missed your height when I needed to get stuff down from the shed for Ma. How she always needs things at the very top I’ll never know,” I huffed, rubbing my upper arms when an unexpected wind whipped through the yard. “I should go wash my hands and try to find the gloves Ma wanted me to try.”
“Gloves?” Demir asked curiously. He walked along the fence as I headed out of my garden.
“Side effects of accepting enrollment at Greywood.” I grimaced as the burning sensation intensified. At this rate, I’d have to camp out with my plants until I left, or I’d have no peace.
“From what I’ve heard of that place, that seems par for the course.”
“What do you mean?” I turned to face him, stopping right before we got to the house.
“Greywood is for dangerous magick, destructive.”
“Are you saying I’m dangerous?”
“You sing to poisonous plants like they’re your babies,” he deadpanned.
I waved a hand dismissively. “Plenty of people sing to their plants.”
“You poisoned your academy bullies so they shit their brains out and ended up in the hospital for three days.”
“That was never proven,” I replied haughtily, but I snorted when he gave me a pointed look. “It’s called Ipecacuanha, a wonderful plant really. People used it as medicine for a long time before it was discontinued. They should just consider it a free medicinal lesson.”
He shook his head as he held the door open for me. “The things you randomly know concern me.”
Not as concerning as the fact that those bullies had only left the hospital because they died… Though that wasn’t something we talked about often. Not to mention the ones my family had no idea about. Some things are better left as secrets.
I went right for the utility sink, carefully washing my hands and forearms before trying the gloves Ma had laid out. The pain intensified enough that I groaned as I tried to slip the cotton over my skin. This isn’t going to work. I pulled them off, tossing them on the table with a frustrated sigh.
“Didn’t help?” Demir asked, and I shook my head. “Does it spread?”
“No,” I muttered. “But I would like to have it not hurt.”
“Buck up, batty.” Demir tucked me into a side hug. “I’m sure I can distract you.”
“When are you leaving again? I need to put a countdown on my phone,” I demanded as I dug my elbow into his side.
“I’ve missed you too, little sister!” he sang out as he pulled me into the kitchen.
Immediately, the ruckus of screaming children filled my ears. Everyone was excited to see their big brother again. Demir came to visit from time to time, but he didn’t get away from his job very often. He also worked at Onyx Security but in a different department than Mom, so he tended to work day shifts more often than not.
Demir went to Ma first, hugging her and saying hello before giving attention to every younger sibling. My older brother stood out among our hodge-podge family. He was really tall, I think around six foot four. Brown eyes and an easy sense of humor hid a very serious and intense personality. Demir was older than me by a few years, and while we had our moments, we usually got along fairly well.
As we got older, our friendship started to solidify. One of the first times I knew we were actually friends happened after I had gotten into a fight at the academy. I had gotten sent home for stabbing the asshole that had sneakily cut my hair in Familiar Care class. Mom and Ma had been on my side, and the boy had also been suspended… although my “sentence” was worse considering the whole stabbing thing.
Demir had come home to surprise our moms one of the days I was home and immediately froze when he saw that my usually long hair was cut in a pixie style. He didn’t tease me like I had expected, and there had been a hard glint in his dark eyes as he listened to my explanation. With a grunt, he’d grabbed me, dragging me to the backyard.
I thought he was going to lecture me about keeping my temper in check like Mom had done, but Demir made me practice self-defense for hours, wanting to know I could protect myself with my fists instead of scissors the next time something happened. Ma had come home from her shift as a nurse and watched us, calling out tips from the porch. Mom might be the person you thought to watch out for, but Ma, a Fury, was the one that would cut you down before you knew what was happening.
It was a long afternoon of sparring, pointers, and firm instruction that helped me create a foundation for my self-defense. I had collapsed onto the ground, sweat covering every inch of my body, and Demir looked down at me, a fierce light in his gaze. That quiet pride was louder than every word of critique and praise. That time stood out in my mind as the moment I thought of him as more than just my annoying, bossy older brother.
He was my friend.
At least most of the time.
Sometimes I had an inkling that he saw me as more than that. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but a few times the look in his eyes was definitely not brotherly.
We weren’t blood related, something that was very obvious given we were two different supernaturals and didn’t look anything alike, but I had known him most of my life. I knew I’d never be able to see him as anything other than my brother, so I just focused on other things when it happened, hoping that ignoring it would mean I wouldn’t have to address it.
“Earth to Isla!” one of my little brothers yelled beside me, making my jolt. “Ma wants to know if you knew what you needed for school yet. What were you thinking of? You had a funny look on your face.”
“Just lost in thought.” I picked Kearin up by the waist and smiled at his giggles. “No list that I’m aware of, but I can check the paper again. Maybe it was there, but I didn’t realize it.”
“Dinner first!” Mom clapped her hands. “Everyone put on shoes and jackets then outside. We are campfire cooking tonight.”
The little ones shrieked with happiness, and I put down my brother, who was wiggling in my arms. They all scattered, running and yelling in excitement at the prospect of cooking over an open flame. Ma and Mom shook their heads at their antics and headed outside.
“Make sure they have everything on before they come out?” Ma asked, and I nodded in agreement.
The two of them walked out, with Ma saying she’d get the fire started if Mom would grab the chairs for everyone out of the storage shed out back. It was all so normal . A pang of sadness hit me alongside the knowledge that I would be leaving this again so soon. Granted, I had planned on leaving anyway, but this was different.
“What’s that face for?” Demir poked my forehead, startling me.
I swatted at him in annoyance and glared at him. “Just something Mom said.”
“What was that?”
I chewed on my bottom lip and answered, not looking at him. “An old lover of Mom’s got into Greywood and disappeared. She told me about some of it tonight, so my guess is it’s going to be fresh for a while.”
Silence.
The quiet grew heavier with every passing second until he squeezed my left shoulder.
“You better not follow suit, Isla, or I’ll rip the place apart with my bare hands to find you. I don’t have centuries of restraint to control my anger.” I could feel my heart racing, and blood thundered in my ears at his violent promise.
That was exactly what it was—not a threat, but a promise.