She finished prepping her own omelet quietly, as if I hadn't just erupted on her with all my emotions, pretty much spewing them all out with no care in the world.
"Tell me," I begged, following her as she gathered our plates and exited the kitchen. "Please." She placed the plates on top of the table, arranging our cutlery slowly, almost too precisely, ignoring me. "Alyana," I wrapped my fingers around her upper arm, turning her slowly toward me. "Please. I'm begging you. Just tell me what this big secret is. What was she so afraid of?Why did she leave this place, her family, the man she loved? Why did she lie to me?"
She was looking anywhere but at my face, chewing her bottom lip as she wrapped her arms around her.
"Please," I whispered, my voice breaking on the last syllable, letting my emotions bleed through. "I just need the truth and if you want to, you don't ever have to see me again."
Her head snapped up, her eyes blazing with a fire I haven't seen before.
"You think I wouldn't want to see you again? You think I had spent the last twenty-nine years praying for you, begging the Gods to keep you safe just so I wouldn't see you ever again?"
"Well, I?—"
"I told her to leave," Alyana said. "I begged her to run from here when she said she was thinking of staying, because I knew the fate awaiting both of you here was much worse than what could happen on the mainland."
"I still don't understand why?—"
"Because we were terrified!" Alyana bellowed, her eyes wild. "Because we were terrified of what would happen. Because there are things on this island that want you dead!"
My blood turned to ice the moment the words spilled over her lips, making me stumble backwards. The strings tethering me to Earth's gravitational field snapped, and the air around us became suffocating. As if we ended up in a vacuum.
Alyana looked through the small window above the sink, her eyebrows pinched together.
She took a deep breath, lowering her voice, and walked toward the same chair she'd been occupying earlier. "Your mother should've told you about the island. She should've prepared you. She should've listened to me when I warned her, when I told her that destiny can't be outrun. It can be delayed, it can be fooled for a moment in time, but it cannot beescaped." She sounded like Macy, but where Macy delivered her speech in a calm and steady manner, my aunt spoke of destiny as something that was to be feared. As something my mother feared.
Slowly approaching her, I took the seat next to her once more, both of us ignoring the omelets getting cold in front of us.
"Nevermere Island isn't what you think it is, Kaira." Her sharp eyes cut through my skin as she looked at me. "It isn't just the place where your mother and I grew up. It's more, so much more, and I'm afraid with you being here now we won’t be able to stop things from unraveling."
"What are you talking about? What things?"
"Gods," she groaned, dragging her hand over her face. "She should've prepared you for this day, for this place. And I guess she did with all those training sessions and all those talks, but she didn't tell you the reality. She didn't tell you what I told her." Alyana grabbed my hands, her eyes connecting with mine.
A knock sounded at the front door, and before I could even look in that direction, Alyana was up on her feet, her eyes wide and filled with trepidation.
"Stay here," she instructed, already moving away from the dining area. "And do not make a single sound," she added as she turned around, looking at me. "I beg of you, Kaira. Just stay here."
There was real fear living underneath those words. Fear that was slowly slithering up my legs, over my arms, and straight into my heart, poisoning the air around me, making it so much harder to breathe.
But a fear of what?
12
KAIRA
The moment Alyanastepped out of the dining area, I stood up and went after her. She wanted me to stay put, to just accept these vague answers, but I was done sitting around waiting for something to happen.
The sound of the doors opening made me brave enough to cross through the living room and toward the entrance to the hallway, but I didn't want her to know I was eavesdropping. I didn't want her to know I wasn't in the dining room.
Hushed voices filled the silence—Alyana's and another, feminine-sounding voice. My feet carried me toward the wall closest to the entrance to the hallway, and I plastered myself firmly to it. I closed my eyes to listen to what they were saying.
"Is it true?" the newcomer asked with no greetings and no other words. "Is it?" But nothing came from my aunt, not a single word. "We've talked about this, Alyana. We spoke of this day, and both of us knew it would arrive sooner rather than later. I know it's difficult and I know it isn't what you wanted, but I need to know. We all need to know and prepare because they won't wait. They probably already know, because if I could feel her arrival, so could they."
Feel her arrival? Whose arrival?
"It is true," my aunt confirmed. "And I don't know what to do. She can't leave, but we both know what would happen if she stays."
"The fulfillment would happen," the female said. "We always knew this day would come, so now it's up to us to handle it in the best way possible." Silence followed after her words and I pressed closer to the entrance, realizing they were whispering.
