AllFreeNovel
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“Spoke to me,” the entity says.
“It wasn’t like—” I cut myself off. “I was wandering around and… I already loved this island. I was thinking we might not be able to build here after all and grieving for that dream. I had favorite places, and I was going to all of them and just…”
“Reaching out to me,” the entity says.
I throw up my arms. “Not like that. It wasn’t as if I thought there was something here to communicate with. I just felt…” My cheeks heat at the memory. “I started to feel like the island was angry, rightfully so. We’d invaded a pristine wilderness and started building, and that felt wrong, but at the same time…” Another flail. “I wanted to be here, if she’d allow it. I wasn’t thinking that there was actually someone—something—here. Just a general sense of nature. That we were intruding on her territory, and I recognized that and the responsibility that came with it.”
“You made an oath,” the entity says.
“It wasn’t like—” Anger rises in me. “It wasn’t as if I knelt and made a blood oath to the island. It was a whim.”
“Not a whim.”
“Fine, it was a promise to myself. A promise that I wouldn’t forget my responsibilities. That I would respect the nature of this island and intrude as little as possible.”
“That you would care for it. Be its guardian.”
“I guess? If that’s how you interpreted it.”
“Youlied.”
“What?” Kit says. “Laney didnotlie. I remember this now. Laney joked that the island didn’t like the intrusion. Joking and not joking. I agreed. We wanted to do right. Laney made changes to the construction plans. Working with the land. Intruding as little as possible. Raising buildings that didn’t permanently change the island. Laney hasn’t planted a single flower that isn’t indigenous to this island. Shekepther promise.”
“She did not.”
“The renters,” I whisper. “I let others on this island. They did things to it. Disrespected it.”
“So?” Jayla says. “What the hell does that have to do with you?”
“She made an oath!” the entity shouts, and there is a boom, like an explosion. Kit pushes me down. Something hits my cheek. Hot blood wells up, and I lift my hand, and sharp pain flashes as my finger touches something embedded in my cheek. I yank it out and stare down at a shard of glass.
“Kit!” Jayla shouts.
My head whips up. Glass everywhere, shards of it all around us, scattered over the floor. I scramble up and wheel toward the wall of windows. Wind blows through it. The glass is gone.
Allthe glass is gone.
“Madison!” I run for her, Kit at my heels.
A shriek sounds at my ear. A crow dives. A wing smacks my face. I duck and keep running.
Jayla is already at Madison’s side, scooping her up. Caws and shrieks fill the air. The crows swoop and swarm around us, but I bat them off as if they’re blackflies.
What matters is Madison. What always matters is Madison.
Kit takes her from Jayla.
“The crawlspace!” I shout to be heard over the cacophony. “Get her to the crawlspace!”
“Open it for me!” Kit calls back.
A crow pecks at my face. I slam it hard enough to send it smacking into others.
“It’s not locked!” I say.
“Yes, it is. Madison was worried.”
Shit! The hatch has a combination lock, a complicated one after a renter’s bored kids got the last one open.
