Page 100 of All That Has Flown Beyond
“You’re lying!”
“Hey!” Thea stepped into the kitchen, staring at Isla. “What’s going on?”
“If you want to go, then just go!” Isla shouted at Kaiyo, ignoring his mother as he stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Kaiyo watched him leave helplessly.
“I’ll go make sure he’s okay,” Thea said. Kaiyo looked at her. “He’s just…going to miss you. We—”
“Stop.” Kaiyo shook his head. He didn’t need this to be harder than it already was. He didn’t know why Thea was acting like this was his decision to make. “Let’s just…get through this. I’ll talk to Isla when he’s calmer. I mean, it’s not like I’m leaving forever. I’ll come visit.”
“Right,” Thea said. Kaiyo sighed.
“I’ve got to…” he signalled to the witches outside.
“Yeah. ’Course,” Thea said. She paused for a moment before following Isla upstairs.
Despite his words, Kaiyo stayed in the kitchen for another minute, trying to pull himself back together again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
There was something. Sticky. Slow, slow, slow.
Kaiyo opened his eyes. Were his eyes open? Kaiyo opened his eyes.
Open. Open. O-pen.
The land was pulling at him. He opened his eyes. There were shapes over him. There was a scent in the air.
“No,” he mumbled.
And then there was darkness.
*****
Awareness clawed through him. Not scent or sound or sight reached him first. It was the pulling sensation inside him. The emptiness.
He wasn’t on Garrow land anymore.
He opened his eyes. A simple, closed room. Windowless but made of normal plaster. There were hanging sockets suggesting it had been a small laundry room once. Kaiyo was tied to a chair bolted to the floor.
Kaiyo tried to blink through the haze. The ache inside. He didn’t even have to try and reach his Ousía to know it was blocked.
Fuck.Fuck.
He tested the bindings on his legs, his arms, but there was no give. His position didn’t allow him to reach any of his tattoos. He couldn’t search the land around him. Every time he reached inside it was like running his hands through a hologram. He knew where his Ousía should be. He just couldn’t reach it.
He fought the rising bile at the hollow sensation. He needed to pull himself together.
Kaiyo closed his eyes and took stock of his body. His shoulders were aching where they pulled back, arms tied to the sides of the chair, but apart from that, his body seemed uninjured. He had probably been knocked out by whatever had smelt sickly sweet the last time he had been dazed into awareness. He focused his senses. He could hear faint movement outside what was effectively his cell.
Kaiyo considered whether to call out or not, but he was cut short as the door to the room opened. He opened his eyes.
Josephine. Of course.
“You’re awake,” the witch said unnecessarily.
“What the hell is going on?” Kaiyo couldn’t help but growl.
“What? You don’t like the accommodations?” she smiled, an expression devoid of anything.
