Force of Attraction

Chapter Two

I SPIT THE GULP OF WATER BACK INTO MY GLASS CUP WITH A SPUTTER.

“Lana, you should have told us!” Mother gasps, looks at me and claps her hands together. “Thank the stars you finally made a choice to remove your nose from herbs and foods.”

“This is wonderful news!” “I thought you were too busy with your shop to think of courtship?” My father said, arching his eyebrows but believing John’s statement. I’m still coughing up a lung. He adds, “Are you alright Lana?”

“Well, I…” I cough. “Sorry, yeah” Marry him? When did I agree to that? Oh, right, I didn’t. I only said love.

I look at John from the corner of my eye. He’s beaming from ear to ear. I can’t marry anyone. I’ve told him that. I’ve told everyone that just so my mother’s friends would stop digging their noses into my affairs. I don’t have time for marriage. I don’t have time for whatever it is John thinks I have already been doing. I’ve never even thought of marriage.

For the entirety of my nineteen years, I’ve known I was destined to be married to cooking and herbs and duty before a man. I have been content—fulfilled, even—with that alone. But marriage? Motherhood? Wifely duties? I have more important things to focus on…like keeping people alive.

Standing, I say, “Mother, Father, please excuse us. I have rounds to make before the town hall and I don’t want to keep John from his duties.” I catch John’s eyes with a pointed look. “Shall we head to the forests now?”

“Yes, we’ll clean up, go and enjoy yourself.” Mother is beaming. Father, however, gives me a knowing, wary look. I feel bad making my parents clean when they cook, but I need to escape. I need to talk to him and sort this marriage thing out. I practically drag John back downstairs, into my shop, past his stupid bag still by the door, and out into the crisp Capton morning.

“What was that?” I whirl on him as we emerge onto the street. “Marriage?”

“You said you loved me.”

“I may be inexperienced with all this but saying ‘I love you’ is not the same thing as ‘I’ll marry you.’” I looked at him warily.

He tilts his head with a gentle smile and rests his hands on my shoulders. “Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”

“What do you mean?”

“You and me, together. We love each other, Lana, we have for years. There’s no one more perfect out there for you than me.”

“That’s not the point,” I mutter. He hooks his arm with mine, beginning to lead us down the road lined by brownstones of the residential area of town.

“You need to stop holding back and stop being so focused on your work.”

“My work makes me happy.”

“Don’t I make you happy?”

“Yes, but—” He kisses the tip of my nose, silencing me.

“Then I’m all you need. Besides, the werewolves can’t take you during the selection since I already know you don’t possess any magic of sort. Your father can perform the wedding himself…” John rambles about silk and flowers and toasts the entire walk down the street, up the stone path lazily wandering the cliff-tops overlooking the ocean.

A river cuts across in the distance before crashing down as a waterfall to the sea foam beyond. Its stunning blue waters are under the protection of the Keepers, as is the forest we head toward. Our island is small, just off the coast of the mainland and across from Lanton.

Nestled in the only sheltered bay of the island is the lonely town of Capton. I grew up wedged on this narrow strip between mountain and sea. The thick and gnarled redwood forest runs down from the foot of the great mountain that looms over us to the town. The temple winds as a sort of bridge between the two.

Capton historians say the temple was built long ago, before the great war that resulted in the treaty. But it’s hard for me to think of anything that old still standing. More likely, one of the original Keepers built it to house their order.

Slithering out from the side of the temple is an unassuming pathway of arches. I’ve never walked that path. I’m forbidden to, even with a Keeper escort. That is for the Human Queen and the werewolves. John tells me it stretches into the darkest part of the forest at the foot of the mountain. It is the path that leads to the Gateway—the bridge between the human world and the magic wilds.

Capton is somewhat of a between, at least that’s how I’ve come to think of it. It’s on the “human side,” the “not magic side,” of the Gateway. But our proximity to the Gateway, and the river that flows through it, gives our island diverse wildlife and the people here extremely long lifespans. The cost of these benefits is the Human Queen.

We give up one of our own every year to honor the treaty. That is Capton’s burden for humanity’s sake.

I wonder, not for the first time, what the Gateway looks like. If I were to stand before it, would I know I’m at the border of mankind and wild magic? Is the air electric, like right before a summer storm? Would it shake me like the howling wind high on the mountain ledges? Or could I stumble across the line without even knowing, like the folktales say, and get lost forever?

Those thoughts are dangerous and I shake them from my head. There’s no shortage of mystery surrounding the Gateway. But we know one thing for certain: the queen is the only human who can go beyond the Gateway and return back alive.

“What is it?” John asks.

“Nothing.”

“Were you even listening to me?”

“Of course I was.”

“What did I say?”

“Uh…” He chuckles and leans forward. The pad of his finger brushes against my temple as he gently tucks a strand of wayward hair behind my ear. I’ve kissed him, I’ve said I loved him, I’m somehow engaged to him, and yet I still blush.

“What were you thinking of, really?” he asks as we arrive at the forest’s edge.

I begin collecting small flowers that grow at the foot of the red trees—morning stars, I call them, because they bloom at dawn. They’re good for strengthening body and mind and I use them for Emma and Mister Abbot.

When I was a child, I imagined that they grew only for me. But the whole forest seemed more alive back then. It’s still alive now but in a dull and quiet way. With age and time, I lost an imaginary friend.

“Lana? What were you thinking of?” he repeats with a note of agitation seeping into his tone.

I wish I could tell him outright that the idea of engagement makes me want to throw up on his shoes. I care about him—I love him—but I made a vow to the people of Capton to always be there to serve and that will always come first. Maybe I just want him to explain what’s really gotten into him.

Then I said something entirely different. “I was thinking of that time when we were children and we wandered too far into the woods and saw the wolf.” It had been a hulking beast of darkness and shadow, bright yellow eyes cutting through the unnatural thickness that lingered in the air of the deep forest.

I stare off between the trees, imagining those eyes now. Oddly, I hadn’t felt afraid that day—though I later told John I was more terrified than he had been. He wouldn’t have handled it well to know he was more afraid than I.

There was knowledge in that beast’s eyes. Knowledge and secrets. Secrets that I’ve always felt like I’m on the cusp of knowing and yet are just out of my grasp. “Nothing, no beast or man, will ever harm you as long as I’m around.” John crouches next to me, resting his hand on the back of my neck. He rolls the dark, glassy beads of the necklace he gave me over my flesh. “And as long as you wear this.”

“I’ve never taken it off.” I touch the pendant suspended by the beads. It is a stone that looks like a rainbow was caught in a fisher’s net. John wears a similar stone on his wrist. It’s a special stone usually reserved for the Keepers. Yet another reason why I’ve always kept his gift to me hidden beneath my clothes.

“Good. Wear this and never go into the forest without me.”

“I never do.” I chuckle and shake my head. “You’re always so afraid of me going into the forest.”

“I don’t like you alone in the woods,” he murmurs. John stands, turning eastward.

The horizon is hidden behind the mountain. But we can see its first rays outlining the summit in orange. “We can still leave, you know,” he whispers.

“I can’t,” I repeat myself from earlier.

“We’ll be husband and wife. It’s normal to leave home.”

“Not for people from Capton, and not for me.” I stand, having collected the flowers I need. “You should go. The Keepers need you today.”

“I’ll walk you back.” I almost ask him not to. There’s a strange air about him today. One that almost makes my best friend unrecognizable. But he’s tired. I believe him when he says he had a bad dream about the day’s events. Given the recent requests to my shop, I think half of Capton can hardly sleep from anxiety. He’s acting rashly because he truly believes our lives are about to end.

Back at the shop, he kisses me once more in the doorway. Once more, the kiss is empty. But I try and hold on to the feelings I think I should have, for him, and the dream of us, with all my might.

“If you change your mind,” he whispers. “The boat is ready. Leave with me, please.”

“John, I—” Before I can say anything else, he’s gone. I watch him walk briskly down the street. He doesn’t even look back at me. I put my back to him with a sigh and went inside.