Page 23

Kai

I ’m not sure how I’m supposed to go to the celebration in the Elder's hut after I’ve just had the most mind-blowing sex of my life. But here we are walking hand in hand up the beach.

Lantern light illuminates the large hut, flickering in the soft sea breeze. I don’t want to go, I would rather take Evie back into those waves and fuck her under the sea until the sun rose lazily above the horizon. But there is so much to be done, so much to uncover.

I force myself to think of Dru stuck here, of Mathius with no memory of who he once was, and of Evie longing to be free of this island. It grounds me, spurring me forward to the doorway of the hut.

Evie releases my hand before we enter the party, and I ache to grab it again, to feel her smooth skin against my palm. I have grown accustomed to her touch, and I am starting to ache every time I am parted from her.

She gives me a small, knowing smile, “I’m sorry, but I have to go find Florence.”

“I understand. I’ll see you later, then.” I say, returning the smile and watching as she disappears into the throng of bodies.

The air smells of sweat and sex mingled with the sweetness of the Elixir. I notice a drink in the hands of almost every man, but none in the hands of the sirens.

They are drugging them into sex and submission, taking away everything that makes these men unique— everything that makes them who they are. Now, these men are nothing more than husks of their true selves. Puppets to the Elixir—to this place and these sirens.

Evelyn is so unlike these other women. She cares, she doesn’t want a mindless man to fuck. She wants love and affection. She wants me to be me.

There has to be more to the story. I’m positive Evie told me everything she found out, but it’s likely she hasn’t been told the whole truth. If this Elder, Florence, raised her and kept so much from her, what else could she be hiding? What is happening on this Island?

I intend to find out, but first I want to find Mathius again, somewhere in the mass of tangled limbs, to see if he has taken the advice Evie gave him by not taking the Elixir tonight.

After experiencing just a small bit of the effect it has, I hope he listens.

I can’t imagine what centuries of that brain fog might feel like.

Turning to move around the room, I almost choke as I find myself face to face with my brother.

“Dru,” I breathe. He is here, a physical form in front of me. I blink, not sure I fully believe it’s him. Then he cocks his head, squinting at me in a way that is so incredibly Dru that I can’t help but reach out, crushing him in a hug.

He stiffens, and I release him, looking back at his face, so much like our fathers. He frowns, giving me a quizzical look, and takes a step back, “Do I know you?”

My heart lurches in my chest, and I look down at his hand where his fingers are wrapped around a cup, the sparkling pink Elixir taunting me from inside. I wrench it from his grip, throwing the contents to the floor, dropping the now empty cup as it thuds to the sand.

“What’s your problem?” Dru growls, pushing past me as he storms off toward a waiting trio of sirens.

My heartbeat quickens as emotion builds behind my eyes.

Even though I know this is simply the Elixir talking, it still hurts.

He doesn’t remember me at all, my own brother.

Memories swim in my vision of the last moment I saw him, waving him off as he came into my greenhouse to say goodbye.

I should have hugged him then, told him I love him, and now I'm worried it's too late. What if I can’t get him back?

My mind wanders to when we were children, running through the manor grounds, playing with wooden swords, climbing trees, hiding in all the shadowed alcoves of the manor house to jump out and scare the servants. Happy memories that now feel sour, spoiled from this place and what it has done to Dru.

I want to go after him and shake him until he remembers who he is and who I am.

“Kai,” a voice says lightly from behind me. “Are you okay?”

It’s Mathius, and I spin to find him looming over me, his height is a marvel. He’s nearly a full head taller than every other man here.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he continues, concern etched into the lines of his face.

“I feel like I have,” I say, taking a deep breath and pointing to Dru’s retreating form. “That’s my brother. He’s been missing for over a month, and here he was all along. Only problem is I came all this way to find him and he’s forgotten who I am—who he is.”

Mathius’s face softens, “I didn’t drink it tonight.”

My brows raise in surprise. I didn’t think he would actually listen so quickly. “Do you feel different at all? Have you remembered anything?”

“No, but I don’t feel so…” Suddenly, his eyes glaze over like he’s lost in a memory.

“Mathius,” One of the sirens saunters up to his side, pushing me away from him. “Come, sit down with me,” she says, taking his hand and leading him to an area of pillows set up in a corner of the hut.

I watch as she lays him down and starts kissing him, pressing her half-naked body against his.

“No, stop,” he growls, pushing her off him. “I’m not feeling well. I think I’ll go to my room and rest for the remainder of the evening.”

He brushes past me on his way out, and I grip his arm, stopping him, “I’ll come check on you later.”

He looks down at me, those strange eyes so piercing as if he can see more than what he is looking at, a whole other part of the world.

I hold back the shiver that threatens to course through me at his stare.

Mathius is old. He has lived for several centuries, and I can’t even imagine all the memories slamming back into his mind after not drinking the Elixir this evening.

It must be excruciating, causing a tidal wave of emotion.

Mathius nods at me, shaking his large arm free of my grip, and disappears into the darkness of night that drifts through the door.

I sigh heavily. How has everything gotten so complicated? This island that first looked like a paradise, I now see it truly. It is just like Evie said—a prison.

Shaking my head, I turn back around to the insanity that surrounds me. Moans, gasps, cries of pleasure rise up, feeling far too loud in my ears. I need to find Dru and get him out of this place. Make him remember me and our home.

I spot him, my brother, his dark curly hair and his green eyes stick out like a beacon in the mass of bodies, but it is his laugh that alerts me to his exact location.

I would know that laugh anywhere, having heard it every day of my childhood and most of my adulthood.

I safeguard the memories of it now. I can’t let them be tainted any further by this place.

Reaching towards the slick moving bodies, I grab Dru under the armpit and haul him out.

Luckily, he still has his pants on, or this would be extremely awkward.

I continue pulling him through the hut, ignoring his angry protests, until we are all the way down the beach to where the gentle waves lap across our feet.

“Get off me!” he finally manages to push me, and I stumble backward.

“Dru, I'm trying to help you.”

“Help me?” he snorts. “Is your brain addled? I was just in the middle of three women, and you think you’ve helped me?”

He gives me another shove, and this time, I actually fall onto my back, sand spraying around me.

I scrambled toward him, grabbing onto his ankle, and he sputters as I yank his leg out from under him and he smacks face first onto the beach.

I almost laugh at the familiarity of this situation, remembering those times when we would fight, or try to keep the other from the final one of those delicious peanut butter cookies that cook always made us.

“What’s your problem, man?” Dru coughs out the words, spitting sand.

“You have to listen to me. I’m your brother, Kai. Don’t you remember me at all?” I know he doesn’t, but I am hoping that maybe, just maybe, his mind isn’t completely gone yet. Maybe there is still a piece of him there.

He sits up to face me, both of us covered in itchy sand. He is breathing heavily from anger or possibly annoyance. Most likely, it was both, but he was glaring at me in the same exact way he always had when he was cross with me.

“Please,” I whisper. “Remember me.”

His face softens for only a moment, and then he narrows his eyes at me. A bead of hope blooms in my chest.

“I have no idea who you are, okay?”

The blossom in my heart shrivels and dies.

He pushes himself up with a grumble and turns from me, walking back into the Elder's hut. As soon as he disappears beyond the door alight with party cheer, I let the tears fall as the loss clings to me.

My brother is gone. And I don’t think I’ll ever get him back.