She sat on the floor and then placed me onto her lap. She showed me how to summon my wand and make it disappear to hide it from others. When I woke up that night, I discovered my mother was dead…
I had a heavy heart as tears poured from my eyes, my wings wrapping around me in a tight embrace as I wept. I felt like a caged bird, longing for freedom, yet deep down, I held onto the hope that one day I would soar again. Instead of returning to Sin’s bed, I lay in a fetal position on the ground. I hadn’t planned on seeing Sin until the ceremony.
My sisters circled around me, their bare feet whispering against the mossy earth, as I guzzled an urn of wine pressed from the wild fruits of the forest. The taste was bitter and ancient, enough to make a human pass out after one sip. Laughter like wind chimes danced between us, and then their hands, sprinkled gold dust over my hair and shoulders. The flecks caught the fading sunlight and made my green dress sparkle with every breath I took.
Tonight, beneath the moon’s silver gaze, Sin and I would carve each other’s bodies in the pool beneath the waterfall, letting our blood mingle and flow into the earth. It was the way of our people—a soul tie, binding us beyond flesh and time. The water would carry our mingled essence downstream, a promise to the land and to each other: that we would be forever, as the tradition of Charmden demanded. I was getting choked up, my breathing growing more rapid.
“Calm down, Eboenia, just breathe,” Jinx whispered as she massaged my shoulders.
My sisters were wearing off-white, long, flowing gowns with head wraps made of woven flowers.
“The ceremony only takes five minutes, if that,” Blair added as she moved my locs away from my shoulder.
Lune leaned against a tree and rubbed her swollen stomach. “I was supposed to get married to my offspring’s father. I never thought you would be the first out of all of us. As long as your heart is detached from this realm, nothing will ever make you happy. Running away is your only choice,” Lune suggested.
“Girl, hush your mouth! Hoax would punish innocent people if Eboenia runs away. We need to think of a smarter way, not a dumb way that’ll get people killed. Bad enough, he goes on a killing spree whenever he feels like it,” Blair reasoned.
“Hang in there for now,” Jinx told me as she rubbed my back.
“Y’all don’t understand. Once she and Sin are soul tied, she’ll feel compelled to be with him, and we all know Sin loves Charmden, even though his father makes his life hell,” Lune argued, and Blair snarled at her.
“I’ll be okay. Sin said he had a plan… maybe I can learn to trust him,” I said before drinking the rest of the wine.
I dropped the urn on the ground after I heard the elves and fairies singing and blowing their horns. Our ceremony was starting. Sin’s mother, Dove, landed in front of me out of the sky. She, too, was dressed the same as my sisters. Her platinum hair was pulled up into an updo, and she wore a gold crown on her head that reminded me of a bird’s nest. Dove was just as wicked as Hoax, but it came from a lifetime of abuse and infidelity. I heard her beauty was once paralyzing, until my mother came along. Her jealousy made her hideous. Her white pupils beamed at me, and she wickedly smirked, flashing a gold canine, as she circled around me.
“I can’t tell if you’re trying to marry my son or my husband… maybe both,” she teased.
“I’m only here for Sin,” I replied.
“You are an easy lay, just like your mother. She stayed on her back like a dead turtle. My son is too pure to lay with a woman like you, who leaves this realm and comes back speaking with a human tongue from the outside world. You make me sick!” she seethed.
Jinx faked a cough. “Whew, I think we used too much dust,” she laughed it off. Dove looked at Jinx and smacked her teeth.
“I’ll see you all at the ceremony,” Dove said. She strolled away, trying to force her hips to sway in the same rhythm as mine. I wanted to snatch every strand of hair out of her scalp.
“Don’t worry about her, she’s just ancient and miserable,” Jinx said.
“And she’s not fertile anymore. I can guarantee Hoax did something to her to make sure she couldn’t have any more of his offspring. A bunch of sick weirdos, if you ask me,” Blair replied.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I chimed in.
My sisters gathered behind me, each holding a section of the train of my dress as I walked towards the black unicorn with long, silky mane adorned with flowers and shimmering gold dust that made her onyx coat sparkle beneath the moonlight.
I climbed onto the back of the unicorn, her muscles bunching beneath me as she huffed and broke into a gallop toward the waterfall. The wind whipped my face, and when I glanced over my shoulder, I caught sight of my sisters soaring through the sky, their gowns trailing behind them like pale banners.
“Slow down, girl! I had too much to drink!” I shouted, clutching her mane for dear life. The unicorn snorted, slowing her pace, but my head was already spinning and my stomach twisted into knots as we neared the waterfall.
The pool below dazzled in the moonlight, ringed by elves and fairies all dressed in off-white. They stood hand in hand, swaying side to side, their voices rising in birdlike calls—the ancestral calling. The sound, old and haunting sent shivers up my spine.
The unicorn knelt, and I slid off her back, legs trembling as I made my way to the center of the circle where Sin stood waiting. To his left loomed Hoax and his mother, Dove, both watching me with unreadable eyes. Sin wore an off-white dashiki stitched with gold, his locs styled into two bull horns that crowned his head. He smiled at me, nodding, and for a moment, the tension in my chest eased.
“You look beautiful as always,” he murmured, reaching out his hand. I took it, letting him pull me up onto the rock beside him. He caught a tear rolling down my cheek and brushed it away with his thumb.
“It’s okay, baby. I’ll protect you,” Sin whispered.
My sisters landed and joined the circle, slipping seamlessly into the ancestral call, their voices blending with the others in a chilling harmony.
Hoax’s right-hand man, Troph, approached, his face set and solemn. In his hands gleamed an eagle-claw-shaped knife and a wooden bowl—symbols of the ritual bloodletting, the last step before the soul tie. My heart pounded as I realized what was coming: we’d have to slice our palms and let our blood mingle—a promise sealed in flesh and spirit.
