I drag myself out of the comfort of the shower and step in front of the mirror, wiping off the water that's collected on its surface.
"ALEX!"
I startle at my sister yelling and banging on the door to my bathroom, adjusting the towel around my waist and poking my head out the door to tell her off.
"What the hell? It's barely eight in the morning- what the hell is going on?"
"You promised you'd take Octavia and I riding this morning, did you forget? I did, actually. But it doesn't really matter, Octavia is the only one without a hangover right now so you can take just her. I'm staying here and drinking that hangover cure-all mom makes and reading. Just take pictures for me, okay?"
I drag a hand through my hair and down my face,
"Yeah, okay, sure. Where's Octavia? Tell her I'll meet her down at the stables in ten."
"She's already there. We thought you were already there too, you said to meet you there at a quarter till-"
"Shit, okay. I'll get dressed and get down there. Does she have food? I'm starving- I was just going to have breakfast and work on that painting me and her found-"
"What? No- whatever. Just don't leave her waiting for any longer, she's already been there long enough."
I nod and follow her to the door of my bedroom, smiling and closing the door behind her once she's left. I walk into my closet to pull out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, changing as quickly as I can, and grab the pair of worn out boots I'd been wearing riding lately, stumbling my way out of my room as I tug them over my socks
I smile when I find Octavia, greeting her horse before finding James who's still put up in his stable.
"How has Lola been with trail rides? I know you do plenty of arena work with her-"
All three of us had been riding since we were old enough too, starting with Western and eventually switching to English. I was the only one who still commonly rode Western over English.
"She's alright. I've only ever taken her on the trails when Olivia gets bored of arena work and wants to take them to the cliffs for picnics."
I nod and listen to her as I hop over the door into James' stable, slipping the bit into his mouth and tightening the fasteners on his bridle. Leading him out to the cross-ties across from Octavia and Lola.
"Alright, well- the fox-hunt is in two weeks, so we'll get her used to the trails and then next week we can see how she does around the dogs. Sound good?"
"Sure. Are you coming with us on the next fox-hunt? I know you used to come a lot before everything."
I cringe at the reminder of my Dad, crinkling my nose to fight the shoot of reminder and turning my attention to James. James had become my responsibility since Dad passed. None of us could bear to get rid of him, but I was the only one who wasn't afraid to ride him, even after we had a trainer come in and work with him until he was deemed "green". Meaning he was safe to ride, that what had happened to Dad was a freak accident, and unlikely to ever happen again.
"I guess so. I probably should since it's Lola's first time going on one of the hunts and being around the dogs."
I finish tacking James and walk over to check Lola's tack out of habit. Octavia had already picked an English saddle for today, I guess that it's a likely pick for her just so she can get used to riding in one over the trails.
"You're good, you can take her out of the cross-ties. I'll meet you outside, just give me a minute to check James."
She nods as she unclips Lola from the cross-ties and walks her outside. I do the same for James, tossing the reins over his head and pulling myself into his saddle.
"Alright, take Lola into a trot, you know where the trail starts. I'll be right behind you."
She brings Lola carefully into a trot with a click and a gentle kiss of pressure with her legs. I follow her into the woods, adjusting myself in the saddle before I kick James into a lope. We rode through the trails for most of the morning, until I couldn't handle the hunger biting at my stomach, and the soreness I know I would feel in my legs tomorrow from the ride. We had made it to the cliffs on the opposite side of the island from the house by mid-morning, stopping for a break for ourselves, but mostly so the horses could graze and drink by the river that ran nearby.
I stepped our of the saddle and adjusted the reigns before walking James over beside Lola who's head is dipped low to drink from the water. I tuck my hands into my pockets and walkover to where Octavia has laid out on her back in the grass and flowers nearby.
"You look content-"
"I am. This is my favorite place on the island."
I smile as the late morning sun plays over her face, laying down beside her on my back. I look up at the sky for a moment before turning to look at her, smiling at how happy she looks. She looks radiant. Sun cutting through the brown of her eyes to melt them into honey and butter, gentle waves of hair falling over her forehead and around her in the grass. Her hair has surrounded her in a halo of gold and amber, I catch myself staring, turning back to the sky, and running a hand over the grass absently as I watch the clouds.
"Yours and Olivia's pact- that you made when I first came to the island?"
I freeze up, heart skipping, and stomach jumping, even though it's something I doubt I should even have an anxious reaction too. I gather myself in the next beat of my heart and respond, resolving to stare at the sky and not at her. A cough, and an answer from my lips.
"Yeah? What about it?"
I respond hesitantly, determined to look at the sky even though I can feel her looking at me. See the look on her face in my peripheral as much as I can feel it.
"I- nevermind. I was just thinking about it. I don't know why. Just about how stupid it is, you know?" She laughs, turning to look up at the sky too. "I mean- there's never really been a need for it, right? We're practically siblings at this point-"
I feel my stomach drop as she laughs, but I still won't let her see that. I let out a breath, turn and laugh with her for a moment, breeze dancing around us and cooling the sun burning my face.
"Yeah, practically siblings. I guess we should head back? Don't want to miss lunch."
Something crosses her face for a moment. Disappointment, unrest. And I realize something, but it's too late. She's standing, offering me a hand to help me up. So I take her hand and silently tuck away the thoughts in my head to think about later.
"Mom was the only one who ever really cared about us all eating together, and she left last night. Either way, I'm starving, I didn't have time to get breakfast this morning"
I smile, trying my best to break the tension that's settled itself into the air and the breeze between us.
"Oh- sorry. I thought you would have had breakfast before you came down to the stables."
I shake my head at her, stepping into James' saddle and urging him back towards the woods.
"I'll go first on the trail back, I'll see you back at the house?"
The tension between us only grew thicker when we got back to the house. We were sat across from each other in the plush library chairs, both half-listening to Olivia talk over the plates we all three had piled with lunch. Octavia and I half stealing glances across the room that were nuanced with something other than just disdain over talking about party details. Finally, Olivia noticed we weren't actually listening to her fully, and cut the tension hanging in the room with a knife formed from a question.
"Okay, what the hell happened out there? I mean Alex, the party after mom leaves is the only one you ever actually care about and you can't stop staring at Octavia like she just stabbed your favorite dog in front of you-"
"Nothing! Sorry Olivia, I think we're both just tired from the ride this morning. What were you saying about the theme?"
Octavia was the first one to answer, painting fake enthusiasm onto her face and pointedly ignoring me for the rest of lunch as all three of us kept talking over details.
The party we threw after mom left had been a tradition since she started spending her summers abroad. It was the event of the summer that everyone begged for an invitation too. Offered money and favors for an invite. It covered the whole grounds. It was black tie, fully catered, and was an event that dripped in money and debauchery. The house was full of smoke and music during the night, starting with dinner and then followed with poker and dancing. Poker games where people weren't allowed to bet money. They bet properties in the Maldives, million dollar horses, and jewelry that cost so much nobody would actually tell you how much it stole from their bank accounts through jewels and precious metals. All three of us helped plan it, and it was funded by part of the money mom always left each of us so we could travel during the summers if we wanted too.
"Wait, sorry, what did you say the theme was?"
I interrupt Olivia as she argues about the menu for dinner.
"Midsummer Nights Dream. You have to dress like Puck- I already ordered all of our costumes from the tailor weeks ago, they're supposed to be here tonight."
Olivia responded quickly, trying to cut me off before I can say something and failing.
"Oh, okay. That's fine. So we're doing the dry aged ribeye? I liked that one from the first year. As long as the cooks make it with the same sauce they did that year."
Olivia nods and stands, stretching and cracking her back before picking up her empty plate and taking mine and Octavia's.
"I'm gonna go give these to the kitchen. Anybody else want cookies? I asked the cook to make the ones with brownie bits and chocolate, I can bring up a plate while we do invitations?"
"That would be great- I can come with you? I forgot to get water to have with lunch anyways so I'm dying for something to drink-"
I would honestly do anything to get out of the awkward tension that still hangs in the air between Octavia and I.
"No, it's alright." She draws her eyebrows together, laughing a little in confusion. "Why don't the two of you look at the samples I already had brought to us." She nods towards the invitations laid out on the oak table in the middle of the room. "I'll be back in a minute with cookies and drinks."
I stand in silence for a second before I smile tensely at Octavia. Deciding to break the silence when the air becomes too thick to breathe it's steeped in so much uncertainty and anxiety.
"I guess we probably should look them over?"
I stand and walk over to the table they're laid out on, pushing aside the binder that has the rest of Olivia's plans inside it to look at the invitations, handing half the stack to her.
"I'm sorry- I shouldn't have brought up the stupid pact. I didn't realize it would make everything this awkward between us. Can we forget what I said?" A second passes. "Move on?"
I let out a breath and turn to her, leaning against the edge of the table as I nod in fake agreement. Still refusing to show my hand even though it's likely Octavia can see straight through it. Read the thoughts that race in my head right now.
"Uh, yeah, sure. But- why did you bring it up? We've never talked about it, and Olivia and I made it five years ago."
She furrows her brow, looking at me with an intensity set so deep in the brown of her eyes that it almost scares me. She's thinking too hard for this to be nothing- waiting too long for this to be one sided between us.
"Because, I don't know- I guess I found it weird that we haven't ever talked about it. I mean- I can't be the only one who's wished it wasn't there, Alex. Or have I- did I imagine the way we looked at each other last night? The feeling that's hung in the air between us since we met-?"
I catch myself before I respond. She's saying everything I've ever wanted her to say since we first met. Taking the words from where my thoughts are splayed out for her to see right now. But at the same time I wish she'd eat her words. Poison the thoughts in my head so I'd never have to think them again. Plant her words back in her own thoughts and never hang them in the air between us again. Because if Olivia ever found out- ever noticed the electricity and intensity that hung in the air between me and Octavia she'd never forgive either of us. Even the thought of the two of us being spoken was enough to break Olivia's heart. There was only one thing she'd asked of me- of me and Octavia both. And to betray Olivia like that would destroy everything we'd all built these years.
"I don't know. Maybe you have imagined it." I look back down at the invitations, tuck the thoughts I've left splayed out back into my head and let the words Im saying poison the ache in my heart to kiss her. Pick her up and press her into the oak of the table. Watch her eyes close half-lidded with pleasure. I let the poison sink in. Believe the words Im saying and forget any notion of the two of us. "Like you said, let's just forget it- There's been no reason for us to talk about it before now, and I don't think there's any reason for us to bring it up now."
I could see the crack that my words split in her. It was the same crack in my own chest mirrored in her eyes, but she let it show only for a moment. Then she changed her expression and smiled. Turned her attention to her stack of invitations.
"Sure. Yeah, let's forget it."
"Forget what?"
Olivia walked up to the two of us at the table with a smile and set down the plate of cookies she was holding, waiting for one of us to answer her question.
"Oh, nothing. We were just arguing about whether or not we should change the poker rules- so people could bet money? Make it more accessible."
I smile and look through the invitation samples in my hands, picking out a black invitation with golden flower borders with matching raised lettering. I hand the invitation to Olivia to review after I stop explaining my excuse about me and Octavia to Olivia. Distracting her with the invitations like a lion with a deer carcass.
"Oh. Sure, why not? It's your area to plan for the party, Alex, so whatever you want."
She took the invitation and looked it over before handing it to Octavia.
"I like this one. We could do it with the vellum envelopes? Ohh, and with dried flowers? That would be so cute."
Octavia nodded and smiled in agreement, taking the invitation and looking over it.
"Yeah, that would be perfect. Good eye, Alex."
She met my eyes and smiled. Poison, I remind myself. Don't let her do this to you. Don't let her tear apart the pieces and intertwine them with her own. Build back the walls and brick up anything you feel for her behind them. To live in the dark until they shrivel up and die.
"I'll write up the details and send it out to the printer this afternoon."
Octavia looks away from me after a moment that seems like ages, turning back to Olivia and handing her the invitation I picked.
"Oh! The costumes are here! I forgot to tell you. The staff is taking them out of the boxes they came in, I asked them to bring them here for us to look over. Not that the tailor has ever done a bad job, in fact, the costumes for us this year might be my favorite yet. I had him have these masquerade masks made too. To give out to people- they're painted with gold. They're absolutely perfect."
I smile as Olivia rants about the costumes, looking away from her as one of the maids, hands full, brings in the bags that hold them. I rush over to help her, taking them from her hands with a smile, thanking her as she leaves and carrying them over to the table where Olivia is practically overflowing with excitement. I'm worried she might actually split into two if she doesn't open the bags right now.
I take the black bag with my name on it, handing the other two to the girls, before unzipping mine. I stare at the pair of deep green loose pants laid inside, a pair of gold wings and ram horns the only other thing inside the bag.
"Olivia- please tell me there's a top."
"You're supposed to be fae, Alex, why would you wear a shirt?"
She brushes me off as I roll my eyes, turning her excitement and anticipation to Octavia who's running her hands over the dress she's laid out on the table. It's a matching shade of green to mine, but it's made of chiffon and silk that drapes over where her shoulders and collarbone would be, a matching pair of fairy wings sewn into the back. I'm snapped out of wondering what the dress would look like on her when Olivia unzips hers and holds it up, grinning a grin that could dazzle anybody looking on at her.
"Isn't it perfect?"
She spins, laughing and grinning from ear to ear. The girls dresses are matching, but aren't exact twins to eachother. Olivia's is pink and dappled in crystals and glitter so that as she turns it casts off a thousand colors in the light. Octavias has tiny gemstones sewn between the folds of fabric so it more closely resembles dew on grass. And Octavia's has wings, whilst Olivia's has an open back that drapes low across her shoulders and waist. Octavia smiles as Olivia spins in circles, laughing at her when Olivia stops spinning, still basking in the glow of her newfound wave of excitemnt over the party.
"It looks perfect, Olivia. You'll look perfect-"
"Yours is gorgeous too, Tavi- So is Alex's. A shirt would ruin it! You know that. What Midsummer production has ever had a smoking hot Puck with a shirt on?"
I roll my eyes and look back down at mine again, sighing and running a hand over the gold feathers that make up the wings.
"Alright, it's not that bad. Could be like that awful pin-stripe suit you made me wear when we did Gatsby."
Olivia rolls her eyes at me and puts her dress back into its bag, draping the bag carefully over her arm.
"Well, I'm going to go find shoes to match it with. I'll see you both at dinner?"
"Oh wait, I'll join you. Can I borrow the pair with the flowers?"
I watch as they leave, sighing and zipping my costume back into its bag. I walk to the opposite end of the table where Octavia brought the painting too a while ago,
flipping it over so I'm looking at the writing on the back.
There's no other writing on the painting other than Moureau's signature in the bottom corner of the actual painting. No signatures telling who wrote the Latin, or any translations for what it could mean in English. Beside the painting is Octavia's guess at what it translates too and the research she's found about the subject of the painting and the artist.
She'd already told me about the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. She sent me an article about the painting by Moureau, It was one of the few paintings of the myth that wasn't Theseus killing the Minotaur, or of Ariadna leading Theseus out of the labyrinth. Instead, it was the Athenians. The children sent to die by the Minotaur because of the king Minos's cruelty. I turn through the papers she has of research and pick up the sheet with the translation on it.
"Beasts of the most savage nature have proved more mild and gentle to me, than you; nor could I have been intrusted to more faithless hands."
The first part of the Latin is from Ovid's Heroides is what Octavia has written beside her translation, but the second half isn't what Ovid wrote. And it isn't from any other letter written, or any other story told.
"They told you that I wept, that I tore my hair out, screamed and beat the ground in heartbreak over that Prince of Athens. But instead, I turned myself to the forests of Crete. To the savage beasts of the ground and the sky, called out to the gods and asked them to make me into one of the savage creatures that killed; that screamed and raged in anger."
"One god took sympathy on my heart. Bacchus; that great god of debauchery. A god who when he looked on me rose to make me into what Theseus would fear most. A creature he could not leave behind. A savage beast that would curse him and every child he sired. until his line grew so fearful Theseus himself would have to crawl up from the depths of Hades and kill the beast himself."
The writing ended there. Leaving a chill that froze me to my bones behind. I scrambled through Octavia's papers for anything else, instead of finding more notes about the letter, I found the blueprints to the house. The blueprints she had found were old, from when the house was first built. Our parents had added onto it since then and updated the blueprints but must have kept these in case. I spread out the weathered and old sheets of paper, walking to a file cabinet with a dozen or so thin drawers, opening the upper-most drawer and taking out the most recent set of plans for the house from inside.
I lay the ones Octavia found and the ones I held beside eachother on the table. Everything matched up aside from the newest additions we had noted on the most recent plans, but the original papers had an extra level. Something the new plans lacked- a level to the house that must have been overlooked. The doors that led to the way down to it were here, noted in the old plans in the same place that was the current back wall of the library I was standing in.
I grabbed the papers and ran out of the library as quickly as I could, rushing upstairs where my sister and Octavia were, frantically knocking on the door to Olivia's room.
"What? Alex, what's wrong? What is that-"
I shove past Olivia who opens the door and smooth out the papers on the bed, looking from her to Octavia who both stare at me, confused and bewildered.
"The new plans for the house, they're wrong. There's another level to the house, and get this, in the old plans? It's a labyrinth. A set of stairs, a little room, and then acres of labyrinth passages that fill over half the island. You know what this means right? Why the painting of that myth, with that writing on the back of it, was in our house?"
"No Alex, we don't know what that means. So there's maybe a labyrinth underneath the house? Great-Grandad loved Greek myths, he probably had it recreated for fun, just so he could say he had a real life labyrinth in his house. And the writing is probably nothing, something that somebody wrote on the back of the painting to scare us during a party."
Olivia finished talking and looked at Octavia with a shared look of concern that only managed to piss me off.
"Whatever, we should still see if it's actually there, though. Whether the painting and the labyrinth are actually related, it's still something we should look into-"
I watched as Olivia walked over to the papers and folded them together, handing them back to me.
"Tomorrow, okay? We don't have time right now to go on a wild goose hunt for something that's probably not there anymore. We still have tons to plan for the party and it's next weekend."
I blew out a breath, rolling my eyes and starting towards the door, catching Octavia's eye as I leave. She'd hadn't said anything the entire time, letting Olivia blow me off instead.
"Fine, Octavia? You really aren't interested in what this means at all?"
I hold her stare, silently begging for her to not brush me off and to give my idea about the painting the light of day.
"I am, but Olivia's right. There's no way it's nothing other than a coincidence, and even if it isn't, all of our plates are full with planning. Even yours."
I broke away from her gaze and left, leaving the both of them behind as I walked back downstairs to the library. I left the papers onto the table and sunk into a chair nearby, dropping my head into my hands. As much as I wanted to find a way through the shelves of books and to the possible labyrinth behind them, Olivia was right. Our plates were full, and I'd be able to look for the labyrinth once the summer party was gone and passed.