I woke to the sweet scent of breakfast, as I reached across the bed I found Emily missing. Dressing quickly, I went in search of her. She was at the kitchen bench making breakfast. Wearing nothing more than a tiny pair of shorts and a tight shirt, she looked amazing. Her fiery red hair was pulled up into a messy bun, revealing the original brown colour at the roots of her hair.
As I quietly crossed the room, I saw that we were alone. It made me smile but I wondered where they were.
"I can hear you, you know."
"Damn." I said with a grin, kissing over the back of her neck.
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I thought that this was a mighty fine way to wake up. I could do this for a really long time and just to add difference to our lives, maybe I might even try and figure out how to cook. Bugging Igor about how to use a kitchen wasn't the easiest thing to do but I'd give it a crack if I could do this for Emily one day.
She cracked an egg and dropped the contents straight into the pan, I watched with pure fascination.
"Don't you worry about shell getting into it?"
"Nah. Besides, bit of shell won't hurt you."
"Seen Luca and Kelsey?"
"They packed a picnic breakfast and left about ten minutes ago. There was talk about finding the other side of the island and doing a bit of skinny dipping."
That was enough of a warning for me, stay on this side of the island or risk facing seeing all of Luca which I did not want to see.
Emily turned and handed a loaded plate to me, offering a slight smile as a pink flushed in her cheeks.
"They said they're going to make a lot of noise as warning, just in case."
"Good."
She grabbed her plate and joined me at the table.
"Look."
Turning she pushed out her wings, shiny black, not a single white feather to be found.
"That's great."
Emily nodded with a large smile, sitting at the table beside me as the wings retracted back into her body.
"I suppose your father will know, won't he?"
"Highly likely. He'll be here soon enough."
"Should I knock?"
I could hear the humour in his voice as he moved through the room, Emily gasped and turned.
"Please, continue with your meal. I'm sure that we can discuss the future in such a casual setting, right?"
Emily nodded, quietly gazing down at her meal. My father was intimidating, even if he was being nice. I gripped her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. Her eyes looked up to me, weakly returning it.
My father sat at the table, leaning back against the seat with a rather satisfied smile. The devil was happy which meant that he would be more obliging.
"So how are those wings Emily?"
"Do you want to see them?"
"That would be a great idea."
He smiled at her, wicked and charming. Emily stood and pushed out her wings again, turning around for my father to assess them.
"Excellent, you may put them away and return to your meal."
She did as he asked for the first part but actually eating her meal, it looked like she was suddenly not hungry.
"Now, what have you two decided for your future?"
"We'd like to stay here." I said.
My father raised his eyebrows with shock, looking at me and waiting for more.
"Well not here specifically. We'd like to build something on the other side of the island so we can have a little darkness of an afternoon."
"And how do you propose building such a place?"
"I know you're not big on felling the trees but that's the only way I can think of without asking you to do it. We can build it and the land that we clear could be a vegetable garden I suppose."
Eyes narrowed as he tipped his head to one side, trying to figure me out. I did not have even the slightest inclination to do any gardening work or even building work previous to this and now I'd completely turned around on them.
"And for the long term, what jobs are you two planning on doing?"
"We'd look after the place, the animals, the plants. Put some board walks through the jungle."
He tilted forward, his hands still together as he leaned on the table.
"You do know that I made the jungle that way for a reason, don't you Brannon?"
"Yeah but not everyone likes to fly all the time. I wasn't going to clear out the canopy, just a path over the undergrowth."
This was a touchy subject, he'd made this place as a flying training ground. When I was learning to fly I had to navigate my way through the trees and vines, avoiding the monkeys that would throw things at me.
"We weren't planning on destroying the place and we'd always tell you before we did anything."
He stared at me, plain faced and not saying a thing.
"And besides, one swipe of your hand and everything would go back to the way it was."
"So, let me get this straight. After you two finish your education with top marks, you want to come here and build a house on the other side of this island. You want to put paths around the place and care for it, ensuring that the ecosystem survives better than it is now?"
"Yes."
Sitting back he offered a smile.
"Alright but I want to see thorough plans. The house and the paths, I want to know where they will be. I also want to know how many trees you intend on removing and where you plan on doing it. I expect you both to harvest the seeds for replanting, no less than fifty percent of what you take. Am I to assume you want to be reasonably self-sufficient?"
I nodded, still a little stunned.
"Good, I want to know what you intend to plant in this vegetable garden that you spoke of. You can both return to school tomorrow, I will visit and look over these plans before you leave. Impress me, make me happy with the decision that I have just made. Do a good job and I will offer you something incredible."
As he faded into the air I turned and looked at Emily. She was still gazing at her breakfast which was probably cold like mine was.
"Are you in there Emily?"
She grinned, nodding as she looked up at me.
"Just thinking how wrong I've been, or made to believe things I suppose."
"Yeah, that's the problem, everyone thinks like that. Don't get me wrong, he is something to be feared but deep down there is something so wonderful."
Emily nodded as she toyed with her food, seemingly disinterested in the meal. I had a niggling thought that there was something wrong, something that she was thinking about that was upsetting her or worse, that she knew something and wasn't letting on.
"I have to go and get some things for going back to school tomorrow. I won't be long."
As I kissed her softly on the cheek, she offered a smile but said nothing.
Sliding up through the layers, I found my father's study empty.
"Jumping layers for a reason Brannon?" My father said from behind me.
I gasped and turned around, seeing him standing at the doorway with a book in his hand. Under his heavy scrutiny I nodded, weighted down by an awful feeling that I just could not shake.
"Something is wrong. I can feel it, it's weighing me down."
"Indeed." He said softly.
He set the book onto his desk and walked to the window, taking a glance at the underworld.
"Everything appears to be normal, there is no movement at the west gate."
His fingers shifted and the world outside span, another view of the world of black trees.
"Nothing." He murmured, turning the world again.
"East gate is clear."
With a final turn of the air in between his fingers, the world turned and the view of the southern gate was revealed to him.
"And nothing again. It would appear that someone has gone to a lot of effort to hide from us."
As he stood and watched the world that was our home, all I could think about was how I had brought this trouble to our doorstep. This was all my fault.