Free The Isadora Interviews by Katie Cross

followed it through.
    “You could learn some kind of cooking specialty, I’m sure. Maybe work for the High Priestess.”
    Michelle put her hands in her lap, overwhelmed. It was true. She did love to cook. It was the only place she didn’t feel awkward, clumsy, or too big for the space given. The spices, the herbs, combining them together in just the right quantities was all second-nature. Mama had taught her all the cooking songs to use before she died, songs that had been in her family for generations. The music was the magic of cooking, creating different emphases on flavors and textures. Cooking made sense to Michelle. It brought her comfort. And there was always someone to cook for, always a sense of being needed.
    But to work for the High Priestess? That wasn’t what she wanted to do. At least, not really. It would be fun to see a castle, to learn more about cooking the perfect loaf of bread. She didn’t want to leave her brothers or her home to do that, though. Besides, they didn’t need her at Chatham Castle. Her family needed her here. So why was Papa doing this?
    “Did I do something wrong?” she asked in a small voice.
    For just a moment, Papa’s beady eyes softened from beneath his heavy brow. He let out a gruff breath and the room shifted into an awkward pause. Papa cast his eyes around and set down his spoon.
    “No, Meesh. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
    Ted drained the last dregs from his cup before setting it down. “Papa promised Mama before she died that he’d send you somewhere so that you could make a name for yourself,” he said, meeting Michelle’s inquiring gaze. “She didn’t want you stuck in this house forever, taking care of us.”
    Michelle wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. The tears didn’t come. Not since Mama died. Not since she saw the blank, stricken look of fear on Papa’s face when Ted and Rian finished filling Mama’s grave. No, Mama’s death made it impossible to show any weakness. Papa needed their strength.
    “You have to interview with Isadora, the Watcher. She’s coming by tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow?” Michelle cried, her head snapping up. Papa stood, his chair scraping across the wooden floor.
    “Yes, tomorrow,” he said in a firm tone. There would be no more questions, no more discussions. “I’m going to take care of the cows. Mace, Rian, Blain, you come with me. James, see that the goats and chickens are taken care of.”
    Michelle didn’t notice her family dispersing, nor the concerned looks Mace sent her way. She stared at the grain of the wood in the table until the lines merged. Only Ted remained behind. Stubble shadowed his face, his strong jaw highlighted by the same thick neck Papa had. Ted had light hair like Mama, with dark wisps of color near the roots. He was the oldest, and the one Michelle trusted most.
    “Do you want to go, Meesh?” he asked.
    She jumped, yanked from her thoughts by the sound of his voice but wouldn’t meet his gaze.
    “No,” she whispered. “There would be so many other girls there. I-I . . . They already make fun of me at school as it is!”
    The village schoolroom was over an hour’s walk through the thick winter drifts, which meant she only made it once or twice a month. Because of all the time she had during the day, Michelle always kept up with, if not surpassed, the studies of the other students. The cabin grew lonely and close after awhile, but was still preferable to the snickers and laughter of her peers.
    “If I go to a Network school, they’ll tease me,” she said. “They’ll call me a poor forester!”
    Ted leaned forward, his dark, intense eyes boring into her.
    “You can’t be afraid of things you don’t know or understand. Believe it or not, you’re the lucky one, Michelle. The rest of us didn’t get a chance to learn magic the way you can, not after Mama died. It’s too late for us now. We’re strapped to a life of physical labor with some magic in between to help us get by. But you can