“It was like this black storm cloud that had been hanging over me just lifted away a little bit. They were so kind. They made me laugh. I came to the Sanctuary that night for dinner.” She looked over at Karina with a smile. “The next morning, I waited till he left the apartment, then I packed up my one bag and left. After two years of living together, it turned out to be just that easy. New home, new friends. Even took on a new name.” Karina looked incredulously at her. “First, it was so he couldn’t find me.” Ericka stroked the horse’s long neck. “But sometimes, when the answer comes easy like that, you know it’s right. I’m telling you, Karina, this place is magic. Just let go and see what happens.”

* * *

Late that afternoon, standing in the middle of the fields, Micah called out to them, “Group circle in an hour, folks.”

“What’s that?” Karina asked August, who was working near her. He’d rolled up the long sleeves of his shirt, revealing forearms marked with bold tattoos: a thick ankh symbol on his left arm, a bass clef on the right. She recognized that his was the body she’d seen entangled with Zoe the night before.

August raised an eyebrow. “Group circle? We do it a couple of times a week. Kind of a collective therapy session—a chance to keep ourselves honest and clear the air around here.”

An hour later, they sat on the grass so that everyone was able to see one another. Micah plucked a fresh lemon from a nearby tree and held it in the air. “Same ground rules as always. Only speak if you have the lemon. And speak with complete honesty.” Micah had told her that one of the cardinal rules at the Sanctuary was to ask a question like “How are you?” only if you genuinely had the time and desire to hear an honest answer. Similarly, you should not blithely say “nothing” or “fine” in response, as you’d been used to doing before.

David, one of the older guys in the house at almost forty, held up his hand and Micah tossed the lemon to him. He turned it over in his hand for a moment, then looked directly across the circle. “Justin, I feel like you’re shirking your responsibilities in the field. You help a bit with the weeding or fertilizing, then wander off somewhere on the property and come back when the work is nearly completed. I had to say something, man, after today.” David looked around at the others to explain. “He was taking a nap under that big oak tree on the other side of the hill. We can’t be doing that.”

“Speak directly to Justin,” Micah said gently, “and speak only about your own feelings.”

Justin held up his hand and David pitched the lemon at him. “I felt really violated today, man. You invaded my privacy. I feel like you’re trying to control me, to impose yourself—”