The Dragon Twins
Dark World: The Dragon Twins 1
Michelle Madow
Dreamscape Publishing
For Gerry, for your kindness, generosity, incredible insight, and mostly, for your friendship. Thank you for everything.
1
Gemma
We were best friends, and now, he hates me.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at the last sentence in my journal entry. I inhaled the salty air and looked up to where the waves lapped the sand, and then out to the ocean to gaze off into the horizon. A light breeze blew around me, and the sun shined high in the sky. It was almost noon, so the sunlight brightened my entire cove.
My cove. That was how I’d always thought of it. By some miracle, no tourists had found the rickety wooden steps that led from the scenic road down the cliff to where the cove provided me my own private paradise. The locals didn’t come here, either. It was like the cove gave off an aura that told them to turn away and find another beach to hang out at.
According to my family history, my great-great-great-great-great grandmother—or something of the sort—had cast a spell around the cove with her sisters to make it so no one wandered into it. The beaches in Australia were Crown land, owned by the Queen of England for public use. But no one came near it but us.
My twin sister, Mira, hated it here. She said it was spooky, since there were no people around. She saw no point in hanging at the beach alone.
Which left it empty—just the way I liked it.
I wiped away my tears and refocused on my journal. Well, technically it was a sketchbook, since I didn’t like to stay in the lines while writing. Half of the page was already filled with my messy handwriting. But so far, I didn’t feel any better than I had when I’d first sat down.
I lowered the pen back down to the paper and continued writing.
I tried to make it work. I wanted it to work. But love can’t be forced. It either exists, or it doesn’t.
I stopped and stared at the words.
Then, something moved ahead and to the right.
I startled and looked up, and my eyes met those of a guy around my age. He was tall and tan, muscular without being bulky, had brown hair that fell in waves across his forehead, and hazel eyes so intense that it was like they were seeing into my soul. He looked out of place in jeans, a black t-shirt, and sandals—like he hadn’t planned on coming out to the beach.
“What are you drawing?” His accent was distinctly American. A tourist. September was the start of tourism season in Australia, although it normally drew an older crowd, since American families waited to visit until winter or spring break when school was out of session.
“I’m not drawing,” I said. “I’m writing.”
He walked forward until there were only two meters between us. “Writing what?”
I placed the pen between the pages and closed the journal. “Stuff.”
“Wow.” His eyes twinkled in amusement. “Stuff. Sounds exciting.”
I smiled, since yeah—I couldn’t have been more generic than that. “I’m writing about my life,” I said. “Figuring things out. Soul searching. You know how it goes.”
No, he probably doesn’t “know how it goes.” My cheeks heated, and I glanced back out at the ocean. Most people don’t keep journals so they can try to make sense of their innermost, angsty, brooding feelings that they’re too self-conscious to share with anyone else—even their twin sister.
“So it’s a diary?” he asked.
“A journal,” I said quickly.
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Diaries are for kids,” I said. “Journals are different. They’re more reflective.”
“Ah,” he said. “I see.”
The air crackled with energy between us. I wigged my toes in the sand, aware of every grain between them. The sand always calmed me, and despite the mid-day sun bearing down on it and heating it up, it never burned.
He held his gaze with mine, and his hazel eyes with a sunburst of orange around his pupils were so familiar. I could have sworn…
“Have we met before?” I asked.
“I just got in last night,” he said. “I’m Ethan. And you are…?”
“Gemma.”
“Gemma.” The two syllables sounded like music as he spoke them. “Pretty name.”
“Thanks.” I smiled and tucked a loose strand of my long brown hair behind my ear.
Ethan walked closer and situated himself beside me. He sat on my left—so he couldn’t peek into my journal—leaned back on his palms, and gazed out at the horizon. I waited for him to jump up and say something about how hot the sand was, but it was like he didn’t notice at all.
Just like me.
Realizing I was staring at him, I turned my eyes back down to my journal. “I broke up with my boyfriend,” I said. “Well, ex boyfriend.”
Why am I telling him this? I pressed my lips together and glanced around, as if searching for a way out even though I knew every inch of the cove like the back of my hand.
“Let me guess,” he said, and when I looked back up at him, my skin tingled with electricity. “You broke his heart?”
My chest panged at the reminder. “Something like that.”
Silence again, but a comfortable one.
“We were best friends,” I continued with a small sigh. “Now, he hates me.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you. You don’t seem like the type of person who’s easy to hate.”
“Thanks, I think?” I shook my head slightly and smiled again, watching the way his silky hair moved in the breeze. I wanted to run my fingers through it to see if it was as soft as it looked.
“You wouldn’t be writing in your journal to figure out your feelings if you didn’t care about his feelings,” he said simply.
“Maybe,” I said, although I knew Joey didn’t see it that way. He thought I’d been heartless. That I didn’t care about him at all. That I’d used him and then abandoned him.
As my best friend—ex best friend—he should have known me better than that.
“So, why’d you break up with him?” Ethan asked.
Why do you care? I wanted to ask in return. I was just some stranger on the beach.
But for some reason, he did care. And who knew—maybe talking about it would help me get rid of the weight I’d been carrying on my shoulders since the breakup.
“He just wasn’t the One,” I said. “When we kissed for the first time, I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. And I didn’t want to lead him on. So I broke up with him.”
“Right after you kissed?”
“Yeah.” I bit my lower lip. “Not the most tactful way to go about it, was it?”
“I can think of worse ways,” he said. “But that one probably wasn’t the best.”
“At least I know you’re honest.”
“I try to be.” He glanced down at the sand, his eyes suddenly distant. “When I can.”
I set my journal down and turned to face him. “You can always be honest,” I said. “It’s not always easy, but long-term, it’s always better than lying.”
He brought his focus back to me, as intense as ever. “Have you ever had to keep a secret?” he asked. “A big one, for the greater good? One that other peoples’ lives depend on?”
“Not really,” I said, since my family’s belief that we had witchcraft in our veins would sound crazy. Especially since none of us had ever been able to cast a spell. And because we’d sworn to tell no one. “Have you?”
A shadow crossed his eyes, and he stood up and brushed the sand off his jean
s. “I’ve gotta go,” he said. “Maybe I’ll see you around again, Gemma.”
“Yeah,” I said breathlessly, my head spinning from the sudden way he’d come into my life, and the sudden way he was apparently leaving it. “Maybe.”
He spun around, jogged out of the cove, and turned the corner before I could ask how long he was staying in town and where he was heading off to so quickly.
2
Gemma
“You’ll never guess what happened at the beach today,” Mira said as she grabbed the bowl of mashed potatoes and dumped a huge spoonful onto her plate. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and her bright blue eyes twinkled with excitement.
That was the only genetic physical difference between me and my twin—her eyes were blue, and mine were green. It shouldn’t have been scientifically possible, since we were identical. The doctors had no explanation for it.
My mom called it magic.
Mira was also tanner from all her time surfing, and her hair was shorter and dyed blonde. But those were choices—not something she was born with.
I took the bowl of mashed potatoes and spooned a more sensible portion onto my plate. “You caught your biggest wave yet?” I asked.
“Nope.” She smirked mischievously. “I met someone.”
“Let me guess,” my mom said as she placed the bowl of mashed potatoes back in the center of the table. “This ‘someone’ is of the male variety?”
“Duh.” Mira rolled her eyes. “He was walking by, and we got to talking. He just moved to town, and he’s never surfed before. So starting tomorrow, I’ll be giving him lessons.”
“He’ll be a pro by the end of the year,” my mom said.
“You’ll have forgotten about him by the end of the year,” I teased my sister.
That was how it always went with her. A guy struck her interest, she got him to fall halfway in love with her, and then she got bored and dumped him.
I’m not much better. My mind instantly went to Joey.
But that was different.
Or was it?
“Not with this one.” A dreamy look crossed Mira’s face. “He’s different. I’ve never believed in love at first sight, but with him…” She trailed off, smiling as she cut into her meatloaf and took a bite.
My mom raised an eyebrow. “You can’t be in love with him already,” she said. “You just met him.”
“Come on,” Mira said. “You think we’re descended from an ancient line of witches, but you don’t believe in love at first sight?”
“Maybe I’d believe it if Gemma said it,” she said. “But you fall ‘in love’ with a new boy every month. Also, I don’t think we’re descended from an ancient line of witches. I know we are.”
“Ooookay,” Mira said, and she took another bite of her food.
“You’ll find out in three months,” my mom said confidently.
Because we were part of a witch circle called the Gemini circle, and she claimed Mira and I were the twins of an ancient prophecy. In three months—on our seventeenth birthday—we were going to receive dragon magic that had been gifted to our ancestors and passed through our bloodline for generations.
I wanted it to be true. But every time I tried a spell from our family spell book, nothing happened. Mira had stopped trying with me back when we were thirteen, calling it a stupid family superstition.
I was excited for the night of our birthday, but at the same time, I was trying not to get my hopes up. It was better to be surprised than disappointed.
“Anyway.” Mira straightened, still smiling despite my mom’s mention of magic. “Back to the guy. We’ll be an official couple by the start of next term. Just you wait.”
“I’m sure you will,” I said, since when Mira set her sights on something—especially when that something was a guy who’d caught her interest—she was a force to be reckoned with.
I felt kind of sorry for the poor guy whose heart she was bound to break.
“Does this mysterious guy have a name?” my mom asked.
“Ethan,” she said, and I froze, my fork halfway to my mouth.
“He said he passed you on his walk down the beach,” Mira continued. “He’s gorgeous, right?”
His intense, hazel eyes flashed in my mind. The way he’d sat down next to me, and how easy it had been to talk to him in those few minutes that had passed far too quickly.
Gorgeous was an understatement.
He was perfect.
“He’s American,” I said instead. “You can’t date a tourist.”
“He’s not a tourist,” she said. “He just moved here from North Carolina. His dad got a super amazing job offer, so they picked up and moved across the world. He’s starting school with us next term.”
What?
I stared at her, mind blown.
Ethan was going to our school. I was going to see him again. Maybe we’d have a class or two together.
“How long did you hang out with him?” I sounded far more nonchalant than I felt.
“All day.”
Hot jealousy raced through my veins. Why did Ethan have time to hang out with Mira, and not with me?
“Just the two of you?” I asked.
“No.” She frowned. “It was me and my friends. Ethan and I actually went back to find you to see if you wanted to join us, but when we got to the cove, you were gone.”
“It was hot out,” I said quickly.
Her brow furrowed in confusion. “The heat never bothers you.”
It was true. But it was better than admitting that after Ethan left, I couldn’t focus on anything other than him. After ten minutes of staring out at the ocean hoping he’d come back, I went back home to read for the rest of the day to try to stop thinking about him.
It hadn’t worked.
Regret hit me hard, and I wished I could go back in time and tell myself to stay at the cove. Then Ethan would have come back, and today would have played out completely differently.
It’s not like Ethan and Mira are actually dating, I told myself. And he asked to come back to get me. That has to mean something, right?
“Why didn’t you text me?” I asked.
“I did,” she said. “I asked if you wanted to hang out with me and my friends at the beach. You said you were reading, so I figured that was that.”
“You didn’t say anything about Ethan.”
“Would that have changed your mind?”
Yes.
“Maybe.”
She looked at me like she didn’t recognize me. “You’re not interested in him, are you?” she asked. “Because he said you guys only talked for like, five minutes. And you’re never interested in anyone. Well, except for Joey, and we all know how that worked out.”
I flinched at the mention of my ex.
“Sorry,” she said. “Is he still not replying to your texts?”
“Nope,” I said, inwardly fuming about how she’d changed the subject before I could answer her question about Ethan.
But like she’d pointed out, I’d never really been interested in any guy. Including Joey, if we were being honest. And she was right—Ethan and I had only talked for five minutes. Maybe less.
Just because I was attracted to him, it didn’t mean I was interested in him. And I hated fighting with my twin. Which was exactly what was going to happen if I admitted to being interested in Ethan.
Give it time, I thought. She’ll be bored with him in a month. Then, if it’s meant to be between me and Ethan, it’ll happen naturally. She won’t even care, because she’ll have already moved on to someone new.
I needed to be patient and let fate take its course.
“Earth to Gemma.” Mira snapped her fingers to get my attention. “Did you hear a word of what I just said?”
“Sorry. I was thinking.”
“Of course you were. But back to Joey. You’re the one who broke up with him. So if anyone should feel awkward at the start of next term, it should be him—not you.”
“You were ne
ver friends with any of your exes before you dated them,” I said. “It’s different.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “But whatever happens next term, you know I’ve got your back. Right?”
“Right,” I said, although for the first time, I wasn’t sure I truly believed it.
3
Gemma
THREE MONTHS LATER
I stood in front of the mirror, studying the jeans and burgundy tank top I’d chosen for tonight.
For my seventeenth birthday.
But most importantly, for the Gemini circle twins ceremony.
I ran my hands over the front of my jeans. There were no instructions about what to wear for the ceremony, so my mom had told Mira and me to wear whatever we were most comfortable in.
For me, that was always jeans and a tank.
I brushed my hair, and then looked around my room. Books lined the shelves on every wall. Fantasy, science fiction, historicals, thrillers, mysteries, and even the occasional contemporary romance. You named it, I had it.
My window was a perfect reading nook where I could sit and look out at the ocean. It would have been expensive real estate, if generations of my family hadn’t owned the café below the small apartment and passed it down the family line.
I zeroed in on the shelf of my favorite books—the one close to my bed—and read the titles on the spines. The majority were fantasies. As I studied them, I was reminded of each wonderful story I’d read and enjoyed, which calmed my racing heart.
Two knocks on the door, and Mira opened it and pranced inside. She wore high-rise jean shorts that barely covered her butt, and a pink crop top that showed a sliver of skin above her belly button. Her short, blonde hair was perfectly wavy, in the way I knew meant she’d curled it first, then brushed it out to make it look more casual.
She examined her reflection from multiple angles. “How do I look?” she asked.
“Cute shorts,” I said. “Are they new?”
The Dragon Twins (Dark World: The Dragon Twins Book 1) Page 1
