by Megg Jensen
I jumped out of bed, not caring that I wasn’t even fully dressed. A light chemise hung from my shoulders to my ankles, but clung in all the right places. I crossed my arms over my chest, suddenly very self-conscious. Chase didn’t look straight at me. Instead, his eyes focused on a place over my shoulder. Always the gentleman.
“Look at me,” I demanded. His eyes didn’t move. I grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at me. He acquiesced, but his eyes didn’t drop below mine. “I was ready. I mean, I am ready.” I expelled a burst of air from my lips, frustrated.
“That’s the problem. You can’t make up your mind. What I’m offering you is simple, Lianne. I love you. If you love me too, then tell me. I know you loved Bryden. I respected that when he was alive and I still respect it now. But he’s gone. You saw his grave. You know it’s true.”
I trembled, but held tight to his chin. It was the only thing anchoring me. Without touching him, I wasn’t sure I could steady myself. Chase’s arms snaked around my shoulders, his hands tangling in my hair behind my neck. My knees quavered.
“Ask me to kiss you.”
I wanted to. I opened my mouth, but all I could hear in my mind was Bryden’s voice, telling me he was here.
“Or tell me you love me. Anything, Lianne. Throw me a rope, here.” Insistence laced his words. “You can say it. There’s no one here but us. It’s me, Lianne.”
Those were the same words Bryden said last night. The words spoken in his voice from beyond the grave. Still, my voice remained mute. There were too many conflicting emotions streaming through my mind. Too many questions.
Chase’s hands pulled out of my hair and he took a step backward. My arms fell limp at my sides.
“You are the most frustrating woman I’ve ever met! Why do you have to make everything so damn hard?”
Chase stalked out of my room, slamming the door behind him.
“I love you,” I whispered under my breath for no one but myself to hear.
Chapter Twenty
I dressed quickly and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. It hung sloppily to the side, but I didn’t care. I needed to talk all of this out with someone. I wanted it to be Chase, but I knew being around me was only torturing him.
I opened a portal in front of me, stepping through with confidence. Sebrina would know what to say. She always did in the past. No one else possessed as much common sense as my twin sister. She could help me figure out what step to take next.
Instead of entering outside her room, I ported directly into it. Sebrina jumped when I appeared.
“Lianne! I’m so excited to see you, but you just scared me to death!” Her palm rested over her heart. “You should feel how hard it’s pounding.” Her laugh rang out through the room.
“I’m sorry.” I immediately regretted jumping into her room without asking first. “Maybe I should leave.” I gestured toward the door, hoping she’d tell me to stay. She was my sister, but we didn’t have a comfortable relationship yet. I wanted to be able to confide in her like I’d always confided in Mags.
She grabbed my hand. “No you don’t. Sit down right here. I could use a little girl talk with you.” She glanced at me. “Johna introduced me around. I’ve met a lot of great people here, but I’ve really been dying inside, waiting for you to come out of your cocoon.”
“There’s some really crazy stuff happening and I don’t know how to make sense of any of it. I was hoping you could help me sort some of it out.”
I spilled the whole story to her. I told her about Wren’s warning and finding the one whose mind was clear. About how our mother had been severed and I’d accidentally found her living in the forest. Then I took a deep breath and told her I heard Bryden’s voice last night.
I drew my sleeves up to my elbows. Nerves were getting the better of me. Even though the chill from the outside hung in the air, I felt flushed. Sebrina would think I was insane. Maybe I was.
“One thing I do know for sure is that I heard Bryden’s voice last night.” My eyes burned with a fire I thought I’d lost months ago. Just thinking about Bryden sent my body into a tizzy.
Sebrina grabbed my hand. “You have to figure this out quickly.”
“I also have an obligation to help our people and this coming war with the Malborn. And if I believe Johna, the end is coming. I need to be the one to lead it, or start it, or end it.” I rubbed my temples. “I don’t even really know for sure yet what it is or what my role is.”
“If you had to choose between a war you knew nothing about or reconnecting with the man you loved and lost, which would you choose?”
I pressed my palms together, wishing an answer would appear when I pulled them apart. I knew where my duty lay. Everyone was counting on me to save them from an unknowable ending. Then again, if Bryden really was trying to contact me, did it all truly end? Was there more out there? A life beyond our life?
If so, then Chase’s religion was right. My lack of interest in an afterlife became irrelevant. But if Eloh was truly a goddess, a being beyond our time and understanding, then her prediction was true. An ache pounded in my head. Thinking in circles wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“Maybe they’re part of the same problem,” I muttered out loud.
Sebrina shrugged her shoulders. “It’s hard to know, isn’t it?” She sighed, picking at a thread on her dress. “Back when I was out on my ship, my life seemed so simple. I’ve been hoping our father would show up on the shores of Serenia, but he probably doesn’t even know where we are now.”
“I want to meet him someday. You know, after I end the war and reconnect with my dead boyfriend and figure out this prophecy.”
Sebrina threw back her head and laughed. “It’s too bad you just can’t get rid of everyone’s magic. That would be a quick solution, wouldn’t it? No more magic, then no more reason to wage these stupid wars. I have about as much magic in me as a rock. I live just fine without it.” Her giggles raced through the room.
But I didn’t join in.
She was right. If there was no magic, all the reasons for the wars would end. The Malborn wouldn’t care about me. They wouldn’t have to build up a magical army. The Dalagans wouldn’t conquer any other innocent people.
I grabbed Sebrina’s shoulders. “You’re a genius.” I kissed her on the cheek.
“I am?” She looked confused. Then her eyes opened wider. “I was just joking.”
I paced Sebrina’s room, my dress swishing around my ankles like a tornado. “It makes sense. If no one had magic, war would stop. There would be nothing else to fight over.”
Sebrina tossed her red curls over her shoulders and down her back. For just a moment, I was envious. I’d grown up ashamed of the way I looked and now all I wanted was to have it back. “You’re being naïve, Lianne. People will always find something to go to battle over, with or without magic.”
“I know, I’m not stupid.” I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “But it will level the battlefield, won’t it?”
Seek out the one whose mind is clear. Eloh’s words echoed in my mind.
I snapped my fingers, halting in front of Sebrina. “That’s what she meant,” I said.
“Who?”
“Eloh. She’s the one who wants all of this to happen. She told me to seek out the one whose mind is clear. I’m pretty sure she means our mother.” I tapped my finger against my temple, straining to understand all of it. The pieces floated around my head, begging me to put them together.
“I don’t understand how the two are related.”
“Our mother’s mind is clear, right? Because she’s been severed! The two have to be connected.” I sat down on the bed next to Sebrina, and then flopped backward on my back. “Argh! If she’s an all-powerful goddess, then why doesn’t she just tell me what to do?”
Sebrina lay on her side, propping her head up on her hand. “I have no clue. I didn’t grow up with religion either. Mother didn’t allow it. She told me we all had our own power.” Sebrina snorted.
“Well, I did before she stole it from me and gave it to you.”
“I’d give it back to you if I knew how. The magic has done nothing but bring me heartache.”
Sebrina’s lips pursed together, her eyes sad. “I wouldn’t take it, even if you offered. I live my life just fine without it.”
We laid in silence for a few moments while I thought about everything I needed to understand. “Do you want me to take you to see our mother? I could.”
Sebrina’s eyes clouded over. She gazed over my shoulder at the stone wall behind us. “No. Not now. I’m not ready.”
“Even if she’s changed? She isn’t the same woman.”
Sebrina let out a burst of air. “I can’t. Knowing everything I do, it’s going to be hard to face her.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Now, I need you to leave so I can get ready.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Ready? For what?”
A blush crept across Sebrina’s face. “Well, I’ve been here a few months and I haven’t exactly been sitting in my room the whole time.” Her hand flew over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to be mean.”
I laughed. “I know that.” I slapped her on the arm lightly. “Now tell me who’s putting the pink in your cheeks.”
The light blush turned to a deep scarlet. “His name is Will. He’s, um, he’s pretty incredible.”
“Are you in love?” I sprang up to sitting. My sister came here to escape the Dalagans and be near me. I’d worried that she sacrificed too much, but if she’d let down her guard enough to fall for someone, then maybe it wasn’t all in vain.
Sebrina nodded, looking down at her dress and tugging on that string again.
“Stop avoiding me and tell me all about him!”
Sebrina gushed about Will, telling me everything. From the way he held her hand, to how his dark hair stuck out on top, no matter how hard he tried to keep it down, to how he’d befriended her when everyone else was a little wary of her. He sounded like the perfect guy. Something tugged at my heart, reminding me that love was possible even in the darkest of times.
“I can’t wait to meet him.” I immediately regretted the words. I’d forgotten for a moment that I was the one everyone else was scared of. It wasn’t just my appearance. My reputation preceded me. People who got too close to me died, and people who crossed me died too. I’d never purposely taken a life. My magic had overwhelmed me every time, pushing me to release it.
“I would love to introduce the two of you,” Sebrina said. “You’re as much a part of my life as Will is.”
My heart filled with love for my sister. She’d never backed away from me once. It was as if she knew I meant well, even though she’d nearly been killed twice because of me.
“Maybe some night Will and I could meet up with you and Chase. We could go to a local tavern and dance the night away. There are some pretty incredible minstrels out there.”
Sebrina jumped off the bed. She pretended to bow to an invisible suitor, and then she held her palms up. She stepped backward, prancing around the room with her eyes closed, lost in a recent memory.
I smiled in spite of myself. “If only life were that simple.”
Her steps halted. She turned to me, her face angry. “It could be simple, if you’d just let yourself live.”
“I’m alive.” I held my wrist out to her. “You can feel my heartbeat if you want.”
Sebrina stuck her tongue. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” She sank onto the bed next to me, grabbing my hands in hers.
“I know. You’re talking about Chase and me.”
“He loves you, any fool can see that. But do you love him back?”
This time it was my turn to glance down at my dress. “I think I might.”
Sebrina placed a finger under my chin, gently forcing it upward. “You might?”
“Okay, okay.” I pushed her finger away. “I do. It’s so different than what I felt for Bryden.”
“It’s supposed to be, Lianne. Will isn’t the first man I’ve fallen for.”
My eyes widened. I’d forgotten how little I knew about my twin. “He’s not?”
“Of course not. It’s different every time. I might have even had some teeny little feelings for Bryden too.”
I knocked her on the shoulder. “I knew it! I knew there was something going on between the two of you, but you both denied it!”
“It was just me. Bryden never glanced at me twice. You and I are twins, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what he wanted and that was you, Lianne.” She sighed, placing her hands over her heart. “What is it with you and these guys who would do anything for you?”
I shrugged. I’d never asked for any of it. “Don’t know.”
“You don’t know how to let anyone love you, do you?”
I sat still, afraid to move, afraid to say anything.
“I’m sorry you weren’t loved the way you should have been growing up. You are totally worthy of a love that spans the farthest reaches of the world.”
Before I could hold it in, a laugh bubbled up in my throat and escaped through my lips. “What the heck does that mean?” I doubled over, wrapping my arms around my stomach, giggling into the nearest pillow.
“Stop! I’m not eloquent, I get that. You don’t have to rub it in!”
As I sat up, a pillow landed squarely on my face. “Hey!” I grabbed the nearest pillow, hitting her back lightly. I knew I was stronger than Sebrina. I didn’t want to hurt her.
“Okay, truce!” She dropped the pillow and held her hands up. “I just want you to know that no matter what you’ve done or who you’ve been, you’re totally worthy of love again. Bryden wouldn’t want you to be lonely.”
“Everyone keeps saying that,” I muttered.
“Probably because it’s true. You’re just too thick headed to listen to anyone. But I have to tell you that you better not let Chase get away. Eventually he’ll give up on you. Don’t be stupid, Lianne. Tell him how you feel. Don’t let what you heard last night get in the way of that.”
I nodded. She was right. Even if it was Bryden, I couldn’t have a relationship with a voice. I squeezed my hands into fists. “I’ll do it. I’ll tell him.”
“Tonight?” Sebrina asked.
“Soon.”
“Tonight, Lianne. Don’t wait. Grab life with both hands and don’t let go.” Sebrina’s eyes twinkled. “Or grab, Chase.”
I rolled my eyes and groaned.
“Sorry,” she said, “I had to.” Sebrina pushed me until I scooted off the bed. “You need to leave. Will’s going to be here soon. It’s not that I don’t want him to meet you right now, I just need to get ready. We’re going for a walk in the gardens.”
“You don’t have to explain.” I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see you soon, okay? Have fun today.”
“Thanks! Oh, and use the door next time.” Sebrina grabbed a comb, dragging it through her unruly hair. I reached over and pinched her cheeks, giving them a healthy glow. “I missed you every day when I was growing up. I knew you were out there somewhere. I’m so glad we’re finally together.”
“It’s just the beginning for us, isn’t it?” I envied her. I never knew I had a sister out there. I’d always been alone.
“It is. There’s so much more to come for us.”
A knock at the door startled us both. “I’ll get out of here.” I winked at Sebrina and opened a portal. Except it wasn’t to go back to my room. I wanted to talk to our mother one more time before requesting an audience with the council.
Chapter Twenty-One
Instead of entering outside the cottages, I ported directly into the cottage my mother, Mags, and Trevin shared. Mags jumped when I appeared.
“Lianne!” Her laugh rang out through the cottage. “I’m glad you’re back, but you scared me!”
“Where’s my mother?” I didn’t waste any time with pleasantries. Too much was at stake.
“She’s eating her morn
ing meal. Trevin and I finished early, so we came back here to rest. He’s teething, which means he’s not sleeping. We’re both exhausted.” She stretched her arms over her head and yawned.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll come back another time.” I paced around the tiny cottage, wringing my hands. I needed answers.
She grabbed my hand. “No you don’t. Sit down right here. We can talk. Trevin will probably sleep right through it.”
“What about you?” Being a mother was exhausting. I’d seen Mags will all three of her boys since they were babies. She rarely got sleep, particularly when new teeth were about to emerge.
“I’ll be fine. It’ll be nice to have someone to talk to.” She glanced at me. “Oh, sorry. Your mother’s a fine roommate, but she’s not exactly talkative.”
I nodded my head. “She can be intense.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Mags said. “So tell me why you’re here.”
“There’s some really crazy stuff happening and I don’t know how to make sense of any of it.”
The door creaked open. My mother stood in the doorway, blocking the sunlight behind her. “I think I can help you.”
“I think you can too.”
My mother looked at Mags. “Can you leave us?”
“She can stay,” I said.
“No,” Mags said, scooping a newly awakened Trevin from his bed, “I don’t mind. There’s nothing I can do to help, other than lend an ear. I have to take care of Trevin. He needs to be changed and I’m sure he’s hungry.”
Mags leaned over and kissed me on top of my head. With a smile and a shrug, she left us alone.
My mother took a seat at the table, folding her hands together on top of the table. “You told me how I tried to steal your magic from you. I thought perhaps if you returned mine, we could work together to bring your lover back. It’s the least I can do to make up for all of the cruel things I’ve done to you. And to him.”
“Bring him back? What do you mean?” My stomach turned. What could she mean by that? There was no way she could have known I heard Bryden’s voice last night.
