Twin Curse

by Rinelle Grey

  © 2013 by Rinelle Grey

  www.rinellegrey.com

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by

  Blurb

  Born together, wed together…

  The ancient law is a curse to Brianna, whose twin sister has fallen in love with a man Brianna can’t bring herself to marry. To avoid disappointing her family, she fakes her death and escapes Eryvale to hide in the dazzling city of Bymere…but the city doesn’t live up to its promise.

  Lonely and homesick, Brianna regrets her decision until she meets Lyall, a handsome mage. Their instant bond grows deeper, and despite knowing she can never marry him, Brianna accepts Lyall’s offer to leave Bymere before travellers from her village discover she’s still alive. Journeying to the exciting Isla de Magi, Brianna makes plans for a new life and is shocked to find she possesses mage magic as well.

  However, when a chilling dream warns of an impending threat to her village, Brianna must leave the Isle and rush home to help her sister. Soon Lyall follows, chasing after the same threat and longing to reunite with Brianna. But can the two work together to stop the danger? Or will Brianna be forced to choose between her love for Lyall and the safety and happiness of her sister?

  Table of Contents

  1 - The Twin Law

  2 - Runaway Twin

  3 - Scent of Power

  4 - Wise Words

  5 - Touché

  6 - Keep a Secret

  7 - Romance &Adventure

  8 - On the Wind

  9 - Isla de Magi

  10 - Colour & Light

  11 - Nightmares

  12 - Stuck Here Forever

  13 - A Magical Illusion

  14 - Invaders

  15 - Outside the Wall

  16 - Secrets

  17 - Twin Gems

  18 - Heavy Responsibility

  19 - Turning Around

  20 - Twin Bonds

  21 - A Rainbow of Magic

  22 - A Dark Mist

  23 - A Change of Heart

  24 - One & Only

  “What do you think of Terion?”

  The question caught Brianna by surprise, and she paused plaiting her long dark hair to stare at her twin. Mianna stood by the window, watching something Brianna couldn’t see. Tying a yellow ribbon in her hair, she walked across to the window.

  Following her sister’s gaze, she saw the young man in question helping move the tables and benches into position around the outskirts of the village square, where the older villagers could watch the dancing that would occur in the middle.

  Like everyone else in the village, she’d known him since she was a child, and she could easily recall a hundred facts about him.

  He was kind and gentle, and always did the right thing. He’d rescued Mianna’s kitten from a tree when they were seven. He’d taken them for rides on his horse when they were thirteen, but he wouldn’t let Brianna jump over the hedge. When he’d caught them sneaking out of the house at fifteen, after Brianna had spent hours convincing Mianna that the chance to watch the dancing at the midsummer bonfire was worth the risk of being caught, he’d marched them straight back home, explaining with a twinkle in his eye that they’d soon be old enough to join in the dancing.

  He was the sort of person who obeyed the rules without exceptions—even if it wasn’t fun. Squelching the feeling of irritation that bubbled up in her, Brianna forced a shrug. “He’s okay, I guess. Why?” She couldn’t really find any faults with him—not that her sister would agree with anyway.

  When Mianna didn’t answer, she glanced up and caught a blush stealing across her twin’s face. Mianna turned back to the dressing table to pick up a brush. “No reason,” she said in an attempt to be off hand. “Are you going to wear the yellow dress? Because if you are, I’ll take the blue.”

  Being the exact same size, both girls shared a wardrobe, and usually a discussion of who was to wear what was enough to start an argument that would eclipse any previous conversation. But Brianna, who had already planned on wearing the yellow dress, was not so easily distracted.

  “You’re not trying to tell me you like him, are you?” she asked incredulously.

  “Well, we’ve been working together in the mill,” Mianna said, her tone defensive. “We had some problems with the alignment of the millstones, and he’s been helping fix them. He’s really good with his hands.”

  Brianna raised an eyebrow. “Good with his hands? Mia, you should hear yourself.”

  “Bri, we can’t just sit around waiting forever. I want to get married, you know, and have babies.”

  If her twin had punched her in the gut, she couldn’t have shocked her more. “So what, you’re just going to forget about Kylis?” she demanded.

  “He’s dead, Bri, he’s not coming back,” Mianna said softly. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to stop living our lives.”

  Brianna was silent, her heart quietly aching. No, Kylis was never coming back. He’d ridden off to battle, laughing and telling them that he’d be home before they knew it, so they’d better have the wedding celebrations ready and waiting for him. The image was so clear in her mind it could have been yesterday. She almost expected to see him walk in the door and demand to know what nonsense Mianna was talking about.

  But when she counted up the days, it had been just over a year.

  They should be thinking about celebrating their anniversary together. Not talking about Terion.

  “How can you even think of anyone else?” Brianna asked, her voice choking on the emotion. How could anyone else ever fill Kylis’s place?

  She stayed stiff as Mianna gave her a tight hug. “I’m never going to forget him, Bri, but I’m not going to give up on living my life because he isn’t around anymore,” she said gently. “And you shouldn’t either.”

  The thought of living with someone else, having someone else’s children, hurt too much to even think about. They’d shared so many plans for the future together, the three of them. “I can’t, Mia.” She tried to explain. “Moving on… well, doing that means accepting that he’s g-gone.” As Brianna said the words out loud, it hit her. He was gone. Kylis was never coming back.

  Ever.

  Tears filled her eyes and threatened to overflow. She tried to blink them away, tried to stuff those feelings back where they had been, safely contained, to finish what she had planned to say. “I-I don’t think I can do that.”

  The attempt failed, and the tears she had been holding in for a year burst out all at once.

  She melted into Mianna’s arms, and her twin held her, rocking her back and forth, as she sobbed out months of grief that she’d kept hidden. Mianna had done her share of crying in the weeks following the news of Kylis’s death. Then, Brianna had been the strong one, holding her sister as she cried.

  Now it was her turn.

  When her sobs finally lessened, Mianna said quietly, “You’ve been holding that in for a long time, Bri. It had to come.”

  She handed Brianna a handkerchief, and Brianna blew her nose loudly. “I could have avoided it a lot longer if you hadn’t gone and found someone else.” Her mood had improved enough that she could joke about it. A good sign.

  Mianna didn’t joke back. “Bri, you could at least give him a chance,” she pleaded.

  Brianna sighed. She owed her sister that much at least. “I’ll give him a chance,” she agreed grudgingly. “But if he starts giving me a detailed description of how he fixed the millstones, I’m out of there.”

  Mianna threw her arms around her twin and squeezed her tight. “Thanks, Bri.”

  “We’d better finish dressing, or the dance will be over before we get there,” Brianna said pointedly. Anything not to have to look into her twin’s eager, excited face.

  Mianna danced off t
o put on the blue dress, smoothing the skirt over the layered petticoats, arranging the frills carefully. The narrow waist showed off her figure perfectly and would have made Kylis laugh and pull her close for a kiss, while cursing the artfully arranged flowers, each folded carefully by hand, that hid her cleavage.

  Turning away from the sight and the thoughts, Brianna stepped into the yellow dress. It was last year’s style, the waistline higher than the one Mianna wore, but Brianna wasn’t bothered by fashion. The dress was her favourite, and she’d been wearing it the last time she and Kylis had danced together.

  If only he hadn’t died. She and Mianna had both loved him, for he could be sweet and kind, and at the same time, dashing and adventurous. He always did the right thing, but his own version of it, not necessarily the accepted one.

  Her sister hummed under her breath as she tied a ribbon around her head to hold her hair off her face. Brianna’s jaw clenched. She pulled at a tucked up bit of her skirt, smoothing it out with jerky movements.

  Why did Mianna have to be so darn happy? Was she trying to make Brianna feel guilty? She’d said she would give Terion a chance, and she would honestly try. But he was just so… so... boring.

  The truth was, there wasn’t one man in the village she would consider marrying. The trouble with living in Eryvale, nestled at the base of the ridge, was that all the best men, all those with courage and heart, died fighting the trolls. Most of them, of course, had the sense to get married and have a child first, or the whole village would have been wiped out long ago.

  But she couldn’t expect Mia to wait around forever just because she was too exacting.

  Born together, wed together.

  Damn that stupid rule that said twins married the same man. It went against all the other rules of marriage, and made no sense at all.

  Mianna danced across the room. “Can you button me up, Bri?”

  Performing the requested service, Brianna listened to Mianna babble on about the food and dancing planned for the evening, her eyes shining. She turned and let Mianna button her up, grateful for the steady stream of words her sister uttered, leaving her with little to do except nod and agree.

  By the time the twins came downstairs and walked across the grass to join the gathering in the village square, there was quite a crowd. People sat in groups at the long wooden tables, sharing stew and bread. Brianna and Mianna helped themselves to a large bowl and a crusty roll each, then found a seat at a table with some of their friends.

  Sari showed off her baby, a tiny squalling, red, angry face with nothing endearing about it. Her husband, Breck, stood behind her proudly and ran and fetched her stew, water, or whatever she requested. Mianna cooed over the baby and was rewarded with a moment’s smile from the infant.

  Probably just gas, Brianna thought sourly.

  She turned away from her sister fawning over the baby, not wanting to see the longing in her eyes. Why did things have to change? Why couldn’t life just continue the way it had been for the last year, letting her ignore the fact that her future had been irrevocably altered?

  “Do you want to dance?” Corlin’s voice at her elbow interrupted her melancholy thoughts, reminding her that even if there weren’t any men in the village she wanted to marry, there were still plenty she was happy to dance with.

  Corlin was a good dancer and easy to talk to. It was a pity he wasn’t a few years older, or he might be a possible alternative to Terion. If Mia was so set on getting married, Brianna might at least look around so that she could have a say in it.

  “Got some new blood in town, huh?”

  “What?” Brianna stared at Corlin, confused.

  He nodded to a table by the bonfire where a man sat eating some stew, awkward in his leather armour. “Turned up this evening. Reckon he’s going to try his luck over the ridge?”

  “Probably.”

  They had plenty of those sorts of visitors, itching to do battle with the trolls. They all went up over the ridge, but none of them ever came back. They all seemed to think it was some game, and that the danger must be exaggerated. Some even boasted that they would be the one to finally defeat the trolls.

  As if.

  As if all the good men and women, ones like Kylis and her father, had been somehow inferior. Emotion welled up in her and for a moment, Brianna was afraid she was going to cry again. The thought of breaking down in front of Corlin and the other dancers on the floor mortified her. She mumbled a need for a drink of water, and fled the dance floor.

  And ran smack bang into Terion. He caught her as she stumbled, setting her on her feet and letting go before she could snap at him to do so.

  “Hi, Brianna.”

  “I know, Mia talked to me,” she answered quickly before he could say anything.

  There was an awkward silence.

  “I’m sorry, Brianna. I told Mianna not to say anything to you. I know you and I have never really clicked, but she said you would understand and… she and I… Well we…”

  Brianna sighed. “I know. I told her I’d give it a chance. I can’t offer anything more than that,” she said roughly.

  Terion nodded.

  Again there was an awkward silence.

  “Do you want to dance?”

  “Sure, why not?” Anything was better than standing here not knowing what to say.

  Terion danced well, and to her relief, he didn’t bug Brianna to talk. She was grateful enough that she gave him a kiss on the cheek as the music faded.

  Mianna waited excitedly by the dance floor. “Well?” she asked.

  “It was just a dance, Mia. Give me a little while to get accustomed to the idea.” Brianna tried not to snap, but Mianna’s face fell anyway, stirring more guilt.

  To make up for it, Brianna hugged her sister. “He’s sweet, Mia. I can see why you like him.”

  And she could. Terion was just what her sister was looking for. He’d make an excellent father, and he’d always be there for her. Not like Kylis. But would he ever make her heart beat that little bit faster as their fiancé had?

  Could she settle for second best?

  “Serrile, you just have to see this! You won’t believe it.”

  Brianna looked up at the sound of Ethean, the village elder, calling out her mother’s name. He ran across the grass in bare feet, nearly tripping over his long brown robes, waving a leather-bound book in front of him.

  In spite of her other worries, Brianna was intrigued. She’d loved Ethean’s visits when she was little, enjoying sitting on his lap and hearing tales from long ago. At nearly seventy, he was the oldest person in the village, his occupation as a scholar protecting him from fighting in the troll raids. Usually, he only found out about a raid when he wandered out of his cottage days later.

  What did he have to tell her mother now? Her feet led her across the grass of their own accord to where the old man held the open book under her mother’s nose. “See, I told you we must have some sort of purpose here…”

  “Trolls!”

  The voice, floating on the wind, froze everyone in the village. Ethean got such a shock, he dropped his book.

  Chilling screams followed the sound as the watchers in the pass died, sacrificing their lives so that those in the village might have a chance to survive.

  A small figure, the runner, whose job it was to warn the village, ran across the open field, yelling frantically.

  The sound unfroze Brianna and sent her racing back to the house to grab her sword, cursing the long skirts that would hinder her in the fight.

  She sprinted to join the other villagers forming a wall on the outskirts of the buildings, staring at the half dozen hulking dark shapes that loped out of the dark gap in the ridge, and across the field.

  Adrenalin surged through her veins.

  Behind her, she heard Mianna’s panicked voice calling and a child wailing. Brianna’s resolve hardened. No trolls would make it through the line to chase the frightened children tonight. Not if she could help it.

&
nbsp; “Ugrrrrhhh.” A troll raced directly towards her. His sword, twice the length of her own, swung down, moonlight glinting off the blade.

  She tucked and rolled, springing straight back onto her feet and swinging her sword at his thighs in one smooth motion.

  The edge of her sword cut into his tough flesh, slicing a gash the width of her hand.

  The troll didn’t seem to notice. He swung at the visitor, who had surged into the battle. His leather armour was no match for the troll sword. Red blossomed on his shoulder, but he didn’t stop. He followed through on his strike, his height enough to send the blade arching up into the troll’s thigh, where it stayed, lodged hard.

  This time, the troll roared in pain. He bent and cuffed the man with his hand, sending him tumbling backwards. The visitor didn’t move again.

  Brianna let out her rage in a battle cry and launched herself at the troll’s back. The tip of her sword aimed at the space just under his ribs, one of the few vulnerable points.

  The troll roared again, reaching around blindly to try to claw her off his back. Brianna held on with all her strength, squirming to keep out of reach of his hands. She twisted her sword with all her strength.

  He bucked to one side, succeeding in throwing her clear, though not in dislodging her sword, which stuck out of his back like an arrow. As he wavered on his feet, Corlin and Ambria rushed in, slashing at his body wherever they could reach.

  Swinging his fists wildly, the troll teetered towards where Brianna lay, the wind knocked out of her. His bulk loomed over her, and she scrambled to pull herself out of the way before he fell. A thud reverberated through the soil as he crashed to the ground behind her. She let out her breath in a gasp of relief.

  Struggling to her feet, she stared at him for a few moments, but the troll didn’t move. Brianna reached for her sword, bracing her foot against his body to pull it free, then looked around for the next troll.

  Forcing herself to ignore the villager bodies that littered the ground, she spotted a tall shape lurking in the shadows of a building. A growl forced itself out of her mouth. He had no sword and clearly wasn’t one of the fighters. His job was to find food or tools to steal while the others kept the villagers occupied.