Twin Sparks

by Katie Low

  In a matter of minutes, the entire door exploded into a blinding spark of light. It was as if the thing had turned into a firework and burst before their eyes. When Liliana opened her eyes, she noticed that the doorway seemed to pulse like the low beating of a heart.

  Cardi reached for the door handle, and when she opened it, Liliana saw the old elf standing in the entryway. “Well, don’t dawdle, we don’t have all day,” Orla said, and stepped aside.

  Cardi’s face lit up in one of her radiant smiles, as she waved Ruarc and the triplets through first. The four of them disappeared one-by-one, before she nodded toward Uncle Fearghus. Their uncle nudged Hannah and Jeremy through the door, and then took Gemma’s hand in his, and stepped through with her.

  “You two are next,” Cardi said to Liliana and Thad. “Your father and I will go last so that I can close the portal.”

  Thad took her hand and pulled her through the opening. When they stepped over the threshold, they found themselves inside the kitchen of Cardi’s cabin, surrounded by all those who had been in North Carolina a few seconds earlier.

  “That. Was. Awesome.” Liliana whispered to her brother, who nodded vehemently from her right. His eyes were widened with awe as he turned in a circle to take in his surroundings.

  When Cardi and their father stepped through the portal, the glow that surrounded the door frame disappeared with an audible snap and the view of the street in Lore disappeared, replaced by Cardi’s laundry room.

  While Cardi ushered their uncles and friends out of the Cabin, Liliana and Thad stood alone in the small kitchen with their dad towering over them. Has he grown several inches? Liliana wondered. He looked larger than he ever had before, and even more intimidating when he crossed his arms over his chest.

  They were definitely in for a world of trouble.

  Chapter Seventeen

  They were seated in the living room, still in Cardi’s cabin, when she returned from outside. Their dad was still looming over them, not saying a word, as the witch tried to creep past them toward her bedroom.

  “You stay too,” Faolan called to her. It was the first time he had spoken since they came through the portal.

  Cardi slinked into the room and slipped past their father, before taking a seat on one of the vacant chairs.

  “First thing,” their father started, ticking off on his fingers, “is that I want you to know how your actions affected those around you. Your uncles were worried sick when they found you two missing from your own party. They thought that something awful had happened to you. When they came here bursting into Cardi’s cabin to find me and tell me that they tracked your scent to Uncle Fearghus’s and from there it disappeared, you then had the two of us worried as well. On top of that, Cardi had to exhaust herself even further than she already had from your first shifts in order to use my ring to track your amulets. When we realized where you were headed, she then called her sister to ensure that you landed safely, so that was one more person you had worried about your wellbeing.”

  “We’re really sorry,” Liliana whispered. Tears had started pricking at her eyes from the moment that her dad had started speaking, and she took a few deep breaths to settle herself. “I never meant to cause so much trouble.”

  “Why did you leave here? Especially on your own?”

  Liliana swiped at her eyes before answering. “One of the girls from school was teasing us about our mother not caring enough about us to be at our birthday. I knew that you would have invited her, and that she should have known how big this week should be for us, and I wondered why she wasn’t here. Why she’s never here.” When she thought back to what her mother had said to them, there was nothing she could do to stop the tears from streaking down her cheeks. “I just wanted to know what we did wrong.”

  “Oh, sweet girl,” Cardi jumped up from her seat and squeezed between her and Thad on the couch, wrapping them each into one of her arms. “You have done nothing wrong.” She glanced up at their father and flinched, before Liliana heard her whisper, “Sorry.”

  He gave a shallow nod of his head and sat on Liliana’s other side, and then brushed her hair behind her ears. “Cardi is right. You did nothing wrong. I found out too late that your mother never wanted to have children. I have tried to give her every opportunity to change her mind and be in your lives, but she has decided not to take them. The one thing that I never wanted to do, though, was let you know that people, let alone your own mother, could be so callous and selfish. I just wish that you would have talked to me before you took off. I could have prepared you for what you were about to hear, and gone with you for support. I would never have kept you from going down there. I want you to keep that in mind when I issue your punishments. I’m not punishing you for feeling the need to go and confront her, I’m punishing you for the way that you went about it.”

  Liliana nodded her head. She knew that a severe punishment was inevitable. She also understood completely that she had gone about everything in the wrong manner. “Just please, go easy on Thad. This was all my idea.”

  “No,” her brother spoke up. “I went along with it, we are equally responsible.”

  She turned to glare at him, and he glared at her right back.

  “I think that your brother is right,” their dad said. “Whether the idea was yours or not, you both still decided to be deceitful toward those of us that would see to it that you were safe and protected. You’ll both be punished equally.”

  Tears sprung back into her eyes when she thought about her brother accepting a punishment that should be meant for her. She reached over Cardi’s lap and squeezed her brother’s hand in hers.

  “For your punishment, I touched on it slightly back in Lore, but here are the full details. For each of the seven of us that you left behind, worried sick, you will give us each three days of doing every single task that we give to you. It could be something as simple as cleaning, or as large as helping to build another cabin. I think that Uncle Fearghus has another project going on right now that he could use your help on. Three days for each of us, puts us at three weeks. During that time, you will have no access to your phones. You will go to school, and then report directly to your assigned family member. Do you both understand?”

  Liliana nodded, and saw Thad do the same out of the corner of her eye.

  “Good. You’ll start tomorrow. For now, go wait for me by the back door.”

  Cardi had watched the entire exchange in her living room, and it had been all that she could do not to cry her eyes out. She had no idea how the twins’ mother could walk away from them. She hadn’t known them for very long, but even now she knew that she would do anything for those two. They were her world now.

  When she moved to Fabled, she never expected to find a new family to replace the one that she was forced to leave behind, but that’s exactly what had happened. She wasn’t sure if this situation had fixed the way that Faolan saw her, but she hoped that it was a step in the right direct. If nothing else, she loved his children as if they were her own.

  She didn’t know what to expect when he sent the twins in the other room to wait for him, but she knew that whatever it was, she didn’t want to sit for it. She stood from the sofa and busied her hands by straightening the cushions and fluffing pillows.

  “Thank you,” he said from behind her. The words were so quiet that she almost missed them. As it was, she dropped the pillow in her hands and spun to face him to be certain that she heard correctly. “Thank you for using your magic to find them so quickly. Thank you for giving them the amulets in the first place, and thank you for pushing yourself past your limits to bring them back to me. I know that I haven’t been very nice to you, and through it all, you have been gracious and have treated my children better than I could have ever asked of you. So, thank you, and I’m sorry.”

  “You’re welcome, and apology accepted.”

  “That was some pretty impressive magic that you pulled today. I’ve never seen a witch do any of what you managed
today.”

  She blinked at him, surprised, not only at the compliment, but that he hadn’t figured out yet that she wasn’t just a witch.

  “It wasn’t all witch magic. A large portion of it was a combination of witch and elvish magic. The portal was strictly elvish magic. If Cori or I had known any elves in Lore, we could have used it to get down and back, but by the time she would have established a relationship with someone and got the ingredients together, we could have flown in the same amount of time, or even faster. I thought that having her and Orla working on the ingredients while we flew would be faster, and getting us to them as quickly as possible was my main goal.”

  “You’re part elf?” he asked, looking rather dumbstruck.

  “Yes,” she said, drawing out the word. “Didn’t your brother tell you anything about me?”

  “No,” he raked his fingers through his wavy brown hair, looking a bit sheepish. “If I’m being honest, the only things that I knew about you were told to me by the gossip chain at the werewolf alpha, Magnus’s house.”

  She slapped her hand over her forehead. “So, you really do know absolutely nothing about me.” She giggled. “I think that we need to have a talk once you get everything with the twins situated.”

  His lips twitched in a smile. “I think that sounds like a good idea. Good night, Cardi.”

  “Good night, Faolan.”

  Epilogue

  Thad and Liliana made it through their three weeks’ worth of punishment relatively unscathed. His sister spent a good portion of it mumbling under her breath, but none of them had expected anything less from her.

  He had sent the soundbite of their conversation with their mother down to Xylander, and had heard back from the vampire leader a few times since then. He had asked if he could still be a part of their lives, even if their mother wasn’t, and Thad and Liliana had conferred with each other and agreed. They had even received belated birthday presents from him. Apparently, he had given money to Charlotte to send them something and she hadn’t.

  Cardi had been spending a lot more time with them lately, to Liliana’s delight. The two were getting very close, which Thad was happy to see. His sister needed a decent female role model, and the schoolteacher was bound to be as good as they came. Even their dad was nicer toward her than Thad had ever seen. He supposed finding them and getting them back safely had warmed the grumpy dragon toward the witch.

  They had been flying with their dad and uncles a few times in the past weeks. It was one of the “fun” things that the two of them were allowed to do. Flying was quickly becoming one of Thad’s favorite things to do, and that included playing any of his video games. He couldn’t wait until they were allowed to spend time with their friends again, so that he could take them back up in the air. As of now, they only got to see each other at school.

  Hannah and Jeremy had been grounded as well. Gemma had been the only one to get away with their escapade, and that was only because her brother hadn’t known about it until she confessed to him. She admitted that he went easy on her even then, mostly because he was still getting the hang of being a surrogate parent after their mother’s passing.

  Despite their punishment, this past few month had been some of the best of their lives. The twins were closer than ever, their friends had stuck by them through the worst of it, and their family had grown by a witch and a vampire. Surprisingly enough, they felt closer to Xylander now than they ever had before their confrontation with their mother. Thad had been shocked to learn that she let him believe that the two of them wanted nothing to do with him. Thad had been glad to set the record straight.

  Now, Thad and Liliana were looking forward to their next adventure. He didn’t know what it would be, or when it would happen, but either way, he couldn’t wait.