Page 1 of The Evil Twin
CHAPTER ONE
I stared at my doppelganger in horror. Something about seeing her there, in familiar surroundings, in my own world, kept me frozen in place. It was different from when it had been me in her world, somehow. Maybe because I’d been the one who was out of place then, so I couldn’t see how completely wrong it was.
“My lodestone,” she repeated. “Hand it over and I’ll be on my way.”
“It was never yours to begin with,” said Tennyson.
The calm, solid warmth of him beside me jolted me out of my shock.
“Counterpoint,” I said to her. “You fix whatever you did to Althea and give me back my powers.”
Even though I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I wanted my powers back, I definitely didn’t want her to have them. There was no scenario where that would end well.
Other-me sighed and rolled her eyes. “Look, I don’t want to be here longer than necessary. You’re going to give it to me sooner or later, so why not do it now before anyone gets hurt.”
Behind me, Harper began to giggle. It spread to Nikolai and Hannah, and soon enough, even Tennyson’s lips began to twitch.
She was just so cartoonishly evil, sitting there in the wingback chair beside the fire, spewing out threats, it was hard to take her seriously. Though, to be fair, she took herself seriously enough for all of us.
“You’re in my world now,” I told her, enjoying the look of confusion on her face at our laughter. “We do things differently here.”
“We should lock her up.”
I turned in surprise. I hadn’t noticed Sam come in. I barely recognized him; the expression on his face as he looked at Other-me was so cold, so filled with hate that it turned him into someone else.
Though he had a fair point, we couldn’t exactly have her running around, causing havoc.
“We should send her back,” I said. “If she’s not going to help Althea, there’s no reason for us to keep her here.”
Sam shook his head. “If we send her back, she’ll only hurt more people. We should keep her here and take your power back from her. Then we should leave her to rot.”
Even though I was no fan of Other-me, it hurt a little that he could look at her face – my face – and say that. It made me wonder if part of him hated me for finding him and bringing him back. He’d been so withdrawn since we got home that I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
At his words, Other-me gave a laugh. “You can’t honestly believe that any of you have the power to contain me, but you’re quite welcome to try. I could use some entertainment.”
I glanced at Hannah. She nodded, then faded back into the shadows. Other-me didn’t have a Hannah, and if she had, she’d have just drained her, then tossed her aside, like a used-up AA battery. She thought that stealing other people’s power would make her strong, but that wasn’t true.
It was cringe to say, but I knew that it was the people themselves who made you stronger, not their magical abilities. I wouldn’t last one minute without my friends, my pack, my family. She didn’t have that, so there was no way she could beat me, even without my powers.
“Okay,” I said. I could see Hannah moving from the corner of my eye, but didn’t want to tip off Other-me to what she was doing. “Stay here if you want. Do what you like, but I think you’re underestimating how easy you had it in your world, being a nepo-baby and all that.”
She sneered at me. “Everything I have, I took myself. My father never gave me anything…” She trailed off and her face relaxed, then broke into a smile. “Your father, on the other hand… Well, who knows what he might offer me?”
The lights flickered, which meant Hannah was done. I didn’t want to think about what might happen if Other-me teamed up with my father, and hopefully, I’d never have to.
“Great,” I said. “Well, there’s the door. Feel free to use it.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “What did you do?”
I shrugged. “What could I do? You stole all my power, remember? You should leave while you have the chance.”
She stood up slowly, unsure of herself. As soon as she moved, the restraints snapped into place, magically binding her by the wrists and ankles.
“Do we still have that dungeon downstairs?” I asked.
“We sure do,” said Nikolai, sounding way too cheery about it.
Hannah and Nikolai herded her out of the room. Sam glared darkly after them.
