Page 21 of The Evil Twin
“We’re going to research this completely before we do anything,” I told him. “If it’s not safe, we won’t do it. You’re not going to lose me, not to her. Not to anyone.”
I was vaguely aware of Althea leaving the room, but all my focus was on Tennyson. I’d forgotten his warmth, his scent. I closed my eyes and just let myself appreciate the moment, being there with him. I felt his hand in my hair, then he pulled me closer. He held me so tightly, as if he could keep me there through his own will, keep the waves of the future from washing me away.
“I hate this,” he whispered against my skin. “I hate being apart from you.”
And even though I knew it was for the best, even though he’d been doing so well as alpha while we were apart, I hated it too. Even though I knew it was dangerous, just for a moment, I let the walls of our bond come down. Just for a moment, the two of us became one, and it was perfect.
CHAPTER TEN
Even though he hated it, after he read through all the research, even Tennyson couldn’t deny that our plan was the best that we had. Nikolai confirmed that the details from Mrs Spencer’s notes matched up with his uncle’s story. All we had to do was flesh out the details of how to get Other-me back, and we could get things moving.
That was, until Sam.
I’d just assumed he was off meditating or whatever it was that he did when he was avoiding us, but he’d been hanging out in the shadows, listening to the whole plan. He didn’t approve, but we didn’t realize that until the next day, when his mother’s notes and our research were nothing but ashes in the fireplace.
I hadn’t seen Althea truly angry, not until that moment. I’d seen her irritated, a little snippy, but when she realized what had happened, she was livid. Her cheeks, normally so pale, flushed scarlet. Except for the shimmer on her skin, which began to glow.
“What have you done?” she said through gritted teeth.
“What you all should have done when you discovered this ritual,” said Sam. “Burned every trace of it.”
He stood squarely in front of her, between her and the ashes in the grate, trying to keep her from any scrap of the research.
“You had no right,” she said. The glow was getting brighter. It surrounded her whole body and almost looked as if it was lifting her off the floor.
“She’s right,” I said to Sam. “We worked so hard on that research. If you had a problem with it, you should have talked to us about it, not just destroyed all our work.”
“Most of it was my mother’s work,” he said. “And she’s just as bad as your father. Just as bad as the Other-you. They’re all evil, Lucy. I won’t let you turn into one of them.”
I shot a glance at Tennyson. I knew that Tennyson had found Sam a therapist, a good therapist who was involved in our world, so that Sam didn’t need to hold back with them, but apparently, the therapy hadn’t been doing the job.
“This is bigger than just me,” I told Sam. “My safety isn’t worth more than everyone else’s.”
Sam just shook his head and folded his arms over his chest stubbornly. I couldn’t even see if there was anything left in the ashes to salvage, but Sam obviously didn’t want to chance it.
“For all you know, this was her plan all along,” Sam said. “To put you in this situation where you feel like you need her, and then what? You activate the lodestone, and then she steals it? Or you go through with the whole ritual, and you become her? Then she has everything, all of your powers, your life.”
Everything he said made me angry, because it was all the niggling doubts I had myself. Still, he didn’t need to be so high-handed about it.
“Well, what do you suggest we do?” I snapped at him. “I don’t see you coming up with any great plan. You’re too busy wallowing in your own misery to help us out.”
Tennyson drew in a sharp breath, and the glow around Althea faded a little. I guess my anger made her own fade a bit. But Sam didn’t even react.
“Well, that’s better than barreling ahead with the first stupid plan you think of. That’s what you always do, and every time things turn out worse than they had been to start with. But you just keep barreling on and on until everyone is either captured or killed, and then you look around and wonder why everything is so terrible. It’s terrible because of you, Lucy. Because you never stop to think how your actions will affect anyone else. As long as you and Tennyson are safe, you don’t care about anything else.”
I took a step back and held my hands up in surrender. I was so angry at him that I couldn’t even speak. I was so angry that if I opened my mouth, I knew I’d burst into angry tears, and that would make me even angrier.
“Right,” said Tennyson. “I think we need –”
But I never found out what Tennyson thought he could possibly say to de-escalate the situation, because right at that moment, Althea dropped to the floor and went into another seizure.
My anger was gone in a second, replaced by worry for her. This fit seemed even stronger than the last. I remembered what Nikolai had done and grabbed a cushion from the nearest chair to put under her head. Tennyson helped me roll her onto her side. She was breathing fine, not choking or anything, so we just sat close to her and made sure she didn’t hurt herself.
The seizure seemed to go on much longer than the previous one, and just as I thought it, I realized I hadn’t been timing it. I glanced at Tennyson, and he’d obviously just remembered too. He took his phone from his pocket and started a timer, but as soon as he did, she started shaking less, and after a moment, her eyes rolled back down and she blinked.
“Urg,” she groaned, trying to sit up. We pushed her back down to put her head on the cushion.
“What did you see?” Tennyson asked.
