Page 31 of The Evil Twin
“So, we grew up in the same house, but you had no siblings, no friendly neighbors.”
She nodded but didn’t speak, as she had the mother of all cheese pulls happening.
“My father left when I wasn’t much more than a baby, took me with him. If I had any siblings, I never knew about them.”
That explained a lot. I wondered how she remembered the house, if she’d left it so young. Maybe it was only a vague image in her subconscious, and that’s why her impressions had been so pale compared to mine.
“I’m guessing your father was about as great as mine,” I said.
She shrugged. “It’s not a crime to be ambitious.”
I snorted, then reached for another slice of pizza. “No, but it’s a crime to kidnap, torture, and murder people.”
But then, she had no problem with that, either. That was why I was there.
We finished the pizza in silence, then slumped back on her bed, both rubbing our full bellies. It was uncanny, I thought, watching her from the corner of my eye. Well, it was the literal definition of uncanny, wasn’t it – something familiar but not quite right.
I still wasn’t sure how to get through to her. From the way she talked, it seemed as if she’d never been close to anyone. If she’d honestly never cared about anyone or anything but herself, could I really convince her to do the ritual? She’d be literally losing herself.
I thought back to what Tennyson had said about when we’d first formed our bond. I’d been overflowing with magic at that point. It had been easy to join with him in that way. I didn’t know how to do that with her. Sure, I was in her mind, but I was still removed from her, external. It wasn’t the total mind meld that it had been with Tennyson.
The first time I’d experienced the feedback loop with her had been when I touched her. I figured that was worth a try. What could go wrong?
We lay side by side on the bed, so I simply reached across and caught hold of her wrist.
It was lucky that the pizza hadn’t been real, or I might have thrown it straight back up.
Everything swirled around, as if I were looking through a kaleidoscope. Or was inside a kaleidoscope, maybe. Images flashed around me, so quickly I couldn’t tell if they were my own memories or hers. People, places, most familiar but some not. Everything was distorted, sickly. The only constant was Other-me’s voice in my head, screaming: What have you done?
I wasn’t sure, exactly. The images slowed down for a while, then sped up again. There were moments I recognized now, from my own life. Waking up from my first werewolf transformation, finding Milo covered in blood. The time I’d attacked Fatima in class with my magic and injured her. When I was trying to escape from my father’s laboratory, and had exploded a bunch of his scientists with my brain. All my own darkest moments, mingled in with hers.
And I began to see how easy I could have become her. I had meant to hurt those scientists, I’d wanted to. They’d hurt me, so I wanted to hurt them back. It wasn’t the only time, either. When we’d rescued Harper. Henry. My power could be used to heal, sure, but I’d used it much more often to hurt. As much as I tried to do the right thing, I had a violent, vengeful streak. I couldn’t deny it.
There were moments from her life as well. Violence and anger, yes, but that wasn’t all. She’d cared for Other-Nikolai, genuinely cared for him. She’d kept him safe from her father. Her happy moments were fewer than my own, but she did have them.
Stop it! Other-me yelled. She sounded as if she were crying.
But I couldn’t stop it, I didn’t know how.
The images started swirling faster again, too quickly to make them out. We were spiraling out of control, and I didn’t know how to stop it.
But then something happened to save me. The same thing that always saved me.
Tennyson’s voice cut through everything else, and as soon as I heard it, the world became right again.
Lucy, come back.
So I did.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I don’t know what Other-me saw in that spiral of memories, but it must have been something good.
I’d barely opened my eyes and looked around to find myself back in my dorm room. I still sat on the sofa with Tennyson at my side. He looked pale and worried, then he winced, clutching at his temples.
“She has a message for you,” he said. “What the heck was that, you crazy… expletive. You could have killed us both. Stay out of my head.”
I sighed. It had all been for nothing.
