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My mouth drops open a little. And then I get my wits about me again. “I think it better if you tell me about you. Where are you from?”
Her eyes narrow as she pulls a yeasty dough from the bowl and slaps it on the counter. “I’m not going to tell you that. You’ll just try to take me back there.”
Clever girl. “It doesn’t matter if you tell me or not. Layden said the humans have video of Remus descending on your town. He will be able to tell me the location.”
She hisses in a breath as her eyes flash up my way. Then she glares back at the dough and begins to knead it furiously. “It doesn’t matter. Remus will come for me again.”
Though by the uncertain look that enters her eyes after she says it, I can see doubt has been planted in her head. It’s my job to water that seed.
“Whatever my brother told you,” I say, making my voice softer, “was a lie. He is not who he presented himself as.”
She scoffs at me as she shakes her head. “What do you know about it? You weren’t there. You were asleep.”
My jaw tenses, and for a moment, I worry Remus is threatening to take back our body. But no, I’m still in control. “I know my twin. Don’t you think I know him better than anybody?”
She slams the dough against the counter one last time before not only looking at me but taking several steps toward me, planting her flour-dusted hands on her hips. “Oh yeah? Are the two of you ever awake at the same time? Do you ever actually talk?”
“Well, no.” I blink a couple times. “But that doesn’t matter. We share a memory—usually anyway, apart from whatever he’s managed to do these last few days. . .” I frown, then regret having said it out loud when she looks curious. I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. He makes a mess, then I wake up and have to straighten it out. That’s how it’s always been between us.”
She just shrugs. “Sounds to me like you’re just normal brothers with a serious communication problem.”
I huff out an incredulous laugh. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe. But I’ve met him, and now I’ve met you. So yeah, I get it. You and him are caught in a seriously inconvenient situation.” She gestures toward my body.
Then she lets out a long, deep breath. “Okay, that’s not fair of me to say. I don’t understand. I’m sure no one can really understand it except you two. I’m sure it sucks a lot of the time to have to share a body. It’s gotta drive you both crazy.”
“He’s definitely crazy,” I mutter.
She cracks a smile at that, and I’m so completely dazzled by her that I lose the thread of whatever I was saying. “Who’s not a little nuts these days?” she says. “We’re all living in a late-stage capitalist dystopia. Besides, sanity’s overrated.”
Then she turns around, attention back on the bread as she starts kneading it again.
Wait, how am I losing this argument? What point was I trying to make? Is she intentionally using her femininity as a weapon against me? Because it’s an excellent tactical tool.
I stride toward her but make sure to stop on the other side of the counter. Probably best to keep a hunk of stainless steel between me and her delectable curves if I’m going to keep my head.
“What I’m trying to say is that there’s no way Remus showed you who he really is. He’s dangerous.”
“So dangerous your brother locked him in a dungeon for two hundred years?” She looks angry as she says it. “Yeah, he told me. Who does that to their own family?”
“So he didn’t tell you why?”
She bites her bottom lip, and I think ah, finally, I’ve landed a point.
“Fine. Why?” she asks without looking up.
“Because he’s a psychopath who couldn’t be trusted not to continue rampaging the countryside.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means my brothers and I had just finished sacking Moscow on Napolean’s behalf after one of the bloodiest campaigns the world had ever seen. The rest of my brothers and I were exhausted by all the bloodshed, but Remus only felt energized by the war. It was the last time the Horsemen would ride before rebelling against our father and retiring for good.”
I see her brow furrowing. Good. She’s listening. So, I press my advantage. “My other brothers and I had blindly followed our father’s orders for so long, but Remus did it because he loved it. As the French finally left Moscow in defeat, he roused the peasants to attack in guerilla warfare, decimating the very army he was supposedly fighting for because he craved war so much. Nearly a million humans died in just six months, soldiers and civilians. Yet Remus only hungered for more.”
Her hands have withdrawn from the bowl, and she stares past me at the wall. “He said he was a soldier…”
I laugh harshly at that description, and she looks up at me.
