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"Go for it." A command word wouldn't ensure as much secrecy, but it would make it easier if Iris, Morio, or Trillian ever needed to use it.
"I require solitude. Please leave." And just like that, he turned as if I were invisible. I could feel the threads of magic starting to build around the mirror and decided it was best to comply. All wizards had their secrets, and I had no desire to see something I wasn't supposed to see. Sometimes a little knowledge was a dangerous thing.
As I rejoined Chase and the others, I noticed that Trenyth was examining Zachary. I knelt beside him.
"He was gravely injured. Only by the grace of our healers did your friend pull through," he said, a grim look on his face. "These creatures you face—they are in league with Shadow Wing?"
I nodded. "We were going to make a report to Queen Asteria but didn't have a way to reach her except for Trillian, and we weren't sure if she'd listen to him because…" I drifted off, hesitating to mention the elves' prejudice against the Svartans. Calling them bigots didn't seem very polite, considering all they were doing for us.
Trenyth glanced over at me. "These are dangerous times. Old alliances, as well as old antipathies, must sometimes be set aside for the greater good. Trillian is welcome at our court, provided he behaves himself. You may make your report to me while we wait for Ronyl to finish his work." He pulled out a notebook and smiled at my surprised look. "We learn from others. While we find our own method of making items such as these without terrorizing the environment, we're more than willing to borrow concepts from the humans. Notebooks and pens are very handy devices."
I filled him in on what had happened since we last saw him, leaving out nothing. After I finished, he sat unspeaking, staring at his notes with what almost seemed an awed hush.
"I can't believe you actually invoked the Autumn Lord. You're either a fool or one of the bravest women I've met." He looked up at my forehead. "And now you bear his mark. There is more. Something about you has changed since we last met, Delilah D'Artigo. I can feel it in my bones. You are unrealized, a sleeping lion who has yet to wake and realize how powerful she really is."
I stared at him, wondering what he was talking about. "Are you a seer?"
"No, but I can read energy, which is why Her Majesty employs me as her messenger. I can see beyond the words and give her an accurate picture of what's really going on." He reached for my hand. "May I?"
I held out my hand, and he lightly clasped it in his, then closed his eyes. His touch was like a feather tickling my skin. I wondered if he had a wife, a family, a home. Usually those with positions so vital to the Court and Crown gave up every hope of a personal life and were pledged to the death to protect and serve. What would make someone choose a path like that? I couldn't imagine forsaking my family, but sometimes—as we had found out the hard way—destiny was a cruel mistress.
As Trenyth probed my energy, I linked to him, and a sudden flare revealed his hidden heart to me. He was in love with the Queen. He loved her beyond desire, beyond any hope of being with her. He worshipped her as a goddess, and she was his moon and star.
Overwhelmed by the rush of emotion, I tried to retreat quietly so he wouldn't realize that I'd managed to stumble onto his private thoughts, but his eyes flew open. He paused, then merely said, "You have all the makings of an expert empath. Did you know that you contain two faces, both linked to your soul and both part of you, that are neither human nor Fae? You're a twin, correct?"
"What? What do you mean?" I had no idea what he was talking about.
He sat back, letting go of my hand. "Delilah, twins among Weres seldom occur. And even rarer do the Fae have twins who both develop Were tendencies, but it happens on occasion. Especially with a mixed parentage. You had a twin sister who died, didn't you? And she was a Were like you, correct?"
Huh? I blinked, thoroughly confused. Surely Mother would have told me if I'd had a twin sister. "As far as I know, no. What makes you think that?"
He looked surprised. "Because you have twin shadows within you—one hiding in the darkness, the other out in the light. Were shadows. I assumed your twin sister died. Often, when that happens, the surviving twin inherits the other form. Effectively, the survivor becomes a two-faced Were, able to shift into two different forms."
I jumped up, my stomach flipping as I retreated to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. As I stood at the tap, staring bleakly out the window, Chase joined me, resting his hand on the small of my back.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"I don't know. What Trenyth said… Chase, in my dream I was in Were-form, but I wasn't a tabby cat, and every time I try to remember what I was, I blank out. Could he be right? Could a new form inside of me be trying to work its way free? And what about the convulsion I went into? What the hell was that all about? I've never had anything like that happen before."
"When did all of this start?" he asked.
I thought back. "Since the Autumn Lord marked me. Something's changed, and I can't put my finger on what." I turned to look at him. "I'm scared," I confessed, not wanting to admit it but no longer able to shove the fear aside.
He kissed my forehead gently, then lingered on my lips, teasing them gently with his tongue. After a moment, he pulled me to his chest and held me close. "It's okay. It will all be okay. Do you think your parents would have hid it from you if you had a twin? Sometimes human parents keep news like that quiet for one reason or another."
I tried to put myself in my mother's place but failed miserably. I might be a lot like her, but in this matter, I had to be honest and admit that I had no idea what she would have done.
"My mother was human; maybe she didn't want me to know—didn't want me to feel survivor's guilt. But surely Father would have told me. Or Camille. That is, if she knew about it." I broke away from him and sat at the table, resting my head in my hands. "I don't know what to do. If I do have a second Were nature, when will it manifest itself? And will I be able to control it?"
Chase sighed and joined me, pushing a plate of cookies toward me. "Eat something. As for your parents, well, I have no idea. You should ask your father next time you talk to him. And if you do have a second Were-form… I suppose you'll just have to wait and see what happens."
He was right, and I knew it. There was no sense in worrying it like a bone, though that was easier said than done. At that moment, the front door slammed, and Camille bustled in, Morio and Smoky behind her. I stared at them.
"That was fast," I said, glancing at the clock.
"We were almost to the Renton turnoff to SR 167 when who should we see meandering along the road but Smoky himself."
He just smiled with a self-satisfied smirk. "As long as our contract is in effect, I know when you're thinking about me," he said mildly. Camille blushed and stammered, but he held up one hand. "I thought I'd save you part of the trip and meet you partway."
