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"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."
"Are you telling us you can trace Camille's whereabouts as long as she still owes you that week of debauchery you're so happily planning?" I asked. While it smacked slightly obscene, it could also be a very useful tool if anything ever happened to her.
He shook his head. "Not quite. She has to be thinking about me in order for me to pick up on it. Today, she was thinking about coming to get me, and I was able to tune in on her location and save you all some time." He winked at her. "I can't exactly read your mind, but I wish I could."
She shook her head. "You're incorrigible."
"I'm a dragon. For you to expect anything less would be foolhardy." His words seemed to fill the room with the slightest edge of a warning—a hint that he didn't mind playing, but the rules were his to change as he would.
"I suppose so," Camille said softly. "I guess I'll find out, won't I?"
"All in good time," Smoky said, relaxing. "All in good time."
I quickly filled them in on Ronyl and the mirror and Zach's condition. "With Zach out of commission, we're one man down. Meanwhile, before we question our spy, I need to ask Camille something in private."
Chase stood up and motioned to Morio and Smoky. "Come on, boys, let's go check on Zach and the medics." They took the hint and scrammed.
Camille gave me an odd look. "What's going on? Chase cleared them out of here in a hurry."
"I have something important to ask you, and I want a straight answer."
She blinked. "Of course. What is it?"
"Did I have a twin sister or brother? One who died when we were born?" I held my breath, both hoping for—and yet hoping against—a yes. Yes would mean my parents lied to me. Yes would mean Camille had held a secret from me all of these years. Yes would mean that I'd lost a part of myself, in a sense, at birth. And yet yes would mean that I carried part of my twin with me, that part of her still lived.
"Did you have what! Where did you get that idea?"
"Just answer yes or no." I wanted the truth straight, with no pussyfooting around.
"How about I don't know! I don't think so, but I can't say for sure. Nobody ever told me anything about you having a twin, anyway." She wasn't lying, that much I could tell. "Now, how about telling me what this is all about?"
I told her what Trenyth had said, and her expression turned from puzzled to worried. "So I guess my questions are, what is this second nature I've got bottled up inside of me, and did I have a twin?"
The silence in the room muffled my thoughts as I waited for her to say something. As the seconds ticked by on the clock, I thought about my childhood, straining to remember if I'd ever felt like someone was missing. Granted, I'd always felt out of place, but we all had. I'd dreamed of the day when I'd fit in somewhere. But being a misfit and missing a sibling were two entirely different situations. As hard as I tried, I couldn't place my finger on any inborn evidence locked deep within my cells that I'd been born a twin.
Finally, Camille shook her head. "Delilah, I don't know. I can't remember all that clearly before you were born. Oh, vague images of our parents and of home… of a few holidays… but when Mother went into labor with you, they sent me to stay with Aunt Rythwar. Mother had a hard time with all of her pregnancies due to the mixing of her blood and ours through the placenta."
"I just hope that whatever this second form is, it doesn't jump out and surprise me at the wrong time." I pushed myself out of my chair. "I suppose I'll have to ask Father next time we talk to him."
Camille wrapped her arm around my waist and leaned her head on my shoulder. "And I just hope we're able to talk to him again," she said, breaking the silence that bound both of our fears.
