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“What is it now, Summer?”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
“If I really wanted an extension on my weekly reflection, can you be persuaded?”
He looks at me, warmth radiating from his eyes. “I can always be persuaded…”
My heart bursts. I don’t care what Mikael says, Lincoln’s not so inhuman after all.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
LINCOLN
Anger, being a fleeting and rudimentary emotion, is not something people hold on to. It ends up transforming into bitterness and resentment.
Except for Mikael.
His anger became frozen in that moment from his childhood, reliving it repeatedly until his brain simply couldn’t process anything else. He wasn’t able to move on from that. And now, his unprocessed anger pulsates through our system and is slowly bleeding into me.
It is difficult to explain the sensation of gradually disintegrating—the blending and melting that occurs. Scientifically, this process is referred to as fusion, although the terminology is inconsequential since I won’t be around in the end.
The house is dark and silent as Summer and I make our way upstairs. It’s well past ten PM; Summer and I have been downstairs for twenty-four hours. The trees rustle in the wind outside, shaking the house, breaking the stillness of the night.
All traces of the party have been cleared away. Hushed whispers and laughter echo from the parlor room, where Xander usually hangs out.
Mikael is well hidden, harboring a deep hatred for Xander, but he’s very much blurring the lines of my consciousness and identity. It’s hard right now to distinguish myself from him.
Before I grew from a fragment to an alter, Xander wasn’t nice to Mikael. He was the weird boy his grandmother adopted and kept hidden from society. Xander’s taller stature didn’t help Mikael’s cause, either.
Dr. Garcia, being the perceptive woman she is, always kept him apart. And this was not for his sake; she did that for Xander because Mikael would have killed him, eventually.
Xander is three years younger than Mikael and came to live with his grandmother during high school after his parents fled town. He and Mikael were close, but their relationship was tumultuous.
Both of them were angry.
They barely spoke back then, and when I arrived, he understood the boy inside was not the one he grew up with, and he grew fond of me. We have been like brothers ever since. Xander knows there are two of us inside this mind, although it’s something we don’t speak of.
He’s never dealt with me like this, with both minds open at once and a rogue fragment I can’t quite catch.
Summer watches me intently as we make our way through the house, her curious eyes unwavering as she watches my transformation. She only diverts her gaze when Lucy shuffles by us, her eyes lighting up when she looks at me.
“Welcome back, Mikael,” Lucy whispers before carrying along her way. I think Lucy lost her mind years ago—well before I was born somewhere in this house—but she really is quite perceptive.
I adjust my glasses as Summer squishes her eyebrows together in the most adorable way. A flicker of fear casts through her eyes.
I wink at her and a small smirk crawls over my face. The elasticity of it isn’t mine. Mikael’s mannerisms are taking over my reflexes.
“Don’t worry, pretty girl,” I assure her, my vision blurring and swirling. “Lincoln is still here somewhere.”
Our fusion is causing our eyes to transform. The color remains the same, it’s simply the profound psychological intrusions beneath that create an illusion of change. It’s enough to speculate that something deeper is transpiring within. And it is; psychological fusion is an intense process, especially when this fusion is happening faster than normal.
It happens when we co-front.
She lets out a small breath, her pupils dilating. It’s interesting that all the physical reactions Mikael elicits from her are stronger compared to the ones Lincoln provokes. It’s her fear and humiliation that seems to awaken her. Ironically, it’s the promises of death that truly brings her to life.
Mikael fronted moments before, and he always unsettles her when he’s in control. I was seated at my desk, and then I found myself standing. It felt like a blink, but I became an observer.
