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“You girls coming or going?” Dice asks from the doorway.
Ella walks in
first, and I follow her. The door shuts behind me, and I study the small, intimate surroundings. It’s just a one-room cabin, and everything is in here. A small stove, a sink, a couch, and two small beds—both unmade and messed up.
“You have a guy living with you?” Ella asks while motioning to a pair of jeans that look like they’d belong to a very tall man.
“That’s not what you’re here for,” Kya says defensively.
“No,” Karma says, wiping away her tears. “I’m here for you.”
She throws her arms around her sister, but Kya’s eyes widen and she vanishes only to reappear in the back corner, moving as far away as she can.
Karma lets her arms fall to her sides, and Kya’s lips tighten. “Sorry,” she says softly. “I’m not… I don’t like being touched.”
Karma swallows hard while nodding in understanding. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been searching for you for so long.”
Kya frowns and looks around. “You want to know about the ring leader, don’t you?”
Dice nods in answer when no one else speaks. Kya sighs as she answers, “Well, until the other night, I had no idea who it was. A few of us stayed behind to collect some of the anointed weapons that survived. But we ended up seeing the face of our lead captor instead. Sorry we weren’t much help, but we were weakened and in no shape to fight.”
She looks down shamefully, and Ella speaks up. “Someone helped, because I was brought here.”
Kya’s eyes snap up, and she tilts her head. “You’re the one who flew into the shield, aren’t you?”
Ella lets it all sink in for her, and Kya continues. “That was ballsy. You could have been killed.”
Ella shows no regard for that, but she takes a step closer. “Tell him thank you for me.”
Kya’s lips twitch, and she nods. “I will.”
“Do you know anything at all that can help us find out what Gavin is searching for?” Thad asks her, drawing her attention to him.
“No clue. But I do know it had something to do with the twins.”
“Twins?” Thad echoes.
“The creature gods I’m sure you’re aware of by now. There was a lot of interest shown in them.”
“Why?” Ella asks.
Kya moves away from her corner, but still keeps her distance as she answers. “I don’t know. But it might have something to do with the strength and bond between immortal twins.”
Her eyes shift to Karma’s for a second before she looks away again. “Imagine the strength behind creature god twins. Especially them. They were hexed at birth. The hexer connected them physically. The marks of one reflect on the other. The fate of one will be shared by thy brother.”
“Kane was hexed, too,” I say thoughtfully.
“He was hexed to keep his night stalker form until his sire was dead,” Ella says, her brow furrowed in confusion. “To keep Castine from using him. What about the twins, though? What does that hex mean?”
Kya frowns. “It means they suffer the same fate. Always. If one was struck by an anointed whip, they both felt the pain and endured the marks left behind. Anointed weapons can leave scars even on immortal bodies. And they loved testing the hex. Fortunately, those weapons haven’t been active during the centuries they were incarcerated. Only the past couple of decades.”
“What do you mean they both felt the pain?” Karma asks.
“It means they tortured one of them daily. But I never heard him make a sound. One girl says they used to both scream in pain centuries ago when they were first caught. But then one stopped screaming. He figured out a way to stop the pain, and in turn, the other one felt twice as much of the pain. The marks still rose on the other’s skin, but the pain doubled in the one who accepted the beatings. She said one day he stopped giving them the satisfaction of hearing his cries.”
That sends a shiver down my spine, and for some reason, Kya’s eyes flick to Ella. “Be glad you weren’t born centuries ago when creature gods weren’t so accepted. That could have been you. And your kind is fascinating to them. Don’t go anywhere unguarded, because they’ll be coming. They lost two, but they’ll accept one if royal blood is coursing through its veins.”
Thad picks up his phone and sends a text.
