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But I saw how happy Blaire could be with Darcy, happier than she’s ever been. She would finally be able to relax her guard and let someone love her, help her, support her when she was feeling weak or scared, while she did the same for him. I saw Darcy’s happiness, too, saw him becoming a man filled with hope and joy again after centuries spent mourning the loss of his wife and children.
I told Colin everything right there by the peanut butter, praying he would believe me. It took a little convincing, but by the time he escorted me out of the market with my small bag of groceries half an hour later, Colin was on board, and we’d formed a plan to trick our cranky siblings into lowering their guards and opening their hearts.
We agreed to get engaged and pretend to be resigned to our fate for the good of the town, all while ensuring Darcy and Blaire saw how ill-suited and miserable we would be together long term. They, in turn, would try to trick us into calling off the engagement and in the end our comedy of errors would result in the person I love most living happily ever after with the man of her dreams.
It was far from a foolproof plan, but I had the conviction of the vision behind me, this magic that had come surging to the surface as soon as I stepped into the land of my birth.
But it’s not witch magic, I realize as I twitch and moan on the floor and Sophie watches me with wide, shocked eyes. I’m a witch, yes, but I’m not just a witch.
And I’m not Blaire’s twin.
I see it all playing out on the vaulted ceiling overhead. I watch my mother, already several months pregnant with Blaire, gently lift me from a crib in a darkened nursery, where I’m sleeping beside my actual twin. We aren’t identical, either, but we favor each other much more than Blaire and I ever have. The other baby shifts in her sleep, whimpering as I’m lifted away from her and carried out into the night.
I suck in a breath, desperate to ask this younger, hallow-eyed version of my mother what the hell she’s doing, but the vision answers my question before I can will my lips to move.
The images flash faster, like a movie playing at double speed. I see my mother kissing a man with a two-legged dragon tattoo on his bicep and his enraged wife watching from the shadows in the background. I see the man leaving town not long after that last kiss, and Mom hiding her pregnancy from everyone, ashamed that she’d been so easily deceived by a man who promised her happily ever after.
Then I see the same woman, the scorned wife, at my mother’s bedside as she gives birth to twins, promising to kill us both if my mother doesn’t give us to her to raise. The woman desperately wants children but she’s barren, as many wyverns are once they leave their native forests.
I see my mother weeping as she lets the woman carry us away in a small basket and how she tries to move on with her life, quickly getting pregnant again by a warlock she meets at a bar in Salem on a trip down to Massachusetts for spell supplies.
But she’s haunted by the loss of her firstborn children, shattered by watching the woman who stole us away push our pram around town, pretending her babies were adopted from a cousin in the old country who’d died during childbirth.
Not long after, Mom’s triplet sisters were swept out to sea and she was alone in the mansion, slowly going mad with loneliness and pain.
Eventually, it became too much, and Mom packed her things to leave town.
The last thing she collected on her way out was…me. I have no idea why she only took one of us, why she left Sophie behind, but I know that’s how it happened. And I know that Sophie is my sister, my twin, and the only one who can help me save Blaire before it’s too late.
I come out of the vision gasping for breath and choke on the words trying to flood out of my mouth.
But Sophie was raised a wyvern. She knows what a dragon vision looks like and is already halfway to sorting out the mystery on her own by the time I fill her in on what I’ve seen.
“I knew it,” she says, tears filling her eyes. “Ever since we met, I’ve had this feeling that we were connected somehow. But I can’t believe my mom… I can’t believe she would do something like that, threaten to murder innocent children and then steal another woman’s babies. I wish she was still alive and could explain. Or at least try to.”
“She was crazy with jealousy. I’m sure she wasn’t thinking straight,” I say, relieved to see Colin crossing the room. Colin is always good in a crisis, and I need his cool head more than ever. I lock eyes with my trusted friend. “Darcy and Blaire are alive but not for much longer if we don’t hurry. Janet’s planning to kill them, I saw it in my vision. But Sophie and I should be able to pinpoint their location if you bring me something of Blaire’s.” I glance back to Sophie as I add, “Wyverns are good at finding lost things.”
“But only when they work in pairs,” she says, a faint smile twitching at her lips as she reaches out to take my hand in hers. “We can do this. We must do this. I’m not going to lose one of my sisters when I’ve just found out she’s mine.” She wrinkles her nose. “Even if she does have a habit of stealing books and breaking into my library after-hours.”
“I’ll be to your house and back in five minutes,” Colin promises, taking all of this in stride in a way that makes me even more grateful to have him on my side. He squeezes my arm. “We’ll save them, Annie. I promise.”
I nod and pull in a deeper breath, while Sophie says, “Just get us something good, a piece of dirty clothing or a hat she’s worn several times. I’ll set up a séance space in my office so we’re ready as soon as you get back.”
“On it,” Colin says, sprinting for the front door with supernatural speed. He can’t shift into a bat or mist like Darcy can, but he moves so fast it’s hard to keep your gaze fixed on him when he runs like this. He’ll get to the mansion and back in time and Sophie and I will tell him where to look for Blaire and Darcy.
We’re all going to get through this alive, and soon I’ll be hugging Blaire and telling her she’ll always be my number one, even if she is my little half-sister and not my twin.
The thought sends fresh questions rushing to the surface of my mind…
As I trail Sophie into her office to help set up candles to focus our powers, I can’t help but wonder aloud, “But if we’re the oldest Wonderfully sisters, how can Blaire be the one to renew the shield? I saw it in my first vision, right when I arrived in town. She and Darcy fall in love and renew the shield. But if she’s the second born child, or third if you count us separately…”
Sophie shakes her head. “I don’t know. Maybe her dad was a warlock instead of a wyvern? That would make her more powerful than we are as far as spell-casting magic is concerned, no matter where she sits in the birth order.”
I nod. “Yes, he was. I saw that in my vision. He was from Salem.” I roll my eyes as I add, “a one night stand my mom met at a bar who gave her a fake number so she couldn’t even tell him she was pregnant with Blaire. She really had great taste in men.”
“Has,” Sophie says, a distant look in her eyes. “She’s still alive, but…confined somewhere. I’ve sensed that since you arrived, too, but I didn’t want to say anything. Just in case I was misreading things somehow.”
Invisible fingers lock around my throat. “Really? You’re sure?”
