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Then we’re both cracking up.
Clutching our stomachs and trying to bite back the laughter. Wiping our cheeks as a few tears escape and still, our brother is none the wiser. The kid sleeps like the dead. The loud dead.
“Gods, I needed that,” Gabby snickers, shaking her head before dropping in the now pouched dried herb to let steep. There’s a low incantation from her lips, the words we’ve heard thousands of times before she gives me a wink. “Been a while since we’ve had a real reason to laugh.”
“Very true.” Taking the offered cup, I take a sip and hum. Just like Mom’s. And while valerian isn’t known to be the best smelling or sweetest taste, the small spell makes it so. Almost like a dessert, fresh and light with a hint of apples in the note. “Feels good to forget, if even for a moment.”
“Talk to me, Sister. What do you see?”
“A lot, more than I’d like, but now isn’t the time.” Then I give her our sign: one nod for bad news and two nods for a clear passage.
Tonight, she gets two even though it’s a lie. It’s the least I can do.
I’ll let her find rest before her world implodes.
5
ISABELLA
“What is it?” Gabriella asks after we step outside and onto an empty caboose with a glass windowpane door. The space is just large enough for us to keep an eye on our cabin and within reach, in seconds, if the need arose. Then there’s the vast city and landscape to our left, beautiful and calm, yet it’ll be dulled by what I have to say.
“We’re walking into a bloodbath,” I say, keeping my voice even, although a harsh shiver still runs through me. My grip on the handrail turning my knuckles white. “The vampires are getting closer.”
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” Gabriella has every right to her trepidation. To the worry.
“My sight is being shielded, but yes.” It’s been happening since our parents were killed. Anything to do with those responsible becomes muddled, yet this is clear. Meeting the vampire king is her destiny. “Your path is intertwined with his, Gabby.”
No need to explain who the “he” is. Yet she still lets out a choked gasp, her face losing a little of its rosy color. “How can this be?”
“Which one?” He’s going to make you so happy.
“Both.”
In response, I shrug, going for nonchalance. Our connection as twins let’s her feel my emotions and right now, worry is the dominant one. “My guess is a powerful witch, but not stronger than the Moore bloodline. I’ll break whatever they’ve cast.”
She nods. “What’s his plan, though? Why does the king of vampires need a sorceress?”
“Sadly, you’ll ask him personally soon enough.” Because he’s your mate.
“How much of a window, Sister?” Gabby shifts her weight from foot to foot. Clenches and unclenches her fists. “Do we have time to get Leo to Uncle Roberto’s?”
“Three moons.”
“Are you sure? You just said you can’t see as clear—”
“The path might change, but the destination doesn’t. Fate is a determined bitch.”
“You have that faraway look again, Isa. Another vision?” my brother asks a few hours later, effectively pulling me from replaying the conversation I had with Gabriella. I hate what’s ahead and how soon it will all fall apart for us. How out of control it all feels. “Is something wrong?”
“Just lost in thought, kid.”
“Promise?”
“I do.” It’s not, but there will be.
We’re in our uncle’s backyard, side by side after a heavy meal, and a few feet away from where Gabriella has decided to take her respite. She’s always found peace outdoors while sitting beneath a tree with her fingers embedded deep in the soil. Nature breathes and she exhales, keeping the balance between life and death.
It’s how I found her the night our parents were murdered. The same serene expression on her face, completely oblivious to the horrors happening inside the manor we’ve called home all our lives.
