Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
“Oh.” It shocked her, that the world was starting to pick up on a fact the family had gone to such great lengths to hide for near to the entirety of her existence. “You must’ve been surprised at the differential in our power levels.” Inside, the small girl she’d once been braced herself for what was to come.
But Yakov just shrugged. “Twins aren’t the same people.” Nodding over at where his twin sat with the extremely handsome man in the suit, the bear sprawled out in his chair while the Psy in the suit sat with perfect posture, he said, “Pasha’s my best friend, but he’s a totally different person from me.
“Our mother said she never had trouble telling us apart even when we were babies. Apparently, we laughed different, kicked our baby feet in different ways, and fell asleep to different lullabies.
“As adults,” he added, “I love peppers, while he can’t stand them. His desk in his workroom is chaos tinged with the aftermath of a hurricane, while I color-code my physical files, then head into numerical codes when it comes to the documents themselves.” A grin. “He thinks I’m an over-organized lunatic. I think he’s a chaos monster.”
That was when Theo realized that this was the first time in her adult life that she’d spoken to someone who’d also been born a twin. She’d been forced to hide that part of herself for so long that the opportunity had just never come up. “Yet you’re best friends?” she asked with a desperate hunger.
“Always.” Simple. Absolute.
“Did your parents ever compare you to each other?”
“Oh, they’re not perfect,” he said. “I’m sure they screwed up a few times over the years. They tell us they did—but what I remember are parents who loved us both. I never felt less than or more than Pasha, and he’s told me the same. We were just their cubs and they loved us.”
His words kicked her deep in the heart. “You were lucky,” she found herself saying, revealing a tightly hidden corner of her ruined soul. “My parents were beyond disappointed when I began to show signs of being a low Gradient. They expected another child in Pax’s power range.”
Yakov scowled. “That’s shit parenting. A cub is a cub. End of.”
“Perhaps that’ll change with the fall of Silence, though I can’t see it.” Still, it was nice to imagine that any future Theo would grow up beloved. “My race has worshipped power for too long.”
“Can’t argue with that. What about the harmony thing you mentioned?” He took a sip of the beer he’d ordered, the liquid an inviting golden hue. “You said it influenced your parents’ decision to separate you.”
“Grandfather had the final say.” Marshall Hyde was the architect of Theo’s life. “Harmony pairs aren’t always twins, but it shows up more in twins. Two abilities that effectively merge to become something extraordinary—the first time around, we saved a dying bird. The second time around, we woke a man out of a yearslong coma.” As for the third, that was Pax’s secret to tell.
Yakov whistled. “What’s the downside? Because I don’t see it.”
“It flatlines our powers,” Theo said. “Every single time. No one much cared with me, but nobody wanted a 9 to flame out and be useless to the family for up to a day or more. I was considered the instigator, the one responsible for the decision to Harmonize.”
“Must’ve messed up your relationship with your twin. The dissimilar treatment.”
“It hurt us both.” She’d always understood that, always felt the guilt that gnawed at Pax. By exiling her and making Pax helpless to protect her, Marshall had broken a part of Pax that nothing might ever heal. “Before they separated us, we were best friends, too. I think . . . I think we’re on our way back to that.”
Some people might say she was fooling herself, that Pax was just using her and their bond to mitigate the effects of Scarab Syndrome, but she could feel her twin inside her, in the same spot where he’d been since they were born. He’d never left her. Not once. More, she knew her brother blamed himself for everything, and that he was doing all in his power to protect her should the treatments fail, should he die.
Her hand clenched on the cloth napkin.
Poor Pax.
He had no idea of the creature she’d become, the creature her grandfather had made of her. She was the one who should be under a death sentence.
* * *
* * *
YAKOV didn’t push Theo to talk when she went quiet after that revelation about her and her twin. He wondered if she even realized that she got a fiercely protective tone in her voice when she spoke about her brother.
Interesting, when—per Silver—Pax Marshall was considered a serious power player in the Net.