“Since Dad won’t let us date until we’re sixteen, what difference does it make?” I asked again.
“Oh, c’mon, Avalon, you don’t think it’s weird that we don’t like boys?”
I leaned back in my chair. “No weirder than the fact that I can move things with my mind and that you can read people’s thoughts, Neve.” I shook my head. “I mean, if we’re going to talk about things that make us weird, not liking boys is not at the top of my list.”
The girl waved away my very valid point. “We’re special,” she replied simply. “That’s what Mom and Dad say.”
“We’re something alright, I’m just not sure special is the word I’d use to describe us,” I muttered.
“Well, I want a boyfriend,” she declared. “I want someone to hold my hand and tell me I’m pretty.”
“I thought you didn’t like how Gary Masters tried to kiss you last year,” I reminded her.
“That’s because I didn’t like Gary Masters,” she said. “But as soon as I find a boy that I like, I’m going to make him my boyfriend.”
I laughed. “Yeah, Dad’s really going to go for that.”
“You’ll see,” she sing-songed.
*****
Griffin – (Fourteen-Years Old)~
“This is fucking bullshit.”
It was.
And while I agreed with my brother, it wasn’t like there was much we could do about it. “It’s only four more years, Easton,” I said, trying to calm him down but it was hard when I was just as pissed off as he was.
My brother stopped his pacing and gave me the most incredulous look. “Only four more years?” he echoed. “It’s not only four more years, Griffin. They’ve kept this from us our entire lives. That sonofabitch played with our lives for an experiment. Are you fucking kidding me?”
I went to go look out the window while my brother resumed his pacing across my bedroom floor. “It explains a lot, though,” I said. “A lot of things make a whole hell of a lot more sense now.”
“Well, I don’t care what he says,” Easton snapped. “I’m not going to be his guinea pig anymore.”
I turned back towards my brother. “What do you mean?”
“If he thinks I’m going to waste my teenage years being some…trial test, he’s mistaken.” Easton stopped pacing and faced me. “I’m going to go out and fuck the first girl who’ll let me.”
My stomach churned at the very idea.
“Don’t do it, Easton,” I cautioned him. “If what they told us is true, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
His eyes widened in defiance. “How can you be okay with this, Griffin?”
I straightened. “I’m not okay with it,” I replied. “I’m just as pissed off as you are. However, I’m not willing to gamble away the rest of my life just to piss off Dad.”
“Well, I don’t care,” he insisted. “If it all goes to shit, then that’s on them for doing this to us.”
“Are you even sure you’ll be able to?” I asked. “If what they said is true, you-”
“I can make it happen,” he said stubbornly. “No matter what it takes.”
“Easton, don’t do it,” I repeated. “It’s a bad idea, man.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” he shot back.
Chapter 4
Avalon~
“Something’s coming.”
I slapped my hands on my laptop to keep it from flying off the bed as Neve dropped on my bed with her ominous prediction. “What?”
“Don’t you feel it?”
I loved Neve but the girl liked flare. “Tomorrow’s our first day of school, Neve,” I replied drolly. “It’s our senior year, plus we’re turning eighteen in two weeks. I’d say those are reasons enough to have you feeling antsy.”
She rolled over on her stomach and propped herself on her elbows, eyeing me with the same blue eyes that mirrored my own. “It’s not that,” she insisted. “Turning eighteen isn’t that big of a deal when we still have an entire school year to get through.”
I was sitting with my legs crossed, hunched over my laptop, but I leaned back against the bed’s headboard when it was obvious Neve wasn’t going anywhere. Neve was a talker. She liked to talk through her feelings, problems, and thoughts. She wanted to understand the way things worked, and she often got stubborn about it.
Now, while I wasn’t a doormat, I preferred not beating a dead horse. I could recognize what could be changed and what couldn’t. I was the live version of the Serenity Prayer. No matter how emotional I might become, I was very aware that emotions didn’t change anything. They might motivate you, but emotions were useless if you didn’t put any action behind them.
“Then what do you think it is?”
“I know you know what I’m talking about, Avalon,” she grumbled. “It’s…like this…humming in my blood.”
I did know what she was talking about, but given what we were, I no longer flinched at every odd thing that happened to us. “I do,” I admitted. “But c’mon, Neve, for all we know, it could be another…oddity making an appearance or…whatever.”
“How are you not curious?” she asked, and not for the first time. “How are you able to take all this in stride without wondering about it?”
“Because wondering about it won’t change anything, Neve,” I told her. “All it does is stress me out and I’d just rather not be stressed out over shit I can’t control.”
My sister eyed me. “There’s quite a bit you can control, Avalon,” she replied tartly.
“Neve, I’m not saying you’re wrong. All I’m saying is that I’m not going to worry about it,” I told her. “We have a lot going on and it really could simply be nerves.”
“But I’m not nervous,” she kept insisting. “Our senior year isn’t that big of a deal, Avalon. And neither is turning eighteen. Neither one of those things is going to change our lives.” Neve sat up on my bed. “If we were getting close to graduating, then I’d chalk it up to nervousness, too. If we were…moving out, or heading to college, or won the damn lottery, I’d agree. But it’s none of that. This feels like…like…”
“Like your heart is beating a little bit faster,” I finished for her because I did know what she was talking about. “Like your lungs are finally getting enough oxygen to function,” I continued. “Like your mind is becoming sharper. Like your body is more alert.” Her blue eyes widened. “It’s like…like we’re becoming stronger or…or whole.”
“Why did you pretend to not know what I was talking about?” She sounded upset.
“I didn’t pretend to not know what you were talking about, Neve. I just said I wasn’t going to worry over something I couldn’t control,” I corrected. “I’ve been feeling the same thing for about a couple of weeks. I figured it might have something to do with us turning eighteen. There’s so much we still don’t know about ourselves, it’s possible that turning eighteen means something.”
Neve and I were twins, though you wouldn’t know that by looking at us. While most of my legal documents stated that I was blonde, I wasn’t. I had white hair and Neve had black hair. We both had the same facial features with cerulean-colored eyes, and we were the same height and build, but that was it.
Where I was happy in the library, Neve’s been a cheerleader since our freshman year at Clearwater High. Besides Neve, I had only two other friends while she was outgoing enough to have way more than two friends. And though she claimed that I was her best friend, Neve would get along just fine without me.
Then there were the boys. While I’ve had a few ask me out, I’ve never even kissed a boy yet, and Neve has. I wasn’t sure how she managed it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to try it. The idea always made me feel…unbalanced.
Even our…abilities were different. Neve could read people’s minds and I could move objects with mine. And while our abilities have proven to work without fail, they wouldn’t work on each other. I couldn’t move Neve, and she couldn’t read my mind.
“I don’t like this, Av,” she said. “I don’t like…I don’t like feeling like I’m not in control of my own body and mind.”
“Should we tell Mom and Dad?” I asked. “I know they said we had to wait until we were eighteen to get clearer answers, but…” I shrugged. “…maybe, if we tell them that we’re feeling…off, they’ll answer our questions now, instead of on our birthday. What’s two weeks anyway?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Neve mumbled. “I’ve never felt this…unsettled before and I don’t like it.”
“Do you think…I don’t know. Like…maybe we get more powers when we turn eighteen? Or-”
Never reached out and grabbed my leg. “Oh, God,” she exclaimed. “What if we die when we turn eighteen?”
I balked at that. “Jesus Christ, do you really think so?”
“God, I hope not,” she sighed dramatically. “You’re never even kissed a boy. I can’t imagine dying before we’ve even had sex.”
I just stared at my sister.
“Are you freakin’ kidding me, right now?” I choked out after a few seconds.
She sat up straighter. “What?”
“That’s what you care about? That we’ll die virgins?” I shook my head, baffled. “Not that…well, that we’d be dying?”
Neve let out another dramatic huff. “Look, I know you’re happy ignoring the opposite sex, but I appreciate their existence.”
“Don’t be a jerk,” I chided. “You know I appreciate their existence, too.”
My sister rolled her eyes. “Is that why you’ve turned down every guy who’s ever asked you out?”
I eyed her. “I’m not going to date a guy just to prove a point, Neve.” I let out a sigh when I noticed her bristle a bit. “I’m happy with things just the way they are. I…I’m not going to force something that’s not there.”
“Forget boys,” she replied. “Do you want to talk to Mom and Dad now or do you want to wait?”
I thought about that. Our parents weren’t our biological parents, and we knew that. When we’d been old enough to understand that we were different, our parents had explained how we’d been adopted as newborns. They’d never hidden that from us, and they had even explained how they would share our parentage with us, but it had to wait until we were eighteen. They never told us why, but we had accepted their explanation all the same.
William Lively was a farm mechanic, and while we weren’t rolling in dough, Dad was able to provide for all of us comfortably. We lived out in the country, and he alternated between working in town for a farm garage and taking side jobs at home.
Betty Lively was an elementary school teacher, and she loved it. Mom taught the second grade and she loved children. It was the reason why they had adopted me and Neve. They hadn’t been able to have children of their own, and after years of trying, they had finally gone with adoption.
When it had come about that Neve and I were different, they had done their best to help us deal with our abilities. And though it’s all been restricted to the inside of our home, they never made us feel like we were freaks. They had embraced our powers and had worked hard to help us hone them.
I was grateful to our parents and I loved them very much.
“Look, why don’t we give it a week,” I suggested. “Let’s just make sure it’s not school nerves, and if we’re still feeling out of sorts at the end of the week, we’ll ask them this weekend.” My head bobbed back and forth. “They might be more willing with one week, rather than two before our birthdays.”
Neve started chewing on her bottom lip, and after a while, she agreed. “Okay, maybe you’re right. I don’t think it’s school, but…I don’t want to upset Mom and Dad if we don’t have to.”
“I don’t want to worry them, either.” I closed my eyes and stretched my shoulders. When I opened them back up, I said, “But whatever it is, we’ll get through it together, Neve.”
My sister scooted across my bed and wrapped her arms around me. “Together,” she whispered.
After I shooed her out of my room, I got to thinking about our parents. Surely, if something bad was on the horizon, they’d tell us, right? I couldn’t imagine my parents not preparing us for something bad. Adoption papers or not, I knew my parents loved us. I believed it with all my heart.
Chapter 5
Griffin~
“Are you nervous?”
I snorted.
Tomorrow was our first day at Clearwater High. It was our senior year at a public high school, and though we really didn’t need to go, we weren’t registered at Clearwater for the education.
“Not even a little bit?”
I put my phone down and looked up at my brother. “Are you?”
Easton dropped on the couch next to me. “No.”
I eyed him, not sure if he was lying or not. “Then why would you assume I would be?”
Easton shrugged a shoulder. “I just imagine it’s got to be frustrating not to be able to see how this is going to pan out,” he smirked.
Being born into the Rýkr Clan, Easton and I had certain abilities. My greatest strength was being able to see the future. However, telekinesis and sonic hearing were also on the menu of things I was able to do.
Easton’s greatest strength was being able to manipulate other people’s feelings. But like me, he also had other abilities. He could control the weather and he had visions sometimes. They weren’t visions of the future, though. More like he could envision people’s situations sometimes.
We were fraternal twins, born to Astra and Calliope Keenstone. My powers came from our mother, while Easton’s powers came from our father. And since our parents were the King and Queen of Rýkr, that made us royalty from where we came from. Of course, from the outside looking in, no one would suspect that there was an entire city built by magic right under their noses.
Like all civilizations that have stood the test of time, change had been inevitable. Over the years, Rýkr had to conform to continue to exist undetected, and when people drove through our town, all they saw was a quaint, picturesque, perfect, little town nestled in the forested hills of Northern California.
Everyone born from Rýkr had extraordinary talents. Some were stronger than others, but only the royal bloodlines possessed more than one talent. And from what we’ve been taught, only royalty inherited their talents. Everyone else developed their talents by nature or chance.
And then there were the bonds.
We didn’t meet, date, fall in love, and marry like normal people. We bonded within our clan and that bond was unbreakable. I still wasn’t sure how the couples were chosen, but once you were bonded with someone, there was no going back. It was akin to animals who mated. Being with anyone besides your mate would be physically painful and emotionally detrimental.
To this day, I’ve never even kissed a girl.
Oh, I knew how to. I even knew all the ins and outs of sex, but not because I’d been dipping my dick in different girls all these years.
Nope.
All my sex education had come from school, porn, and my father’s twisted way of turning us into men. Growing up, Easton and I had been given front row seats to some of the dirties orgies possible. It had been Dad’s way of giving us the closest real-life experience he could without jeopardizing our bonds.
It’d been disturbing.
However, not as disturbing as the gut-wrenching churning in my stomach whenever I thought about touching a girl who I wasn’t bonded to. Another girl touching me had always felt like a violation, and so I had just gone on, biding my time.
And now that time was here.
“If I were you, I’d quit worrying about me and worry about what you’re going to do,” I shot back. “It’s not like you can force it.”
Another thing about the person we were bonded with? Our abilities didn’t work on them. There was no manipulating them or the relationship between us. It was also that way with blood relatives. We were immune and that was probably a good thing. Especially, since ou
r father was a manipulative sonofabitch on a good day.
“I’m not worried about it,” Easton replied. “It’s not like they have a choice.”
I cocked my head. “Are you sure about that?”
Easton smirked. “Pretty sure.”
“It’s never wise to underestimate any situation that involves a female.”
We both looked over and Severus, our guardian, was walking into the living room from the kitchen. Severus had been assigned our guardian since before we’d even been born. From the moment that our mother had announced her pregnancy, Severus has been with us. And like Easton, his talent was controlling the weather, though he only had that one talent.
“I’m not worried,” Easton reiterated. “Why should I be?”
Severus sat down in one of the armchairs decorating the living room. We had rented a nice four-bedroom house a few blocks from the school, and while it was nice, it wasn’t home. We were only here for one purpose and I agreed with Severus; it wouldn’t do to be overly confident.
“Because we’re dealing with a very…unprecedented situation, Easton,” he replied. “While we might know how you boys fared during all this, we still don’t know the impact it had on the ladies in question.”
Because our father was an asshole, he had allowed the girls we were bonded with to escape Rýkr and be raised as normal people, by normal parents, and have normal experiences. We’d been told when we were fourteen and Easton hadn’t taken it well. While we had always felt like something was missing, to find out that we’d been part of some fucked-up experiment had really stretched the bonds of father and sons. Easton was still pissed off about it.
“Does it matter?” Easton challenged. “We didn’t come here to go home empty-handed, Severus.”
“I know you didn’t,” he replied. “I just think you might want to tread carefully with this.”
I shook my head. “I could fucking kill Astra,” I muttered.
The Rýkr Duet Page 2