Daddy got lower and he put his hands on my arms. “Neve, honey, they only do that when you’re doing that thing you’re not supposed to.”
“When I can hear people’s brains, right?” Sometimes I could hear people’s brains talking, even if the people weren’t moving their lips.
Daddy nodded. “And what did we say about you hearing people’s brains?”
“That it’s rude to listen to people’s brains,” I said, happy I remembered. Momma and Daddy were always telling me not to peek inside people’s brains. I tried not to, but sometimes it was hard.
“And since your eyes change colors when you do, you need to be careful not to do it, Neve,” Daddy said. “You don’t want to get in trouble, do you?”
I shook my head. “No.” I hated getting in trouble. It wasn’t fun.
“Remember, it’s a secret.”
“I know. Just like Avalon’s secret.”
Dad smiled. “Just like Avalon’s secret.”
“Can I tell my friends when I get bigger?”
“No,” Daddy said. “No one must ever know, Neve. If you tell anyone, your sister will get in trouble, too.” He rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “You don’t want Avalon getting in trouble, do you?”
I shook my head. “No, Daddy.”
“That’s a good girl.”
I didn’t want anyone getting in trouble.
*****
Easton – (Six-Years-Old)~
“Do Griffin’s eyes change colors, too?”
Mom looked at me like I was in trouble, but I’ve been good today. “Yes. But they only change when you’re working your powers, Easton. So, I’ll know if you’re trying to play someone.”
“What’s wrong with playing with someone,” I asked. “That’s what friends do, Mom.”
“Not play with, play,” she said, but I still didn’t know what she was talking about.
“I’m not playing with anyone,” I told her.
Mom sat down next to me on the library couch. She was teaching me about clouds. They taught us a lot of things in school, but Mom would teach us other stuff sometimes. She wasn’t like our teacher at school, but she was still smart.
“Easton, the powers you have cannot be used on everyone,” she said. “You know that, right?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Mom let out a big breath. “The things you can do, you can’t do them to me, your father, or your brother,” she said. “Our blood runs too thickly.”
“What does that mean?” I looked at my arms to see if I cut myself, but I didn’t see any blood.
“It just means that I’ll notice when your eyes change, and I’ll know you’re trying to fool someone.”
“So…no fooling anyone?”
“Not right now, son,” she said. “Not until you’re older and know how to handle your gifts.”
“I don’t have any presents.”
“Not those kinds of gifts,” she said, sounding a little upset.
“Do you mean my superpowers?” Me and Griffin had superpowers.
“Yes,” she said. “Your superpowers.”
“So, when I’m big, I can use them on everyone but you, Dad, and Griffin?”
“Yes. And…well, possibly, one other person.”
“Who?”
“That can wait, Easton,” she said. “Let’s get back to work.”
Chapter 2
Neve – (Ten Years Old)~
“He’s so cute, Mom,” I said. “Do you think he might want to be my boyfriend one day?”
Mom stopped pulling at the weeds in our garden in the backyard. “Neve, honey, I think you’re a little too young to be thinking about boyfriends. You’re only ten.”
“Kasey Stevens said Ryan Hughes is her boyfriend,” I told her. “And she’s my age.”
Mom patted the ground next to her. “Sit down, sweetie.” I took my work gloves off and sat down next to her. I liked helping Mom in her garden. It was a small garden, but it always had the prettiest flowers. Sometimes, she would pick a really pretty one and put it in my hair.
“Neve, I think Kasey Stevens probably has a crush on Ryan Hughes,” she said. “I don’t think he’s really her boyfriend. You kids are too young to be thinking of boyfriends and girlfriends.”
“When do you think I can have a boyfriend?”
“Knowing your dad, you girls will probably have to be sixteen before he lets you have a boyfriend.”
I could feel my eyes go big. “But…that’s six years, Mom.”
“Well, I think you might have a small crush, too, Neve,” she said. “I don’t think you’re old enough for it to be anything more.”
“How will I know the difference?”
“You say this boy, David, is cute, but is that all? I mean, do you feel anything else? Like do you feel happy to see him?”
I shrugged. “No,” I said, telling her the truth. “I don’t feel anything when I see him.”
She smiled a little. “Then why do you think you like him?”
“Because he’s the cutest boy at our school,” I told her. “All the girls like him, so I should, too.”
“Oh, Neve, honey, it doesn’t work that way,” Mom said. “Looks aren’t a reason to like someone.”
“I’m never going to have a boyfriend,” I grumbled.
“You will, honey,” she said. “One day.”
I didn’t believe her.
*****
Easton (Ten-Years Old)~
“Where’s your partner?”
I grabbed the basketball before it hit Daphne Hill in the face. “What?” We were at school in gym class, and she should be with the girls, not the boys.
“Where’s your partner?”
I tucked the basketball under my arm. “My partner for what?”
“Most everyone in Rýkr has a best friend,” she said. “Where’s yours?”
“Griffin’s my best friend,” I told her.
She stepped closer to me. “It has to be a girl, dummy,” she said.
“No, it doesn’t.” I’ve seen a lot of guys and girls playing together but Mom or Dad have never said anything about me and Griffin needing girl best friends.
“I don’t have a best friend yet,” she said, ignoring me. “I can be your best friend.”
I didn’t want Daphne Hill as my best friend. “If you don’t have a best friend, then I don’t need one, either.”
She reached out and grabbed my hand. “But you’re a prince,” she said. “You would be the best kind of friend to have.”
My chest felt warm, and I could feel my heart push against the heat.
I didn’t like it.
I pulled my hand away. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
She looked like she wanted to cry. “I just want to be your friend.”
“You can be my friend without touching me,” I told her because I didn’t like to see girls cry. “But you can’t be my best friend. Griffin is my best friend.”
“That doesn’t count,” she pouted. “He’s your brother.”
She was making me mad. “Stay away from me, Daphne.”
“I’m going to tell your mother,” she cried before she ran away to get me in trouble.
But that was okay because the burning in my chest was gone now.
Chapter 3
Neve – (Fourteen Years Old)~
We were holding hands and I didn’t like it.
It felt like there was a weight on my chest. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and my heart ached a little. Still, I was determined to get through this.
I was determined to fix whatever was wrong with me because I knew something had to be wrong with me. Even though Avalon was sure it had something to do with…with our abilities, I wasn’t so convinced.
And it couldn’t be that I liked girls because I didn’t. At least, not in that way. I’ve seen a lot of pretty girls, but I’ve never wanted any of them to be more than my friend. I didn’t think of girls and think of anything more than friendship. But I
thought those things when I looked at certain boys.
And it didn’t matter that Dad wouldn’t let us date yet. I wanted to be ready for when I would finally be able to have a boyfriend. I wanted to fix whatever was wrong before I turned sixteen. I wanted to make sure nothing was truly wrong with me.
But I didn’t like this.
Toby Dawson was holding my hand and it didn’t feel special, or friendly, or right. It felt like I was holding the wrong hand and that didn’t make any sense. Toby was gorgeous and all the girls liked him. He was also nice, so there was no reason I shouldn’t be happy that he was holding my hand.
But I wasn’t.
“Would it be okay if I kissed you,” Toby asked.
I got nervous because this would be my first kiss and I looked around to make sure no one was looking. “Okay,” I whispered. We were hidden underneath the stadium bleachers because he’d come to see cheerleader tryouts and I had been trying out for the freshman squad next year.
Toby let go of my hand, and he brought both his hands to my face before he leaned in and kissed me. I kissed him back, and when he slid his tongue inside my mouth, everything seemed to stop.
It felt like my heart was breaking.
It felt awful.
*****
Easton – (Fourteen-Years Old)~
I didn’t know how to quit being mad at everyone. I was mad at Griffin for not doing this with me. I was mad at Mom for not saying anything to us all these years. And I was really fucking pissed at Dad for the way he was playing with our lives.
He’d had no right.
As the Rýkr King, he thought he could just do whatever the hell he wanted with no thought to what it would do to his sons. Our lives had been messed with and our futures were up in the air, and I didn’t understand how that was okay.
I stared down at Holly and was determined to get through this. Dad had been so confident that his little experiment was going to work that I was determined to make sure it didn’t. I wanted to mess this all up for him. I wanted to mess it up for everyone.
I was so fucking angry.
But I hated the way Holly felt in my arms. I hated the smell of her perfume. I hated the way her hands move over my chest. I hated the way my chest hurt and the way my lungs strained every single time she touched me or that I touched her.
But it wasn’t killing me.
At least, not yet.
Holly was sixteen and hadn’t been bonded to anyone yet. She also didn’t care that I was only fourteen because I was a Keenstone Prince. She was hoping for commitment, but it wouldn’t be a problem to make that feeling go away once we were done here. That was one of the perks of being able to manipulate people’s emotions.
“I’m going to make you feel so good, Easton,” she said as I watched her get down on her knees.
My brain kept screaming at me to push her away, but my anger was forcing me not to. My anger was probably going to lead me to the biggest regret of my life, but I didn’t care.
Fuck Dad.
Chapter 4
Neve~
I didn’t care that Avalon and Griffin were happy.
I mean, I was happy for my sister, but that didn’t mean I was ready or even wanted to follow suit. I didn’t like the idea of not having a say in how my life turned out. I didn’t like feeling like I’ve been reduced to a puppet on someone else’s strings. Even though I’ve known we were different all my life, that still didn’t mean that I didn’t want more from life than what I’ve been pinned to.
There was also the fact that Griffin Keenstone wasn’t an asshole like his fraternal twin. Griffin was very much like Avalon in that they both didn’t push against the grain much. Both logical in nature, they dealt with facts rather than emotion, and they were happy with dealing with what they could control while doing their best to understand what couldn’t be. They were actually perfect for each other.
I also couldn’t ignore the smidge of jealousy that appeared from every now and again when I saw Griffin with Avalon. It’s only been a weekend since Avalon had made the decision to make things work with Griffin, and he’s been over Friday, Saturday, and today, and the boy seemed completely taken with Avalon. He’s been gracious about answering whatever questions we had, but there was only so much he could tell us about Rýkr and our ancestors. Something told me that for me and Avalon to get any real answers to this clusterfuck we were going to have to visit Rýkr, and that just wasn’t anything I wanted to do right now.
Because. I. Was. Pissed.
I wasn’t sure how Rýkr royalty worked, but I knew how every other monarchy worked in the world, and I was pretty sure you couldn’t just walk up to a king and cuss him out for messing up your life. Besides, even if it wasn’t illegal to cuss out a king, my ability to read people’s mind probably didn’t measure up to whatever special gift he had. He was a king, for Christ’s sake. He probably had all the best ones. And the fact that Rýkr royalty had more than one gift told me that I’d probably lose if it came down to a battle of the superpowers.
So, where did that leave me?
Fucked.
That’s where that left me.
There was also all that stupid bonding crap that we’d just been informed of. While I couldn’t deny that Avalon and Griffin were definitely bonded in a way that defied logic, I couldn’t say that I felt that same tethering feeling for Easton Keenstone because I didn’t.
What I experienced around him was more of a low hum of energy that drummed through my veins, but loss of control? The inability to control my emotions? The burn of indescribable lust? The panic of not being near him?
Yeah, I felt none of that.
The second Griffin had come within spitting distance of Avalon, she had immediately experienced the emotional pull Griffin presence demanded of her. Her physical reaction had been worrisome and hard to comprehend, but their bond existed. There was no denying that. Especially, now that they’ve become an official couple-sex and all-those two were linked in a way that nothing could tear them apart.
It was disconcerting as hell to witness.
And if this supposed bond between me and Easton Keenstone was supposed to exist, then how was it that he had the ability to stay away from me, just as I had the same ability to stay away from him? Griffin had told us that all bonds were different, but I suspected it was more than that.
Even though Avalon hadn’t known that there was a Griffin in her life, she had still respected what was, and she had never forced the issue. Avalon has always hated it when a guy would ask her out or try to hold her hand, and because it had never felt right, she hadn’t done it. Griffin was the first guy to ever kiss her. He was the first guy to ever touch her. Unbeknownst to her, she had saved everything for him, and he’d done the same. Even knowing he couldn’t come for her until she turned eighteen, Griffin had never touched another girl. Avalon had been his first everything, too.
I’ve kissed guys.
I’ve held their hand.
I’ve even let a couple get some boob action.
And though it had never felt right to me also, I’d been stubborn about being normal. I had been stubborn about wanting what everyone else had. I had forced myself to endure the unpleasantness of being kissed and held by the guys I’ve dated. I had forced myself to be normal.
Only I wasn’t.
I never have been.
And now I wondered if all that stubbornness has broken the bond I was supposed to have shared with Easton Keenstone.
While all that stuff had been going on between Avalon and Griffin, I hadn’t been sure what that had meant for me until both brothers had sat with us at lunch and it had become clear that Easton had come here for me while Griffin had come here for Avalon.
Still, I hadn’t felt much.
Then, the more Avalon and Griffin became consumed by their bond, the more I got to thinking that maybe I hadn’t been the only one who’s kissed someone else. It would explain why we weren’t being as affected by all this as Avalon and Griffin
were.
And to be fair, if Easton has screwed every girl on the West Coast, I could hardly blame him. Finding out how his father had played God with our lives had me super pissed off, so I could only imagine how pissed off Easton and Griffin had been when they had found out about what their father had done. That level of manipulation would have probably had me out doing the same thing had I found out the same way they had.
And unlike me and Avalon, growing up in Rýkr, Easton and Griffin probably felt the betrayal ten times worse than Avalon and I did. They knew they had someone they were supposed to love and connect with. They’d been raised to know the way of their people. Finding out their destinies had been fucked with had to have infuriated them. Avalon and I had ignorant bliss on our side, but they hadn’t.
Still, we weren’t ignorant anymore.
“What do you think of visiting Rýkr?” I asked my sister. Griffin was gone for the rest of the evening, so it was just me and her up in my room.
Avalon shrugged. “I’m not ready,” she answered. “Griffin agreed to stay, so that I can finish high school and graduate, and I’m going to take advantage of that.” She started chewing on her bottom lip. “I…I’d like time to get a better understanding of what I’m dealing with before meeting his parents and dealing with…well, with whatever that might entail.”
“If they come from a monarchy, don’t they have to return soon to…rule or whatever?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I do know that Easton’s the oldest by a few minutes, so I would think he’d have to if Rýkr was ruled like a true monarchy, but I really just don’t know.”
“I wonder what’s going to happen if Easton doesn’t bond with anyone,” I said, thinking out loud, really.
“Well, Griffin did say there were some of them who didn’t bond, so I don’t imagine he’ll be an outcast or anything,” she replied. “You still don’t feel anything?”
I shook my head. “Not anything remotely close to what you’re feeling. Even before you handed that virtual stranger your virginity, I still don’t feel what you were feeling.”
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