“Yep.” She turned around to look at herself from behind, and pouted at her reflection like she was a model posing for a photoshoot. “But I’m going for more than ‘cute.’ I want to be irresistibly sexy.”
My heart dropped. Because I knew what that meant.
She had plans with Ethan after the ceremony.
“You do realize that if the ceremony works, we’re going to be there all night,” I said. “Right?”
“The ceremony’s not going to work.” She rolled her eyes, turned to face me, and crossed her arms over her chest. Her push-up bra was so tight that she was nearly spilling out of her top. “It’s all a bunch of craziness.”
“It might not be,” I said, even though we’d had this conversation a million times.
Mira wasn’t going to believe in magic until she saw it herself.
I, on the other hand, had faith. Because I always felt the tingle of magic in the air around me. It was right there, but if I tried to grasp it, it slipped through my fingers.
It felt the strongest at the cove. I could have sworn that sometimes I saw a shimmer of green or orange dance across my skin. I could never make it happen when anyone else was there, but I knew what I saw.
And then, there was something else. Some other proof I knew I’d seen before. But whenever I tried to remember, it slipped away like a forgotten dream.
“Ethan’s already on his way.” Mira dropped her arms back down to her sides and smiled. “And I need to look perfect. Because tonight’s the night.”
My chest tightened, because I knew what she meant. She’d only been talking about it for the past month.
She wanted to lose her virginity to him.
The thought of it tore me up inside. But I kept my expression blank, like I always did when she brought up Ethan. Then I swallowed down the lump in my throat and asked, “Where are you guys going?”
“Not sure yet. But we’ll figure it out once I tell him it’s what I want for my birthday.”
“You mean he doesn’t know?”
“He knows that I love him,” she said. “I told him last week, on Christmas. So now, it’s time to seal the deal.”
I stared at her, shocked.
How had she not told me she loved him until now?
“And he said it back?” I asked.
Please say no, please say no, please say no…
Guilt slammed down on me, because I shouldn’t have been wishing that for my twin. Mira loved Ethan. Hoping he didn’t love her back was selfish and cruel.
But I couldn’t help it. Every cell in my body buzzed with wrongness at the thought of Ethan being in love with Mira.
“He doesn’t have to,” she said coolly. “I know he loves me. Tonight, he’ll finally be able to show me. And that’s what’s important.”
He doesn’t love her.
I relaxed and sat on the edge of my bed. “When’s he getting here?” I asked.
“He just left his house. So, around half an hour.”
“We’ll still be doing the ceremony.”
“He knows that,” she said. “He asked where we’ll be, so I told him. He’s gonna wait for me in the parking lot nearby.”
“You told him about the ceremony?”
I couldn’t believe it. No one but the witches in the Gemini circle was supposed to know.
“It’s just Ethan.” She shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not ‘fine.’” I glanced at the door, knowing Mom was getting ready in her room down the hall. She wouldn’t be able to hear us—she always kept music on—but I was paranoid anyway. “What if he sees something?”
“All he’ll see is a few people gathered around a bonfire.”
“You know that might not be true.” I didn’t care how much Mira claimed to love Ethan—she shouldn’t have told him our family secret. “Give me your phone.”
“What?” Her hand went to the back pocket of her shorts, and she stepped back. “Why?”
“Because I need to text Ethan. I’ll tell him we’re going somewhere different, and to meet you in the parking lot of the café.”
“You’re not texting Ethan.” She stared me down like a cat whose territory had been breached.
“Then you do it,” I said. “What’s the difference if you meet up with him there or here?”
“Because I can jump right into his car if I meet him there. It’s easier.”
“The cove is five minutes away,” I said. “Just have him wait here.”
“No.”
“Are you seriously putting him before me? Before Mom?” I glanced at the door again. “Because if you don’t text him to meet you here, I will tell her.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Guilt washed over me. Because Mira and I had always had each other’s backs. It was part of the twin code.
But this ceremony was bigger than all of us.
“Family first,” I said. “And Ethan’s not our family.”
She held my gaze for a few more seconds. Then she let out a long, defeated sigh. “Fine.” She pulled out her phone and tapped furiously on the screen. “Done,” she said, and she raised her eyes to meet mine. “Happy?”
“Let me see.” I held out my hand so she could pass over the phone.
She did, and I glanced at the screen.
Change of plans—meet me at the café. So excited for tonight! Cya soon <3 <3 <3
Three moving dots appeared underneath the message. He was typing.
I held my breath as I waited for his response to come through.
Sounds good.
Simple and to the point. Plus, he didn’t return her heart emojis.
Or maybe he just wasn’t the type of guy to send hearts.
It was such a stupid thing to care about. But I couldn’t help but wonder if it meant something. That maybe he didn’t love her, and that he never would.
I blinked, sickened by my thoughts—again. Hoping he’d never love her back was a terrible thing to want for my twin. I was awful just for thinking it. I hated myself for it.
It had been this way since that day at the beach.
Which was why I avoided Ethan as much as possible. Whatever I felt for him was just a stupid crush. And I refused to let it grow. I refused to do that to Mira.
Those five minutes we’d spent together in the cove had meant nothing.
At least, that was what I kept telling myself.
“Gemma,” Mira said, and I snapped my head up to look to her. “My phone.”
“Oh. Right.” I held it out to her, and a physical weight felt like it lifted off me when she took it back.
She glanced at the screen, then put the phone back into her pocket. “Are you happy now?” she asked.
“Very.” I forced a smile and held my hand out for her to take. “Now, let’s go. We have a ceremony to attend.”
4
Gemma
Water lapped at my bare feet as I stared out at the ocean, watching as the bottom of the sun touched the horizon. The sky was a perfect mix of purples and pinks, and the puffy clouds created one of the most beautiful sunsets I’d ever seen. I inhaled the salty air, more at peace in the cove than ever before.
A breeze blew around me, and energy flowed through me, buzzing from my head to my toes.
There was magic in the air. I could feel it.
“Gemma,” my mom called from behind me. “It’s time.”
I turned around to look at where Mira, Mom, my cousins Sasha and Rebecca, plus Sasha’s daughter Kelly were waiting around the unlit pyre.
The six of us were the only witches left in the Gemini circle. At least, the only ones we knew of, since we’d lost touch with our more distant relatives over the past few decades.
I’d only met the three of them a few times. Kelly was a few years older than us, and was studying biology at the University of Sydney. Her mom was some high-powered attorney. The other cousin was a doctor’s wife, and she stayed at home to take care of their son.
They had only slight
ly more interest in our family’s history than Mira, but they’d flown in from Sydney for the ceremony, thanks to my mom’s insistence.
In their designer clothes, they looked out of place in the cove. But they all shared our naturally wavy hair—even though they’d all highlighted theirs, like Mira. Their rounded, youthful-looking faces were similar to ours, and we all had the same straight, aristocratic noses with a few freckles scattered out to our cheeks.
Mira and I were the only ones with bright-colored eyes. Theirs were brown, like my mom’s.
I walked over to the pyre, anticipation in every step, and stopped in front of the tall teepee of firewood and sticks. I faced the cliffs in the back of the cove, and Mira stood across from me, looking out to the ocean.
Kelly crossed her arms over her chest and snapped her gum. “What do we do now?” she asked. She wore all black, her jeans and long sleeve shirt so tight that it could pass as a bodysuit.
My mom was already halfway across the cove, examining the sticks scattered across the sand. She picked up two of them. “We light the fire,” she said as she headed back to us. She came to me first and held out the sticks, both about thirty centimeters long. I grabbed the curvier one from her left hand. Then she went to Mira and handed her the other stick.
I held the stick in front of me like a wand and studied it. Was it just me, or was it pulsing slightly in my grip?
My mom pulled two lighters out of her satchel, handed one to Sasha, and the other to Rebecca. “I’ll let the two of you do the honors,” she said. “You’ll light the girls’ sticks when I give you the go.”
She didn’t say it, but I knew she was having them do it because the sticks needed to be lit at the same time, and she didn’t want to choose between me and Mira.
“What about me?” Kelly asked.
“Focus on giving your energy to the circle,” my mom said.
“Whatever that means,” she mumbled, and then she spat her chewed gum out onto the sand next to her feet.
Irritation rippled through me at her casual pollution of the beach. But the wind blew sand over the gum, hiding it from sight.
Rebecca walked over to me, and Sasha went to Mira. “Do you really believe in all this?” she asked softly.
“Yes.” I stood straighter. “I do.”
“I hope you’re right.” She gave me a small smile.
I nodded in return, as if saying, we’ve got this.
If this worked, and the three of them saw magic with their own eyes, we’d have three more active witches in the Gemini circle. Not that me, Mira, and my mom were truly “active” witches, since every spell we tried failed, but maybe this would be the turning point for all of us.
My mom pulled the Gemini spell book out of her satchel. The pages were so worn that the thick book looked ancient, and she opened it to a marked page near the end. “Lighters ready,” she said, and Rebecca flicked the lighter on. The small flame danced on its surface, and I could have sworn the tip of it leaned toward me, like it was drawn to me. “And… go.”
Rebecca lowered the lighter to the end of the stick. The flame immediately caught, growing bigger as it danced across the wood. The stick buzzed with energy, and the fire strengthened.
I pulled my gaze away from the fire to look across at Mira. The top of her stick was also aflame, although her fire wasn’t as large as mine. Her expression was serious, and her hair blew around her face, light and shadows dancing like ghosts across her features.
But somehow, the air around me was still.
“I’m going to count to three, and then you’ll lower your sticks to light the pyre,” my mom said.
Mira and I nodded.
“One, two,” she said, and anticipation built inside me with each number she counted off. “Three.”
I kneeled down and touched the fiery end of my stick to the wood at the bottom of the pyre. The flame caught hold, whooshing along the pyre in seconds. I dropped the stick, and it disappeared with the wood surrounding it.
The bonfire lit up the beach, and the flames crackled and popped as they climbed toward the sky. Warmth emanated from the fire onto my face, the heat curling toward me and begging me to move closer.
I did. Sparks flew out, and I was vaguely aware of them landing on my arms. They were warm, but it didn’t hurt.
“Gemma.” Rebecca’s sharp voice pulled me out of the moment. “Be careful. You’ll burn yourself.”
I took a small step back and looked around the fire at Mira.
My twin stood over a meter away from the flames, watching me with wide, scared eyes. A breeze blew around her, and she drew in a long, deep breath of the salty air.
She and the others stood around the fire in an even circle. I was the only one out of place, standing so close to the flames. So I took a few steps back and completed the circle. I glanced over my shoulder as the top of the sun disappeared behind the horizon, making way for twilight.
My mom nodded at me, and continued. “Now that the fire is ready, all four elements are with us in the cove,” she said. “It’s time to call them into our circle. As I speak the name of each element, focus on it and picture it joining us. Once the elements are fully present, I’ll proceed with the spell.”
“How will we know when they’re present?” Kelly frowned.
“Trust me,” my mom said. “You’ll know.” She looked to Mira and then to me. “If you’re the chosen twins, then once the ceremony is complete, one of the four elements will claim you. Absorb your element, and control it. Understood?”
“Understood,” I said, and Mira repeated the same.
My mom waited a few seconds, and then she began. “Earth,” she said, and I burrowed my toes in the sand.
A deep, resounding buzz traveled up through the bottoms of my feet and through my body. The sand grounded me, and it felt like roots grew up through my feet, holding me steady and fusing me with the earth.
“Air,” she continued, making me hyper-aware of the breeze brushing against my skin. “Water,” she said, and I closed my eyes to listen to the waves lapping the shore behind me. “Fire.”
The bonfire popped and burned higher. Sparks flared out of it like fireflies. The sharp smell of smoke filled the air, and the warmth coming off the flames caressed my skin like a blanket.
The others also gazed into the fire, as if they felt it, too. Even Kelly had uncrossed her arms and dropped the attitude.
“Welcome to our circle,” my mom said, as if the elements were living beings that could hear and understand.
The fire danced higher, the sand warmed, the breeze stirred, and the waves crashed louder.
My heart was pounding so fast that I barely remembered to breathe.
It’s happening. It’s really, truly happening.
My mom raised the book and started reciting the spell. It was in Latin, but the foreign language flowed off her tongue so easily that she sounded like she spoke it fluently. The light of the flame flickered over her skin, and I could have sworn I saw a slight sheen of yellow magic shimmer around her.
She said the final word, then looked back up.
Thunder rumbled so loudly that the ground vibrated, followed by an ear-splitting crack and bright white lightning.
And then, chaos.
Heat seared through my veins, my blood bubbling to a boil. Wind rushed around us, and the sand slithered over my feet. The fire grew so tall that it looked like it was trying to touch the stars, and rain fell from the sky in buckets, soaking me in an instant. The rain was so heavy that it blinded me, yet the fire still burned strong.
“Claim your elements!” my mom screamed over the howling wind. “Absorb them into your bodies!”
I threw my head back, closed my eyes, and opened up my palms. Earth, fire, wind, water, I thought, trying to connect with them like we’d done in the beginning of the ceremony. Which one of you is mine?
The heat intensified and surrounded me. The sand crawled over my ankles, then up my legs and over my body, covering me comp
letely. I should have been suffocating. I should have burned. But the sand burrowed inside me, followed by the heat that warmed my skin.
Fire and earth.
They were mine.
I opened my eyes and saw the final bits of flames surrounding my arms before they died out.
Except they hadn’t died out.
They’d fused with my soul.
The bonfire still burned, but at a normal height, like it had been before we’d done the spell. And the rain had stopped falling—everywhere but where Mira was standing.
I walked slightly around the fire to get a better look at my sister. Except I could barely see her. The rain had joined with the wind, so she was standing in the center of a waterspout that touched the sky.
“Mira!” I screamed. “Stop fighting it! Close your eyes and relax! Let your elements inside!”
My mom rushed over to me and took my hands, her eyes wide with fear.
What would happen if Mira failed?
Was it possible to fail?
Terror coursed through me, and my mom yelped and yanked her hands out of mine like I’d scalded her.
I glanced at her hands—they were red. I had scalded her.
Before I had time to contemplate what I’d done, the rain stopped falling around Mira. The wind slowed, revealing my sister on her knees in the sand. Tears streamed down her face, and she ran her hands along her arms, as if making sure she was still in one piece.
I ran to her, fell down to my knees next to her, and wrapped my arms around her. She was dry, despite the downpour that had surrounded her moments ago. She trembled as she cried.
“You did it,” I said. “We did it.”
“Yeah.” Her voice shook. “We did.”
Then a piercing squawk sounded from above, and a giant red-eyed bird tucked its wings to its sides and dived toward the cove.
5
Gemma
I cursed and pulled Mira to the side.
But the bird wasn’t heading toward us.
It flew straight down to Kelly, who stood there frozen, her mouth open in surprise. It dug its claws into her shoulders, opened its wings, and Kelly screamed as it flew her up to the top of the cliffs. Her shrieks filled the air as she dangled between the bird’s hind legs—legs that looked like they belonged on a giant cat. Its fur-tipped tail whipped around behind her.
The Dragon Twins (Dark World: The Dragon Twins Book 1) Page 2