by RM Walker
She sat between them and took the sandwich he offered her.
“To be fair, we don’t go far without having food with us,” Josh said, taking out bottles of water and a bunch of bananas.
“How did you know to bring enough for all of us though?” she asked, taking a cheese and pickle sandwich out.
“I told him,” Jake said, opening his sandwich.
“What? When?” They hadn’t said anything when Josh had met them in the green or when they were at the garage.
“When we decided to go out on the bikes. We weren’t sure where we were going until we hit the A30.”
“You didn’t phone each other. You didn’t say anything, just got on the bikes and left.”
“Well, you know. Oh! Didn’t we tell you?” Josh pulled her legs over his and rested his sandwich on her thighs.
“Tell me what?”
Jake pulled her to lean against him, supporting her weight. “We talk to each other in our heads.”
“You can?” She looked between them. “And is this like your ability to tell when it’s going to rain?”
“Ouch. We deserved that, Jacob.” Josh chuckled and took a bite of his sandwich.
“Yeah, well, that was—what’d you call it again, Lily?” Jake poked her arm gently.
“Rubbish.”
“Nah, it wasn’t rubbish.” Josh took another bite, watching her through his fringe.
“If we remember correctly, and we do, you swore,” Jake said.
“I don’t swear,” she replied, before popping a bit of bread into her mouth.
“Bullshit.”
“That was it, Joshua. Bullshit!” Jake patted her thigh with his free hand.
“Are you deliberately changing the subject?”
“Nah, just teasing you.” Josh kissed her cheek quickly. “We thought we’d told you. We can feel each other.”
“You said that but not that you can talk to each other. Do you do it a lot?”
“Depends on where we are and what we’re doing. If we’re in a situation we can’t speak out loud, then yeah.” Josh picked some crumbs from her jeans and threw them onto the grass.
“Can the others do it?”
“No.” Jake balled up his now empty wrapper and put it into the pack. “Just us. A magic twin thing, I guess.”
“It must be really weird.” She finished her sandwich.
“Why?” Jake handed Josh a packet of crisps. “It’d be odd if we couldn’t hear each other.”
“We’re extensions of each other. If we’d not split in the womb we’d be one person. We’re still one person, just in two bodies,” Josh explained.
“I’ve met identical twins before.” Lily took the crisps Jake offered her and opened them. “They were adamant they were different people. They never dressed the same, didn’t like the same things.”
Josh shrugged. “Maybe it’s because we’re fae. We don’t know, but we do know we don’t want it any other way.”
“I guess you’re never lonely. Not even when you aren’t together.”
“Exactly.” Jake brushed some crumbs from her arm. “We talk a lot even when we’re together.”
A comfortable silence fell as they finished eating. Lily watched the water, looking for any movement at all, but there was none. It was like a mirror reflecting the sky above.
Josh began to pack up the food, so she drew her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and leant forward, still studying the water.
“Are you cold?” Jake nudged her shoulder with his.
“No, I’m fine, thanks.” She nodded towards the water. “It never moves. Are there fish in there?”
“Probably.” Josh got to his feet and stretched his arms above his head.
“Can you whisper with fish?”
“Whisper?” Josh frowned at her.
“Yeah, y’know, like some people are dog whisperers, or horse whisperers. You’re animal whisperers in general, aren’t you?”
“Well, that’s a first.” Jake pushed the backpack over to their jackets. “Never thought of it like that.”
“We don’t talk to them or whisper.” Josh laughed and went to the edge of the pool. “And we can’t say we’ve ever tried with fish anyway.”
“What about your own?”
“What about them?” Jake looked puzzled.
“Well, y’know, haven’t you sat there and tried to get them to—I don’t know, swim in synchronisation or something.”
“Um, no.” Jake looked at Josh and circled his finger by his head.
She laughed, pushing his shoulder. “C’mon, don’t tell me you haven’t tried to get ants to march in twos or get your cat to sit on Nate’s head or something.”
“Bloody hell.” Josh hooted with laughter. “It’s almost worth it just to see his reaction.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t.” She got up, brushing crumbs onto the grass. “I’d be all over it. I’d tell bees never to sting so they didn’t die. Spiders would be permanently banished from the country.”
“If spiders left the country we’d be drowning in flies. Think Drew’s room but multiply it by a billion or so.” Josh crouched by the edge of the water, peering into it.
“Well, I’d banish them as well.”
“Babe, you couldn’t do that. We can’t do that.” Jake shook his head. “We can communicate with them because we’re fae. We’re supposed to protect them, look after them, not change the order of things. Everything works in symbiosis. We literally can’t change anything, or the entire system fucks up.”
Pulling a face, she nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But it’s a shame you can’t banish spiders.”
“Misunderstood,” Josh muttered.
“What?”
“Spiders. They’re misunderstood.”
“Freaky things, why so many eyes? Why so many legs? And why can they move that fast? That sort of speed is not natural.”
“It is to them.” Jake crouched next to Josh. “See anything?”
“No.” Josh shook his head. “Spiders are more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“Yeah, right.” Lily joined them, going onto her knees. “Which is why they run towards me and not away from me.” She peered into the water, but all she could see was their reflections.
“They just want a cuddle,” Josh teased her.
“Can you blame them?” Jake gently touched the surface with his fingertip, sending a ripple outward, distorting their faces.
“I was beginning to think it was a mirror, and if I threw a stone it would bounce.” She watched the ripple spread farther across the pool.
“Well, let’s see.” Josh picked up a small stone and raised his hand above his head.
“No!” She grabbed his wrist. “Don’t.”
“Nothing will throw it back. The Lady won’t be in the water,” he said. “She’ll have become pure magic until needed.”
Lily looked out over the pool and shook her head. “No, she’s still here. She may be sleeping, but she’s here.” She didn’t know how she knew. It was a feeling, a whisper in the back of her mind.
“Can you feel her?” Josh dropped the stone to the ground.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I can’t explain it. It’s just a feeling we mustn’t disturb the water so violently. Maybe I’m being silly.”
“Not silly,” Jake said. “You connect with magic. We’ve seen it. You connect more than we do.”
“The nymphs called me a little hedge witch. When I said I was supposed to be a seer not a witch, they told me I was both.”
“We know you are.” Josh sat back on the blanket, pulling her with him. “Jonas thinks you’re only a Seer.”
“Drew said I was a witch, he doesn’t think I’m a Seer.”
“They both think you’re different things. Best to leave it like that for now.” Jake moved to sit on her other side. “Don’t tell either of them about the nymphs.”
“Can we ask you a question?” Josh turned to look
at her.
“Of course.” She lay back and closed her eyes.
“What was going down between you and your mum?”
“You heard?” Tension crept back in.
“Sorry, babe, sound travels.” Jake propped himself on his elbow beside her and ran his fingertip down her nose.
“She wanted me to take the tablets again.” Lily scrunched her nose up against the tickle.
“Shit.” Josh mirrored his brother and lay facing her.
“She won’t accept it. Her house, her rules, she said as much.”
“But not something dangerous,” Josh argued. “They made you ill.”
“She won’t accept it.” She clenched her fists against the pain and sat up.
“She hates magic that much?” Josh asked, sitting up with her.
“She said it’s evil. I have evil in me.” She tried to smile at him but failed.
“Hey. Hey. It’s okay, baby.” He put his arm around her waist. “You don’t have evil in you.”
Jake sat up and put his arm around her shoulders. “Magic isn’t evil. None of us are evil, especially not you.”
“She said it’s all been a waste of her time. Shielding me from it was a waste of time, all the sacrifices she made for me.” It burnt inside, stripping away the peace from her.
“She can’t put that on you.” Josh shook his head. “Anything she chose to do she can’t blame you for.”
“It was her choice to hide you,” Jake added.
“She lied to you, for whatever reason, right or wrong.” Josh moved his fingers into her hair. “We don’t know how she expected to keep it from you.”
“She must have known you’d find out sooner or later, or that Drew would turn up when you were eighteen.” Jake lowered his arm and stroked his hand up and down her back.
“It’s probably panic talking. She can’t blame you, baby. Magic is a bit like money. It can be used for good or bad. Money itself isn’t bad.”
“Magic is the same,” Jake carried on. “It’s not good or bad, it just is. How it’s used is the kicker.”
“My head knows. My heart knows,” she admitted. “But it hurts. She’s scared of me.”
“She’s lived with you for eighteen years and doesn’t see you. We’ve known you for a couple of months and know there isn’t an evil bone in your body.”
“I broke the mirror and didn’t even know it,” she reminded them.
“Exactly, you didn’t know. She’d have something to worry about if you’d done it deliberately. You can’t control something you don’t know you have. Now you can control it, you won’t do it again.”
“She doesn’t know that.”
“She should.” Jake snorted.
“Do you think she’s going to make good on her threat to leave?” Josh asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope not.”
“We don’t think she’ll go if you stand firm,” Josh said. “We don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave you, any of you.”
But if Nate and Matt couldn’t work things out, she wouldn’t be able to stay with them either. She rested her chin on her knees. It was too much, with no way to turn.
“It’s going to be okay.” Jake moved his hand to the back of her neck.
“What about Nate and Matt? What if they can’t—”
“They will,” Josh said. “You need to stop worrying and thinking.”
“Just for now at least,” Jake added. “We can help with that.”
“Yeah?” She looked at him sideways and caught the gleam in his eyes. She smiled despite herself. “How?”
“Well, we can play a game of eye spy,” Jake suggested.
“Eye spy?” She lifted her head, raising an eyebrow at him. He was trying so hard to look innocent and failing completely, and it lifted her spirits slightly. Maybe they were right, maybe Matt and Nate would sort it out. As for her mother, she’d do what they suggested and stop thinking about it. She was with them and she wasn’t going to spoil it by pouting.
“Or we could play hide and seek,” Josh said.
She looked around her pointedly. “Not that many areas to hide.”
“What was it Lily suggested the other night, Jacob?”
“Oh, yes. Something about skinny dipping?”
“That’s right. We’re game, Lil.”
“You’re mad.” She snorted. “I’m not going in there. It’s far too cold.”
They went silent then Jake sniggered, and she knew they’d been conversing in their heads.
“You do realise it could be considered rude, don’t you?” she said. The clouds were breaking up and patches of blue appeared on the smooth surface of the water.
“What?” asked Josh.
“You were talking to each other silently.”
“Would you like to know what we were saying?” Jake sidled closer, rested his chin on her shoulder and brushed his lips against her ear.
“Is it interesting?” She tried to hide the shiver his lips created.
“Oh, very.” Josh rested his chin on her other shoulder. “We were debating if that was a Freudian slip.”
“You said you wouldn’t go skinny dipping in there.” Josh slid a finger around her ear, pushing her hair behind it.
Goosebumps broke out on her skin. “So that’s—” She cleared her throat. Jake copied Josh’s actions on her other ear and the sensation intensified.
“Which means you’d go skinny dipping with us somewhere else.” Josh stroked a finger around the shell of her ear.
Jake traced his fingers down the side of her neck, making her whimper. “You’re ganging up on me.”
“No, sweetheart, we’re making out with you,” Jake whispered. His lips took the place of his fingers, and she bit her lip against the moan that threatened to spill from her.
Josh licked the curve of her ear and her head went back, her eyes shutting as warmth spread through her. He slid in behind her, pulling her back against his chest, his legs either side of her. She dragged her eyes open as Jake knelt in front of her raised knees and caught hold of her ankles. Pushing her feet apart he shuffled forward until he was kneeling between her legs. His gaze held hers as he lowered his face towards her. Her breathing stopped, anticipation building until his lips grazed against hers. It wasn’t enough, it would never be enough. She moaned low in her throat as his tongue darted out, tracing her lips. She lifted her head, responding to him urgently, and Josh groaned behind her as if it were him she was kissing. He caught hold of her wrists and guided her hands to Jake’s upper arms.
“You feel so good.” Josh buried his nose into her neck and nipped her skin. It sent a bolt of lust through her so strong she jerked, and her teeth clashed against Jake’s.
“Oh, shit, sorry. Are you okay?” Jake peered at her lips.
She caught his head, tugging him towards her, and he got the message. Running her hand through Jake’s hair, she gripped Josh’s thigh with her other hand, needing to anchor herself to them. Josh skimmed his hands up and down her arms, his nose buried in her neck, his teeth and tongue devouring her.
Jake pulled back, letting them both breathe, and her head flopped back onto Josh’s shoulder. She looked at Jake through hazy eyes, her uneven breathing matching his.
“Yeah,” Jake said. “She is.”
“What?” She squirmed as Josh trailed his fingers across her breastbone.
“Joshua said you’re perfect. We want to touch you. Can we touch you, please?”
She nodded, expecting him to stroke her arms, or her face. But it was a green light to them and she cried out, arching upwards when Josh slid his hands inside her top and over her cotton covered breasts. Josh swore, desperately trying to get to her mouth. She turned into him, opening her mouth to him straight away. His hands stayed still on her breasts, he didn’t squeeze, or stroke, he just held her, and it wasn’t enough.
Jake found the exposed skin of her neck and his teeth nipped at her, mak
ing her squirm. His fingers trailed a path of fire up the bare flesh of her belly. Josh moved one of his hands up her throat, and she moaned at the loss. Jake’s fingers inched over her heated skin until his hand covered the breast that Josh had abandoned. She shifted from side to side, creating a friction between her and their palms.
Jake swore and between them they pulled the cotton of her bra down and her bare flesh met their warm, gentle hands. She cried out, bringing her hand to back of Josh’s neck. He groaned and buried his face into her shoulder as he tentatively squeezed her flesh.
“Yes, do that again, please,” she pleaded. Heat flooded through her, and she arched into their hands. They lost any tentativeness they had and explored her, stroking, rolling, and tugging until all she could do was tangle her fingers in their hair and hang on. Her toes curled, tingles spread up her legs making her ache deep inside.
She was moved onto her back and they were kneeling over her, inching her top up till she was bare to them. Forcing her eyes open, she saw the pure lust on their faces as they gazed at her, and her insides clenched. Jake dipped his tongue into her belly button, and the zap of electricity had her hips bucking. Their mouths took the place of their hands, and she arched into them, tugging on their hair, holding them against her. They were baptising her with fire, licking her with pure flames, dragging her closer to an edge that scared her. She struggled to hang onto the edge of reason that was slowly slipping away from her. So close to the point of no return that nothing registered except them.
“Bloody hell.” Josh’s palm took the place his lips had been. “You’re beautiful.”
She arched into his touch, unable to form a coherent sentence.
His gaze moved to where he was touching her. They were both studying her response to their touch, and it amplified the pleasure zipping through her. Dark hair fell forward into their eyes but neither of them moved it or took their gaze away from her.
“We need to slow down,” Jake whispered.
“We know, we know,” Josh grumbled.
“What?” She shuddered deeply as they moved her bra to cover her.
“We need to stop.” Josh placed a kiss on her breast.
“We don’t want to,” Jake whispered as he tugged her shirt into place and linked his fingers with hers.