All four of them gave me strange looks.
I guessed if they’d been frozen for centuries, they wouldn’t have read or seen any science fiction.
“When people are frozen so they don’t age as time passes,” I tried again.
“Exactly,” the queen said. “Isemay’s elemental gift is ice magic, and Genevieve is the ancestor of the most powerful witch who’s ever lived—Geneva.”
“The witch who gave her life to seal the gap that had been opened between Earth and Hell,” I said, since it was one of the big topics in our history lessons. Over seventeen years ago, the demons had come to Earth in the short time the gap had been open. The supernaturals have been in the war to rid the demons from Earth ever since.
Queen Katherine nodded, then continued, “With help from the magic of the second half of the Crown, they created a spell to keep us frozen in time and hidden from the outside world.”
“Does that mean you know what magic the Crown has?” Ethan asked.
“No,” she said. “But we’ve been looking forward to your arrival, so we can finally put the halves together and see what happens when the Crown is whole.”
I put my spoon down, no longer hungry.
All I cared about was putting that Crown back together.
“Then let’s do it,” I said.
“One moment,” said Isemay, slowly and seriously. “When Prince Devyn gave me the half of the Crown, he gave me an important message about what must happen after the Crown is made whole.”
“And…” My heart pounded as I waited for her to continue.
“The dragon king—Ethan Pendragon—must be the one to place the Crown on the head of the Queen of Pentacles. Then, it will gift the Queen with the magic of the fifth element.”
“So it’s true,” I realized, and a wave of excitement—and anxiety—crashed over me. “One of us is definitely the Queen.”
“Yes,” Queen Katherine said. “It’s true.”
“What type of magic is the fifth element?”
“We don’t know,” she said. “We’ll find out after the Queen is crowned.”
“Okay.” I gathered myself, straightened, then looked to my twin. “You can go first.”
Mira smiled. I knew it would make her happy to go first.
I also knew that it didn’t matter who Ethan crowned first, since only one of us was destined to wear the Crown.
“Wait,” Isemay said. “There’s one more catch.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Ethan must place the Holy Crown on the head of the twin he truly loves. If he places it on the other twin’s head, not only will the Crown be destroyed, but its wearer will die, too.”
34
Gemma
Ethan paled and said nothing.
“Ethan?” Mira said, her voice small.
“Sorry.” He picked his backpack up from the floor, unzipped it, and pulled out the golden box with our half of the Crown. “Let’s get this over with.”
He refused to look at either me or Mira.
Mira looked like her heart had been beaten with a sledgehammer.
I felt… numb.
It’s going to be Mira, I told myself. He’s chosen to be with Mira. They might be having relationship issues right now, but she’s the one he loves.
“Genevieve will put the halves together,” Queen Katherine said.
Still not looking at either me or Mira, Ethan took our half of the Crown out of the box and handed it to Genevieve.
She took it from him, walked over to the table against the wall, and took the second half of the Crown out of its icy wooden box. The Crown’s crystals glowed, like they were trying to come back to life. But the glow was dim—not quite there yet.
Then Genevieve brought the halves together, and white light exploded through the room. It was so bright that I had to close my eyes. Even then, I could still see the echo of the light behind my lids.
The light died down, and I reopened my eyes.
The Crown was one. Its crystals sparkled and glimmered with an otherworldly light, as did the crescent moon in the center.
Genevieve’s eyes were bright with wonder as she stared down at it. “The Holy Crown is whole,” she said, and then she pulled her gaze away from the Crown to look at Ethan. “It’s time for you to crown our fourth and final Queen.”
I could barely breathe as he walked over to Genevieve.
He loves Mira. Mira is going to be the Queen of Pentacles. Mira will receive the fifth element.
Disappointment coursed through me. Because I was more in tune with magic than Mira. And whatever the fifth element was, I wanted it. My stomach twisted with a sense of wrongness at the idea of Mira having it instead of me.
But what was it Hecate had said?
Trust in Fate.
I wasn’t going to receive the fifth element. But maybe Fate had something else in store for me. Something that, right now, I couldn’t even fathom.
Ethan took the Crown from Genevieve, then spun around to face me and Mira. His eyes were more pained than I’d ever seen them before.
“Wait,” said Constance—the vampire gifted with future sight. She’d been quiet so far, and the intensity of her tone surprised me. “The fate of the world hinges on what’s about to happen here. We need to proceed correctly.”
“What do you mean?” Mira fidgeted and looked back and forth between Ethan and Constance.
Ethan refused to look at her. He refused to look at me, too.
“The two of you need to stand in front of Ethan with your backs against each other and your eyes closed,” she said. “Then Ethan will place the Crown on the head of the twin he loves.”
“Why?” Mira looked—and sounded—desperate to get this over with.
“To take as much pressure off him as possible.”
“There shouldn’t be any pressure.” Mira squared her shoulders and looked at Constance like she was a bug she wanted to squash. “Ethan’s with me. He loves me. Which means I’m the Queen of Pentacles.”
“That may be the case,” Constance said. “But we must follow protocol.”
“Fine.” Mira stomped across the room and stopped in front of Ethan. She stood perpendicular to him, so her right shoulder was in front of him. “Let’s get this over with.”
My feet felt like they were weighted down with bricks as I walked over to Mira and pressed my back against hers.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ethan’s hands shaking around the Crown.
He shouldn’t have been so nervous. There was nothing between me and him other than my unrequited attraction for him and that kiss in Lilith’s lair.
He’d had a chance to stay with me that first day we’d met in the cove. But he’d gone on to meet Mira, and then to date her. He’d chosen her.
Of course he was going to crown her. He was only nervous because of the second part of what Isemay had said.
If he places the Crown on the other twin’s head, she’ll die.
By crowning Mira, there was also a chance—a small chance—that he could kill her.
Possibly killing the person you loved would be an insane amount of pressure for anyone.
But Ethan loved Mira. He was going to crown her, she’d receive the fifth element, and she’d be okay. She’d be more than okay—she’d be the Queen of Pentacles.
It should have been me.
I pushed the thought out of my head, since there was no point in getting upset about something I couldn’t control.
Fate had other plans for me. It had to.
“Close your eyes,” Genevieve said, and I did as asked.
The next time I opened my eyes, Mira would be a Queen.
“Good luck,” I whispered to my twin.
She trembled behind me. “You, too.”
The wooden floor creaked as Ethan stepped forward, his delicious, spicy scent growing closer. While I couldn’t see him, I could feel that he was standing in front of where my and Mira’s shoulders were touching.
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I sucked in a long breath, reached back for my sister’s hands, and held them. Her palms were damp with sweat. She clenched my hands tightly, like she was terrified to let go.
Relax, I thought. This will be over soon.
Nervous energy buzzed through me.
I heard Ethan raise his arms.
And then, I felt it.
The weight of the Crown upon my head.
35
Gemma
My body felt like it was being sliced into pieces. Sliced by the sharp crystals of the Crown.
I screamed, but heard nothing.
And I saw everything.
Memories flooded my mind—the memories I’d erased with the potion created by Shivani.
The memories of a life where Ethan had chosen me.
The final words he’d spoken to me in that life echoed through my mind.
Centuries ago, most dragons had a Twin Flame out there, somewhere. A mirrored soul they were destined to find, and would search for until they did. We wait to be intimate with anyone until receiving our shifting magic. Because only when we’ve become whole—when our dragon side unites with our human side—are we ready to find and connect with our twin. Before that moment, even if we met our twin, we’d be attracted to them but we wouldn’t know for sure if it was a Twin Flame connection. Our first shift changes that.
And then, the final part:
Every Twin shares at least one element with the other.
Fire.
Ethan and I had always been connected by fire.
But the pain shredding my body apart was so intense that I was going to explode from it. It was like I’d turned to light and had been fractured into a million pieces.
Ethan had crowned the wrong twin.
The Holy Crown was killing me.
I was going to die. The Crown would be destroyed.
Without all four Queens, the world as we knew it would fall into the hands of the demons.
So many people were going to die. And all because—for some unknown reason—Ethan thought he loved me.
What had he been thinking when he’d placed that Crown on my head? What must his expression have been?
Had he been looking at me with love? The same way the Ethan from my alternate memories had always looked at me?
Suddenly, the pain was gone, and I was leaning against a wall, in a small bedroom similar in design to the living room of the cabin. I stared down at my hands, surprised to find them intact.
I could still feel the weight of the Crown on my head, and I reached up to touch it.
It was whole.
I hadn’t destroyed it by wearing it. More importantly, it hadn’t destroyed me.
So, what had happened?
“Ethan must place the Holy Crown on the head of the twin he truly loves,” Isemay’s voice sounded from the next room. “If he places it on the other twin’s head, not only will the Crown be destroyed, but its wearer will die, too.”
I blinked, hit with déjà vu. The world felt like it upended, and I pressed my palms against the wall to make sure I didn’t fall over.
No, I thought as I steadied myself. Impossible.
The door in the room was cracked open from when Genevieve had come inside to fetch the box holding the second half of the Crown.
As quietly as possible, I walked over to it and peeked through the crack.
Genevieve stood at the wall, next to the table with the second half of the Crown on top of it.
The second half of the fully complete Crown that was also sitting on my head.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Ethan?” Mira said.
I couldn’t see her, but I remembered her expression in that moment. Worried and scared.
I remembered because I’d been standing next to her.
“Sorry,” Ethan said, and I heard him unzip his backpack. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Genevieve will put the halves together,” Queen Katherine said.
Ethan’s footsteps sounded on the floor, and then he came into view and handed Genevieve our half of the Crown.
My heart caught in my throat, and I could barely breathe. Because everything that I was watching now… it had already happened.
This has to be a dream, I thought. Something happened when Ethan placed that Crown on my head. Maybe it knocked me out? And now I’m remembering the final minutes beforehand.
That made sense. Total, complete sense.
At least, more sense than the other possibility. Especially since, as I’d learned from the nightshade, I was apparently prone to vivid hallucinations.
Could the Holy Crown have driven me crazy?
I reached for my head to touch it again. Because I was wearing the Crown. But at the same time, Genevieve stood meters away, holding both halves of it. It was here and there.
There were two Holy Crowns.
Sort of. Maybe the one I was wearing would disappear once the original became whole again.
If that one was the original. Hadn’t mine existed first?
Like before, Genevieve brought the halves together. I stepped to the side just before the bright light exploded through the room. If any of them saw me… well, I had no idea what would happen if they saw me. But I doubted it would be good.
Especially if I saw me.
The light died down, and I resumed my post near the door, watching from the shadows through the crack.
As I knew it would be, the Crown in Genevieve’s hands was whole.
The one my head was still there, too.
Now, there truly were two Crowns, existing in nearly the same space. The implications of that were too huge to comprehend. My brain felt dizzy from trying.
“The Holy Crown is whole,” Genevieve said, and then she looked to Ethan. “It’s time for you to crown our fourth and final Queen.”
I stood totally still as I watched the next moments, knowing exactly how they would play out.
Constance told me and Mira to stand with our backs to each other and close our eyes, to take the pressure off of Ethan.
Constance, the vampire prophetess.
Would Ethan have crowned me over Mira if we were both watching?
Given that the Crown would have killed her—if I wasn’t dead and watching this from some ghost-like limbo, which I still hadn’t discounted—I hoped he would have.
In my heart, I knew he would have. Because since Ethan loved me, crowning Mira would have been the same thing as murdering her.
So why did me and Mira have to stand back-to-back, not looking at Ethan?
If I got the chance, I was definitely going to ask Constance.
But for now, I had to stay hidden. I had to let these final moments play out the way I already knew they would.
A sense of strangeness floated over me as I watched myself enter the scene and stand with my back against Mira’s. I looked so calm and serene.
How had I pulled that off? Because I remembered the anxiety that had been coursing through me in that moment. I’d felt anything but calm.
I’d been jealous.
Jealous because I’d thought Mira was about to be crowned as the Queen of Pentacles and gifted with power over the fifth element. I’d been trying to stop myself from getting upset by telling myself that there was another destiny out there for me, but it hadn’t changed the fact that I’d wanted to be the Queen.
I’d always been told that I was good at hiding my emotions. Mira had been one of the few who could see through me, and in the past few months, I’d nearly mastered hiding my feelings from her.
No one watching would have had any idea of the bitter, jealous thoughts running through my head in those seconds before being crowned.
I leaned forward, since this was the moment I’d been wondering about—what Ethan had looked like when he’d decided to crown me instead of Mira.
Then, other Gemma’s eyes darted to the door—the one I was watching through.
I flattened myself against the wall.
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“Is there someone else here?” I heard myself ask.
“It’s only the seven of us,” Queen Katherine said. “Why?”
“I just… thought I saw something.”
My heart leaped.
Because I hadn’t looked over here before. I hadn’t said that before.
Just by standing here and watching through the crack, I’d changed what had happened mere minutes ago.
Although given that I’d gotten all my memories back, it felt like it had been so much longer than that. Well, my sort of memories. Could they be called memories when they hadn’t truly happened?
It was more like I’d gotten my memories of my fake-memories back.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get crazier… here I was.
“You’re nervous,” Constance said to the other me. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over soon, and all will be well.”
Was Constance helping me? Not the other me… but the me over here?
Did she know I was here?
Stay still, I told myself, remaining totally flat against the wall. Don’t give the other me another reason to look over here.
“Okay,” I finally heard myself say. Skeptical, but accepting. “Let’s get this over with.”
I could practically hear the undercurrent in my tone.
It’s time to let Ethan crown Mira as Queen.
Oh, other-Gemma. If only you had any idea of what’s going to happen next.
Slowly, I moved to peek through the crack again.
The other me had her eyes closed. Mira’s back was facing me, but I knew she had hers closed, too.
I saw other-me’s lips move as I told Mira good luck. And while I couldn’t hear from where I was standing, I knew Mira said, “You, too.”
Ethan stepped forward, holding the Holy Crown in both of his hands. He looked at Mira and frowned, his expression pained. Then, he looked to me, and there was no doubting it—his eyes shined with love. Real, true love, just like how I remembered him looking at me in the memories when he and I were together.
My heart stopped, and I held my breath, watching as Ethan placed the Holy Crown on my head.
Other-me flickered a few times, like a failing projection, then flashed out.
The Dragon Realm (Dark World: The Dragon Twins Book 2) Page 15