Twin Sparks

by Katie Low

  They were high enough in the sky that to the people on the ground they wouldn’t look any larger than a bird. The trees blended together making a massive sea of green below.

  After a quick gasp, Gemma let out an infectious giggle. “This is amazing!” she screamed. “Woohoo!”

  She let go of Liliana’s waist and held her arms out to the sides, tipping her chin up to the clouds above them. The utter joy that lit her face made her look as beautiful on the outside as Thad was beginning to realize that she was on the inside.

  In what seemed like no time at all, the massive dragon landed back on solid ground and the three of them jumped from his back and landed in the plush grass.

  In the time that it took for the dragon to change back into Thad’s dad, and change into a new set of clothes, Gemma had chattered excitedly at a rate that Thad had no hope of keeping up with. When their dad reemerged from the tree line, Gemma ran up to him and held out her hand.

  “Thank you so much, Mr. Sparks!”

  “Please, Gemma, just call me Faolan.”

  “Yes, sir! Uh, Faolan, sir.”

  At her stammering over his name, the three Sparks laughed until Gemma joined in on their mirth, and they didn’t stop laughing until well after they tread through the front door of their home.

  Chapter Eleven

  The week seemed to fly by for Liliana and Thad. They spent their time getting to know their new friend, who had fit into their group as if she had been there all along, and helping their dad finalize the plans for their party. The day of their birthday arrived, and more people than Liliana cared to count flooded their backyard.

  Typically, she would be overwhelmed with that many people around, but for this particular birthday party, she would definitely suck it up. For the better part of the day, she could feel her animal form stirring to life inside of her, which also helped her to deal with the excitement and anxiety surrounding her.

  As if sensing her unease with the number of attendees, her uncles and father formed a protective circle around her, joking with her and each other about her upcoming shift.

  “I know, my girl,” Uncle Eoghan started, “you’re hoping to be a griffin. We are, after all, the superior beings.”

  “You wish, you oversized parrot,” Uncle Ruarc said. “Dragons are obviously superior. How many films can you name that have depicted the majesty of griffins? None? That’s what I thought.”

  “Ack,” Uncle Ean chimed in. “Who are you calling a parrot, you glorified lizard? Of course, she wants to be a griffin. Why have all of those rough scales when she could have soft fur and feather down?”

  “Soft?” Faolan sounded appalled. “About as soft as you are in the head if you think I want my little girl flying through the skies in anything less protective than those scales.”

  “Alright, I’ll give you that one,” Uncle Fearghus said. “Ean is quite soft in the head. However, so are you if you think she would be any safer in dragon hide than as a griffin. At least griffins are more agile in the sky. She could dodge assaults easier without the added bulk.”

  “Aye,” Uncle Eamon added. “And let’s not forget that with an eagle’s cry, she’d be able to fool the humans as she flies over them more easily than the roar of a dragon.”

  Liliana listened to each argument as they got more and more ridiculous, unable to keep the grin off of her face.

  She loved these men more than she could ever express to them, and she knew that they loved her just the same. With her heart feeling much lighter, she placed each of her palms on Uncle Ean’s cheeks and used the grip to guide his head down to hers. She placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, before letting go, and moving on to the next man. She ended with her father, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a tight embrace before brushing her lips against his cheek.

  “I love you guys,” she whispered, knowing that each of them could hear her as well as if she had spoken at a normal volume.

  From this position over her dad’s shoulder, Liliana caught a glimpse of a beautiful blonde woman tentatively headed in their direction.

  “Cardi!” Under her arms, she felt her dad tense. She withdrew her arms from around her father’s neck and stepped around him to jog up to her schoolteacher. “You came!”

  Cardi smiled radiantly. “Of course, I came! Happy birthday, my dear.”

  “Thank you.”

  As the two walked back to the group of her uncles and father, Liliana felt a sharp pain stab through her abdomen. She cried out, hugging herself around the middle.

  “Liliana?” Cardi sounded concerned, but Liliana couldn’t form any words to ease her fears as another wave of pain crashed over her. “Faolan! Something’s wrong.”

  She could hear the footsteps of the adult males rushing toward her before her father crouched down in front of her. “Liliana, baby, what’s the matter?”

  “Hurts…” she groaned out.

  Cardi waved her hands in front of Liliana, and she was mesmerized by the glowing light that shone from the other woman’s palms. “I don’t see anything physically wrong. I think that it might be her shift.”

  Her dad gave a quick nod of his head. “Liliana, listen to me, baby. Don’t fight against the pain. I know it sounds impossible, but you need to try to relax. Let it take over. You can do this sweetheart.”

  With a jerk of her head to show that she heard him, Liliana took a few deep breaths. Instead of fighting the pain in her abdomen and trying to stand straight, she followed the direction of the pull, and crouched down to her hands and knees.

  “Daddy,” she whispered on a moan.

  “I’m right here, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

  His low, gravelly voice washed over her, soothing some of the pain that had now radiated out to the rest of her body. After a few short moments, she heard several snaps of what sounded like twigs being broken. It wasn’t until she felt the sharp pain in her limbs that she realized the sound was her bones breaking and reforming.

  A warm hand settled on her spine, and that hand, more than anything else, washed away the majority of the pain. She looked over her shoulder to see who her guardian angel was, and the sight shocked her. The glowing that had originated in Cardi’s hands had now spread up the woman’s arms, and through the rest of her body. She was like a beacon shining through the clearing, casting shadows behind the trees as if she projected more light than the sun above them. Her hair whipped around her face, even as the air around them was still.

  The pain was all but gone, and the snaps and tears originating from her body were heard more than they were felt. Somehow Cardi was taking the pain away. In the last few moments, Liliana felt everything shift into place, as if a rubber band that had been stretched snapped back to its original shape. When she looked down at her hands, in their place she saw talons. Further up her arms, she saw ebony scales that were streaked with a dark, eggplant shade of purple. She was beautiful! She was a dragon!

  From across the yard, Thad could hear the commotion surrounding his sister. As quickly as he could, he ran to her side. “Dad, what can I do?”

  Uncle Ruarc grabbed him around the middle and pulled him back away from his sister. “Give her some space, son. She’s going through her shift.”

  He watched in horror as his sister’s bones snapped and her muscles tore. Her face contorted in anguish. He sensed the magic pouring out of Cardi as she tried to sooth the pain, but the sickening sounds couldn’t be helped.

  Thad felt his stomach wretch, but he held the contents of his stomach down.

  “It’s alright, Thaddeus,” his uncle soothed. “The first time is always the worst. It will get easier and easier on her, until it looks as seamless as a wave crashing over a beach.”

  The light shining from Cardi was so bright that Thad had to close his eyes for a moment to shield them from the brilliance. When he opened them again, he gasped. Where his sister had been crouched on the ground now stood a stunning dragon. Her scales were similar to their fathers, in that they we
re mostly black, but where their dad’s were tipped in a hunter green, Liliana’s were a dark shade of purple. Her scales looked like blackberry-colored stained glass. With each movement, the purple shimmered on her back.

  After her initial inspection, she tilted her head back and let out an ear-piercing roar.

  The crowd around them applauded and cheered, while Lil’s dragon preened in front of them. The sight of it would have made him laugh if he hadn’t been struck by a sharp pain around his middle. As he doubled over, he vaguely heard his uncle say, “not again,” before he blocked out all sound around him and focused solely on the agony now shooting through his body.

  In a blink, Cardi was by his side, her glowing hands running down his back, soothing away the aches. “Shhhh. You’re alright, Thad. We’re here for you.”

  The transformation in himself was much easier for Thad to bear than it was to watch happen to his sister. He would have gladly taken all the pain that she endured onto himself if it would have meant that he could spare her, but he knew that it didn’t work like that.

  In a matter of moments, when all the discomfort subsided, Thad stretched his limbs. When he felt the tug on his back muscles, he looked to his right and saw a glorious golden wing with feathers tipped in a white so pure he was afraid to let them touch the ground for fear that he would soil them. A griffin then. Thad wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but the one thing he never expected was to turn out to be different from his sister. They shared everything, why should their animal form be an exception? However, there they stood, shoulder to shoulder, and the two couldn’t look more different. Like the living embodiments of night and day. It. Was. Awesome!

  Chapter Twelve

  The next hour or so went by in a blur. When Liliana changed back into her human form, one of her uncles had wrapped a towel around her so that she could walk back to the house to redress. The shift had torn her clothing to shreds. When Thad and she reemerged, they were engulfed in a sea of people congratulating them.

  As the crowd dispersed, they were left alone with Hannah, Jeremy, and Gemma, as the five of them spoke excitedly about how amazing it was. Her brother had made the most glorious griffin she had ever seen, and when she told him as much, the other three agreed wholeheartedly.

  With a light heart, Liliana scanned the yard, searching for her dad. When she spotted him, she couldn’t say what surprised her most about what she saw.

  Cardi was seated on one of the picnic benches, looking pained and exhausted. Next to her, Faolan was holding a glass of water to her lips trying to get her to drink from the cup. She waved him off, but he continued to fret over her, a look of concern on his face.

  “Thad,” she said, nudging her brother with her elbow. When he looked her way, she jerked her head in Cardi’s direction. The five of them made their way through the yard to check on their teacher to see if she was alright.

  “Cardi?” Thad said hesitantly.

  The woman smiled, but it wasn’t lost on Liliana that it held none of the radiance that she normally exuded.

  “I’m alright, Thad. You both were so amazing, and more breathtaking than any shifter that I have ever seen before.”

  “I think that it’s time for Ms. Salem to go home and rest,” their dad said.

  Cardi gave him a look that Liliana didn’t quite understand before rolling her eyes and facing the two of them again. “Your father isn’t wrong, I will need to go home and rest, but I have just enough energy left in me to give you each your birthday presents.”

  “Cardi, you didn’t have to get us anything…” Liliana said, before she was shushed by the witch.

  “Nonsense, my dear. A big birthday such as this calls for an equally large gift.” She glanced around, before her eyes landed on a giftbag that she had been holding when Liliana had spotted her earlier. “Ean, if it’s not too much trouble, could you please hand me that bag?”

  “Not any trouble at all, love,” her uncle said before he scooped the bag up off of the ground. “My lady,” he said with a flourish as he presented the bag to her.

  Cardi and Liliana both snickered at her uncle, but when she heard a growl come from her father, Liliana gasped. “Daddy?”

  “It’s nothing sweetheart,” her father reassured her before turning his focus back to the bag in Cardi’s hands. “Please continue so that we can get you home.”

  Cardi studied his face before she reached into her bag and pulled out a silver necklace with what looked like an egg pendant at the end of the chain. Cardi held the egg between her palms, along with what looked like a pouch of some sort, and whispered several words into her hands. When she opened her palms, Liliana saw that the egg had hatched into a dragon, and it was gripping a purple stone. She pulled Liliana closer to her and slipped the chain over her head.

  Before Liliana could say anything to her, Cardi pulled out another necklace and repeated the process with the second chain. When she opened her palm this time, the egg had hatched into a griffin, holding a golden stone. She pulled Thad down to her and slipped the silver links over his head. She dug into her bag one last time, this time producing a ring shaped in the form of a dragon with emerald eyes. She slipped the ring onto their father’s index finger before finally speaking.

  “These amulets are bound together. They will shift along with you, and will never come off, unless you remove them. They will never fall off, and no one will be able to take it off of you. If you ever find yourselves in trouble you need only rub your stone three times and speak into your stone. Faolan, when your children need you, your ring will warm, and the eyes will glow. You will need only touch your dragon’s eyes to hear their message. I know that when you-all shift your phones don’t always make it to the other end of your destination with you, so I wanted to make sure that you always have a way to reach your dad if you need him.”

  Liliana could feel the sting of tears in her eyes as she held the pendant in her hand. “Wow…” she breathed, unable to form the words to express to Cardi just how amazing this gift was to her.

  Thad, who was usually so stoic, also had tears in his eyes as he leaned down to wrap Cardi in a tight embrace. “Thank you so much.”

  “Yes,” Liliana agreed. “These are wonderful. Thank you!”

  Cardi smiled at them before pushing herself to her feet. When she swayed, their father caught her around her waist. “Alright, enough magic for you. Let’s get you back to the cabin. Lil, Thad, I’ll be right back, I’m just going to drive Cardi home, okay?”

  “Yeah, dad, we’ll be fine. Take care of her,” Liliana said.

  Faolan scooped the smaller woman up into his arms, causing a gasp to slip through her lips. As he marched away, the twins could hear her outraged shouts for their dad to put her down, and that she was very capable of walking. He ignored her every step of the way.

  As they watched the truck pull onto the gravel road, Liliana couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips.

  “Well, congratulations,” a voice mocked from behind them. They turned to find Angela sneering at them. “It looks as if you’re finally getting a new mommy. Let’s hope that this one is better than the last. Although, from what my mother says, that’s not very likely.”

  “Shut your mouth Angela,” Liliana barked. “This is not the time or the place for you to spew your vitriol. If you can’t be civil at our house, on our birthday, then just leave.”

  “Oh, I plan to. In fact, I wish that I would have taken a page out of your mother’s book and not shown up at all. She had the right idea. Why bother making an appearance to celebrate people that you care nothing about?”

  Hannah and Gemma had both taken a step forward at that, their hands balled into fists. While Jeremy grabbed his sister around her waist and held her back, Thad did the same for Gemma.

  “Well,” Liliana said. “You want to imitate our mother so badly? Why don’t you leave then? Show us your back as you walk out of our lives for good.”

  Angela looked shocked by Liliana’s
words, but quickly schooled her features before her scowl returned to her face. “I plan to do just that,” she said, before turning on her heels and striding off.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Let me at her,” Gemma shouted as she struggled in Thad’s grip. The little spitfire was bound and determined to rip the other girl’s head from her body. Thad had never seen her so riled up, and he couldn’t help but smile at the fact that it was on his and his sister’s behalf. If he didn’t already know for a fact that she was a siren, he would have sworn that she was something more bloodthirsty, like a Valkyrie or a shifter.

  Thad looked at his sister to see if he would need to grab her and hold her back as well, but Liliana was just standing there in a daze, staring at Angela’s retreating form.

  “Lil?”

  His sister turned his way, but instead of looking at him, she seemed to be looking through him. “Liliana?” he tried again.

  Finally, she seemed to shake herself free from whatever haze she was in and focus on her brother. “Thad, I’m about to do something you really aren’t going to like.”

  That statement alone was enough to have Thaddeus reeling. For one thing, his sister never usually gives him an indication that she was about to do something that he wouldn’t approve of, she usually just did it. For another, there wasn’t typically much that Thad didn’t agree with, so for her to think otherwise had to be bad.

  “What’s that?” he asked, unsure of whether or not he really wanted the answer.

  “I’m flying to North Carolina.”

  Five words. That was all that it took for it to feel as if Thad had been slapped in the face and his stomach had dropped to his feet.

  “Even if I wanted to go to North Carolina with you, which I’m not saying that I do, we haven’t even tried to fly yet! What if we can’t get in the air? And besides, how would we know the way? It’s not like we can consult a GPS while we’re in our animal form!”