5. Twin Flames
FIVE
twin flames
FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER…
Arcane
“Ma’ma! Ma’ma!” Lila chants over and over and over again.
I wish she’d stop.
My throat dries up and my stomach sinks as our mother’s face flashes through my mind. It’s not right. Her smile was soft and warm. Now it’s hard like plaster. It’s harder for me to remember her now.
“Ma’ma!” She says again proudly and it’s Aelix who kneels down on the blue rug next to the toddler to explain on gentler words than I even know how to say.
“Her name is Klare,” he says with a bunch of emphasis. “Call her Nan Klare.”
Enormous blue eyes sparkle for a moment. Her little brain absorbs his words. She looks to our Nan and deep lines etch Nan Klare’s tanned face as she smiles back at her only granddaughter. Small lips open and we all hang on our sister’s unspoken words before she deflates the room by saying, “Ma’ma,” once more.
“Dad’s going to be so mad,” I declare and Aelix’s eyes roll as he stands back up.
“He won’t be mad. He’ll be sad,” he explains and even though everyone says we’re exactly the same, he’s always so much better at saying stuff right.
He's the smartest kid in our class. Dad says Aelix will win noble prizes when he’s older. Or something like that.
But Aelix is right. Dad will be sad at the reminder of the one thing that’s missing day in and day out from our lives.
“Dinner will be ready soon. Go outside and play, boys,” Nan Klare orders and Aelix and I both slip away from the living room, leaving the three year old there to hopefully not ruin Dad’s day when he comes home from work.
The front porch of the cottage is vacant aside from two wooden rockers that sit on the right and we run past them both, before my stomach can tangle in pain even more at the reminder that one of those chairs will always sit empty next to Dad’s.
The moon is just climbing up in the sky and it’s my very favorite time of day: the moment when dragonflies finally come out to play! Their long spiky tales blink at us in fiery colors of orange and yellow. I catch the first one and make sure to declare it loud enough for Aelix to rush faster to find his own.
The wind is warm against my face and the ocean waves crash against the shore behind us, reminding me that summer is fully here in our normally frosty little kingdom. Tall grass stings my hands as I race faster behind my brother, helping him search the falling darkness for a little blinking creature to call his own.
“There!” I point a few yards away and he’s quick to follow my direction.
I fall back to let him claim the little beast. His hand rises up, but when he brings it back down, his palm is empty. A flash of yellow taunts us right before our eyes and two hands clasp over the light in an instant. Aelix’s smile is wide as he looks down on the glowing light that slips free from between his fingers.
“Ready?” I ask and he nods.
We smile to one another with knowing looks as we both say at the same time:
“Three. Two. One!”
And then we open our hands. The blinking lights dance together before speeding off, racing the wind and rising up to the stars as they soar higher and higher.
“That’ll be us one day,” I tell Aelix excitedly and he never once looks away from the two dragonflies.
Dad says we’ll be Protectors someday. Just like he was. Just like our Granddad was. And whoever else came before that, I guess. He says we have to protect each other, too. He says his two little Twin Flames are stronger together. Nan refuses to call us the pet name Mom gave us. Says sharing souls is dark magic. She’s the only one who ever talks about the mage magic Mom used the night we were born. I used to love hearing any stories about Mom. I used to love when Mom called us that so much.
I hate it now.
The ache in my stomach gnaws a bit more, but I ignore it and I try to decide which dragonfly soaring up above is mine but they both look the same now. Identical. Aelix is still watching them intently. I can tell which is his just by how closely his wide eyes follow it. They dip and weave playfully together but one of them slows, not able to keep up. Mine darts down first, resting a ways off in the meadow while the other continues on alone without its companion.
“I win!” Aelix proclaims.
But I’m not focused on the creatures any more. The pain in my stomach turns stabbing and I’m forced to bend at the waist, holding myself up with one hand on my knee as I shake violently. There’s a scream that echoes through the night and it doesn’t occur to me that it’s my own. My skin shreds away and dark thick scales replace it. Something slices through my shoulder blades and I don’t know what’s happening but it hurts. It hurts so bad.
“Aelix, I’m scared,” I cry and he’s right there at my side, holding my hand as I fall to my knees.
“You’re okay,” he whispers and I can tell by his shaking tone that I’m not. I’m not okay.
A stabbing pain juts from my lower spine and I fall forward to my hands in the grass. A swishing sensation swoops behind me and I feel my body bend beneath the demand of someone or something else that needs my body more than I do. Big wings shudder around my small frame. The quick flick of a heavy tail comes down fast and hard, it slices through the air like a knife and the last thing I remember …
Is Aelix’s screaming cry.