Chapter 60 60. Chapter
Aurora
My world had fallen apart, and from the broken pieces a new image was slowly forming, one I was not yet ready to accept. We were sitting in the great hall of the House. The fire crackled softly in the fireplace, but the warmth never reached my bones. I felt cold from the inside, as if something fundamental had been torn out of me. Across from me sat Donovan. Barely an hour ago, he had been a stranger who stepped out of the fog. Now he claimed that the same blood flowed through our veins. Elijah sat beside me, close enough that our shoulders touched. His hand rested firmly on my shoulder, grounding me. Through the bond, I felt his protective presence, but also his tension. He was calm on the surface, yet ready to react in an instant.
“Drink,” Elijah said quietly, handing me a glass of dark red wine. “You need it.”
I took the glass and drank without really tasting it. The wine burned slightly as it went down, but it helped me breathe again. My eyes returned to Donovan. Up close, the resemblance was impossible to ignore. His jawline was as sharp as mine, his nose carried the same angle, and his eyes were the same deep green mine turned when anger took over. It felt like looking at a distorted reflection of myself, shaped by a different life.
“Six minutes,” I said at last. My voice sounded rough, almost чужд to my own ears. “You are saying we are twins. That you let me believe for eighteen years that I had no one. That I was alone. That I was a mistake.”
Donovan leaned forward slightly, resting his hands on his knees. He looked exhausted, as if he had not slept properly in years. Deep shadows lay under his eyes. “I had no choice, Aurora,” he said. “When our mother died during childbirth, the Clan understood immediately what we were. A dhampir birth is rare. Twin dhampirs are almost unheard of. The Council panicked. They wanted us both dead.”
Elijah’s fingers tightened slightly on my shoulder.
“But we had a mentor,” Donovan continued. “An old Hunter with enough influence to bargain. He made a deal with the Council.”
“What kind of deal?” Elijah asked, his voice controlled but sharp.
“I was taken and trained,” Donovan said. “Not as a normal Hunter. As a weapon. A tracker. A hound sent after the most dangerous threats. In return, they spared Aurora’s life. But only if she never learned the truth about what she was. And only if we never met. They convinced me that if I ever tried to reach you, even once, they would kill you without hesitation.”
He looked at me then, and something in his eyes broke. “I watched you from a distance, sister. I was there during your trials, hidden in the shadows. I saw how hard you worked. How you pushed yourself just to be seen. It destroyed me to know you believed you were weak. That you were less than the others. You were never less. You were always more.”
My chest tightened painfully. I turned my gaze to the fire, watching the flames dance. “Then why did I feel nothing?” I asked quietly. “Others showed magic so young. I waited. I begged. Nothing ever came.”
“Because dhampir power seeks balance,” Elijah said calmly. “Your vampire side was stronger. It suppressed your elemental magic until your blood met that of another Ruler. My blood did not give you something new. It unlocked what was already there.”
Donovan nodded. “That is the truth. We are written into old prophecies, Aurora. A power split between two vessels. I received all four elements, but only as fragments. Weak echoes of what they could be. You are different. You are the vessel that holds them whole.”
I stood up and began pacing the hall. The air stirred around me, reacting to my movement. The curtains shifted, whispering softly. “This sounds insane. Dhampirs. Twins. World ending power. I never wanted this. I just wanted a place where I was not treated like nothing.”
“You do not have to search anymore,” Elijah said, standing and facing me. His voice was steady, sure. “You belong here. This House knows you. I know you. And now your brother is here too.”
Donovan stood as well, but he stayed a step back. He was watching Elijah carefully. “It will not be easy,” he said. “The Council knows I disappeared. They will guess where I came. They will not stop. They will send more than Shadow Hunters. They will send the Masters.”
“Then we prepare,” I said. The strength in my voice surprised even me. “I will learn to control all of it. If all four elements live inside me, then teach me how to survive them.”
Donovan and Elijah exchanged a long look. It was not hostile, but cautious. Two warriors measuring the same threat from different angles.
“I can teach you how to layer the elements,” Donovan said slowly. “How to keep them from tearing you apart. But you will need Elijah’s blood to stabilize the process. This will be dangerous. For all of us.”
“I accept,” I said without hesitation.
That night, we remained together in the great hall. A betrayed Ruler. A lost brother. And me, the one they had called defective. For the first time, I understood the truth. I was never broken. I was never empty. I was becoming something the world was not ready for.