Chapter 39 The Twin Bond pt 2
Seren
I looked over at Duncan, a question in my eyes. “I have the power of psychometry—I can get clear, brief visions of the past when I touch something. It’s not an exact science, and I can’t clearly control it. I also have the power of storms. They both came to me when Conn did.” He held his hand up, and lightning arced through his fingers. He closed his fist, and it was gone. Extending his forearm to me, he showed me the two marks that looked like tattoos there: a small lightning bolt above two parallel squiggly lines.
“I never saw anything like that in Blood Moon pack, and I would have. Alpha James and Tobias especially wouldn’t have hesitated to use powers to hurt me more.” I looked down at my hands, which were sitting in my lap as I was still confined to the hospital bed.
“From what we can tell, if a line of shifters proves unworthy of her gifts, the Goddess will strip the line. The Royal historians are searching for more information on the line at Blood Moon pack as we speak. I don’t think that any powers have manifested there for at least two generations. Mom said that James’s father was a cruel alpha who preferred chosen mates over fated, and that is something that goes against the Goddess herself. Between promoting those ideals and the regular abuse of those that Alphas are supposed to protect, it comes as no surprise that the Goddess would have diminished their line.”
“Kara and I have never manifested any powers.” I looked at the new marks on my arm. “Is that what these symbols are? What do they mean?”
Gideon nodded. “Those, and the matching ones on my arm, developed when I touched you for the first time after Duncan found you. One of the elders Mom spoke with recalled a story about twin powers, and he’s looking for the text to share with us. He seems to remember that sometimes, with bonded twins—twins where not only the human side, but the wolf side are both twins—their powers won’t manifest unless they are together. I received Curran early, at ten years old, though no one knows why that was, either. But I’ve never had any kind of powers manifest until the day Duncan brought you here and I grabbed your hand. Now, it seems, we both have the power of all four of the elements, which in itself is unheard of. Each of these triangles symbolizes one of the four elements.”
“Kara came to me when I turned ten, to help me with the abuse in Blood Moon,” I whispered. ‘Kara, did Curran come to Gideon because of us?’
‘Yes, sweet girl. Mother couldn’t send just one of us. In order for me to come aid you, she had to send my twin to our brother as well. It allowed our bonds to our humans to grow together, as is meant with twins. But we needed our twin to unlock our powers.’ Kara told me.
I looked up at Gideon and Duncan. Gideon’s eyes were glazed, and I assumed he was talking to Curran much like I’d just checked with Kara. They cleared, and he smiled sadly.
“Curran confirmed it. He was sent to me when Kara was sent to you because they couldn’t be split. If only I’d known that was the reason, maybe we could have found you sooner,” he said.
“No, you couldn’t have.” An unfamiliar voice came from the doorway, and I flinched back into the pillows. Duncan was on his feet in an instant, standing in front of me, Gideon beside him to create a wall between me and the stranger in the room.
“Who are you and how did you get in my pack?” Duncan demanded.
“Calm down, Alpha Duncan. I mean you three no harm. You are more critical to our future than you know,” the stranger said.
“We didn’t ask for riddles. Tell us who you are,” Gideon growled.
“My name is Elaine. I’m the High Priestess of Sacred Oak Coven, and I come as a friend.” Her light voice was melodic, but there was a hint of steel beneath it. I didn’t think that she was someone who liked her authority challenged.
“Why are you here?” Duncan asked.
“Because my Goddess asked me to be,” she told him. “And because one of my own was responsible for taking Seren from you in the first place, though I only recently became aware of that information.” At that, both men growled so loudly the windows shook.
“I think you’d better start explaining,” Duncan said.
“Gather everyone, and I will. But if you’ll allow me, I’d like to heal Seren. It’s the least I can do to begin making amends,” she said. The men started protesting loudly.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to trust her. ‘Kara?’ I asked my wolf.
‘Let her through, Seren. I feel that she’s a friend.’
“Let her through.” I said the words quietly, but both my brother and my mate stopped arguing immediately. They turned to me. They were so synchronized that you’d think they were the siblings instead. “Kara says she’s a friend.” They both remained skeptical, but Duncan nodded and stepped back, allowing me to see Elaine for the first time. His trust in me felt like a gift.
She looked young considering her rank, like she could be my older sister. Long, straight blonde hair flowed down her back, with small wisps framing her heart-shaped face. Bright blue eyes smiled at me, and the power I saw in them belied her small, delicate frame. She moved forward. Gideon remained skeptical, but he eventually stepped back. Neither he nor Duncan strayed far from my bed, though, and I knew they’d be on her in an instant if she did something they didn’t like.
She reached for my hand, and I let her take it. “Hello, Seren. It’s so nice to meet you,” she greeted me. “One of my many gifts as High Priestess allows me to heal, but unfortunately, even healing sometimes needs to cause pain. This may hurt a bit at the beginning, but I promise you’ll be good as new when I’m done.”
I nodded at her even as the men growled lowly in the background. What was more pain? If she could truly heal me, then I could get out of this bed sooner and start to take control of my life. She smiled, then closed her eyes and held her other hand over my body. Her hand glowed, and I started to feel warmth in my broken ribs. There was a sharp pain as they knit back together quickly, then a soothing warmth. She continued to pass her hand over my body, and any area that was still injured went the same way. A sharp pain, then warmth. Sweat beaded on her brow as she worked. When she was finally done, she opened her eyes and smiled at me, then released my hand and sat down on the closest chair.
“How do you feel now?” she asked.
I took a deep breath—the first I’d been able to take in days—and felt no pain at all. Tentatively, I moved around and stretched my limbs, and all the lingering aches and pains were gone. “I feel brand new!” Duncan was right there beside me as I tried to get up. “I want to stand.”
He looked concerned, but nodded and held his hand out to me. I placed my feet on the floor and slowly stood. I wobbled a little, and he steadied me. It had been at least a week since I’d been able to stand upright, and it felt amazing to be out of bed. I leaned against Duncan as I got my bearings and felt the sparks of the mate bond explode everywhere that I touched him.
“Thank you so much, Elaine!” I smiled at her. She just nodded. The effort she went to had taken a toll on her; she wavered slightly where she stood. I looked over at Gideon and then to Duncan. “Let’s get me cleared out of here!”