My bunk trembled from the force of my convulsions, and Luka’s thumb stroked against the back of my hand like he was soothing me in his sleep.
I pressed my quivering left palm into my eyes, then grabbed the diamond of death that hung heavy against my chest. It felt warm against my frozen fingers and vibrated at my touch.
I dropped it, and it went still.
Sweat dripped off my forehead and streaked down my sides, then stopped its trail as it froze to my skin.
Frost covered the bedsheet beneath me.
I felt sick.
After the Legionnaire Games, Lyla had spread her arms wide and said, “Every few millennia, a red giant explodes in the galaxy. It collapses in a solar system that contains a portal connecting it to realms within the jurisdiction of the High Court.”
My vision blurred.
History was repeating itself.
The last invasion had nearly destroyed us all, and now it was the ungodly’s turn, but there would be no sprawling army at our backs.
There would be no gods to save us.
We were sacrifices, fodder for slaughter, collateral.
I squeezed Luka’s callused hand until my fingers turned white.
Then I closed my eyes.
I didn’t want to be awake anymore.
Chapter 3
Luka
CODEPENDENCY
Amorist (noun): a person who is in love.
Aran wasn’t speaking.
I didn’t like it.
I was the one who stayed quiet, and she was the one who hung off John’s shoulders while cracking inappropriate, morbid jokes.
My twin had his arm slung over her shoulder, but they weren’t leaning against each other like usual.
No.
Crystal-blue eyes were wide and unseeing as John dragged Aran through the trees.
Lilac sunlight and emerald from the valley forest reflected across the shimmering clouds. The new realm was colorful, and the weather seemed mostly mild.
The sun warmed the snow, and it melted immediately.
In contrast, the air around Aran was chilled like she was radiating frost. It was noticeably colder than the rest of the realm.
I was concerned.
She’d said she needed to think, but she was practically catatonic as John pulled her down the dirt path connecting the twenty freestanding concrete structures that made up the war camp.
The base was constructed in the valley surrounded by towering mountains and low-ceilinged buildings were camouflaged by trees and snow.
The new realm was a strange amalgamation of different elements.
It reminded me of a chimera, the beast was a mind-bending hybrid of a goat, lion, and a dragon. When you saw one in person, you were struck with one thought: this shouldn’t exist. The realm was the same way.
Snowflakes fell, sizzled as they touched the warm ground, and evaporated into a low layer of steam.
Above, the lavender sky sparkled.
I barely noticed.
We hadn’t eaten for hours, but I wasn’t hungry as our two legions walked side by side to the cafeteria.
Sadie pulled back to walk beside her men, and all my attention was focused on where turquoise hair was supported by olive skin.
Back in the strategy room, Aran had shut down and John’s eyes had crinkled when Dick announced there would only be a hundred soldiers fighting.
I wasn’t worried.
Unlike my more socially aware twin, I didn’t care about the events that unfolded around me.
I couldn’t even pretend to give a shit.
All my energy was captured by the two people walking in front of me, and my skin crawled with worry that they were mentally struggling.
It had always been that way for me. My codependency issues were so strong that they manifested into physical pain.
John stumbled, and I lunged forward to steady him. Aran’s lips curled up into a small smile as he exhaled with gratitude.
Pine trees swayed on Planet 003FX as I held on to Aran and John, gripping my twin’s hand tightly.
Wide shoulders radiated strength as my brother looked down protectively at Aran leaning against us, blue curls wild.
She was ours to shield.
My discomfort abated slightly, but it didn’t disappear.
It never would.
Years ago, an oracle had confirmed it.
I clutched my twin’s hand while the oracle of Delphi danced around us. She spread her arms wide, brown hair flowing to her toes, as she inhaled the fumes of the ancients.
“You are crippled with codependency,” the oracle sang as she twirled mindlessly. Misty eyes widened, and her lips pulled into a smile. “The lost princes have returned to the king, but they are no longer whole. Neither is the other. They will suffer unbelievable agony on behalf of the other, and all of them will be partial together.”
The oracle cackled madly, and John trembled with fear. I stood in front of him, spread my short limbs wide as I prepared to do anything to protect him.
In the present, I smiled down at my wide-shouldered reflection as we walked among the trees.
Snow dusted John’s cheeks.
He might have grown into a formidable man with whipcord strength and a mischievous glint in his eyes, but he’d always be my younger twin. The boy I needed to protect.
The compulsion that lived within my skin ensured it.
Trauma had changed me.
Twisted me into something unrecognizable to others.
As we had grown up in the human realm, the foster parents had beaten both of us regularly, but John had had it worse because he’d had less control of his darkness.
One day, he accidentally dropped a glass, and it shattered on the linoleum kitchen floor. I tried to pick up the pieces, but it was too late. The foster father lunged toward John, and darkness flooded from his pores defensively.
He recoiled, called him a demon, demanded an exorcism, and shouted about a false god.
It all happened so quickly.
Everything blurred as a baseball bat broke our bones, and we were shoved into a car and brought to a cliff.
I gaped in stunned horror as he threw John over the edge.
I went into shock, and darkness exploded from me in a wave. The foster man disappeared, but I was too late.
Stumbling out of the car, I sobbed on my knees as devastation flatlined my existence.
I threw myself forward off the cliff to join John.
Lothaire materialized, grabbed me, and in one motion, jumped off the cliff and landed beside my injured twin. Before I could process what was happening, we RJE’d to another realm.
Lothaire told me the energy I’d emitted was so high that he’d been sent by the High Court to recruit me.
I ignored him and focused on John.
It took three weeks in a witch-induced coma for John to come back to me.
During that time, I didn’t care that vampyres existed and there were multiple worlds. I didn’t care that Lothaire recognized our darkness and knew who our biological parents were.
None of it mattered.
I had sworn on my life that I would never fail John again.
The past blended with the present.
“Give us the prophecy, oracle,” the king demanded harshly. “Stop speaking in riddles. You’re scaring them, and they’ve been through enough.” I gripped John’s hand with so much force my fingers cramped.