The Evolution of Fae and Gods (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 3)

“Ta-da,” I sing, standing and holding my arms out. She walks into them, and we give each other a hard, quick hug, the book she’s holding digging into my ribs.

I pull back to glance down at it. “Learning anything good?”

She shrugs, moving to the table and setting the book down. “It’s such a needle in a haystack. Carrick should seriously hire someone to catalog all this stuff.”

“That would take years and, unfortunately, we don’t have that,” I point out. “But I have a ton of stuff to catch you up on.”

Rainey takes the seat I’d vacated beside Myles. He doesn’t look anything like the nervous man I was talking to just a minute ago about whether he should propose to Rainey. I wonder if he’ll do it.

Tonight?

Maybe tomorrow?

Shaking my head, I make a note to try to get another moment alone with him to ask. He might need my help in planning it out.

When we’re all settled, I catch them up, starting in Berlin and our meeting with Ozigeor.

“He thinks you have an identical twin?” Rainey asks incredulously.

“I think he’s right,” I murmur and then tell them about my dream.

Or my astral projection.

Or whatever the hell it was where I’m convinced I was inside my sister’s body and watching her maneuver around the Underworld.

Rainey and Myles have a million questions, and I try to answer them as best I can. I explain about Zaid’s father—but not the details of their relationship—and how he confirmed the way I’d described the Underworld. I was definitely there.

“It’s incredible to think,” Myles muses while tapping his hand on his chin. “Zora has free rein to walk around The Caverns. Why?”

“Why indeed,” I agree, still astonished by that fact. Why hadn’t she died when the power left her and went into Kymaris? Why was she left alive?

“Do you think she has loyalties to the Underworld?” Rainey asks hesitantly. I know she doesn’t want to think the worst about my twin, but I’ve wondered the same thing.

“She was raised there.” I slouch in my chair, crossing my arms. “She could have been brainwashed.”

Also something I’ve fretted about.

“Doesn’t matter what she is,” I proclaim to my friends. “I’m figuring out a way to free her.”

Rainey gasps. “You mean, you’ll actually go there?”

“If I have to,” I say confidently. “Carrick has promised to help, and I can’t leave her there.”

Rainey and Myles exchange worried looks.

“Our connection goes both ways,” I say, and they blink in surprise.

I jump forward to my showdown with Deandra in Faere and the welling of dark power I felt after my feather started burning. “It was so intense Carrick could actually feel it, and that’s saying something because he can’t feel the light power I have in me.”

“Jesus,” Myles mutters. “Your evil twin funneled power to you? To help you?”

“What if she was trying to kill you, Finley?” Rainey suggests, and I whip her way.

“Why would you say that?” I demand, affronted and ready to protect the twin sister I know nothing about.

“Because she doesn’t know she has a twin,” she points out, and it’s like a slap in the face. I had never considered that. I just sort of assumed she would know we were related. I thought she’d feel the twin bond.

“Think about it,” Rainey continues. “She probably felt you invade her body and had no clue what you were. No clue if you’re an enemy or a friend, but I think she has to assume you’re an enemy because of the way she was raised in the Underworld. That surge of power could have been coincidental in timing with Deandra—who is such a bitch, I have to point out. It could have been sent as a way to kill you or sever the connection.”

Leaning forward in my chair, I drop my head in my hands as I process this. She truly has no clue who I am. It makes sense she’d consider me a foe. And if she is still harboring dark magic and has been twisted by her twenty-eight years of living in the Underworld, she might not be worth saving.

Yeah… fuck that.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say, lifting my head. “She needs to know she has a sister who loves her and wants to rescue her. I’m going to use every bit of power and resources to get her out of there.”

My friends don’t say anything, only regard me worriedly. But I finally get a tentative smile from Rainey. “We’ll help you in any way we can.”

We take a moment to smile, and then our hands reach out and we all clasp them in the center of the table. My best friends were dragged into this crazy new life of mine, yet they have never wavered in their loyalty and devotion.

I fill them in on the rest—our meeting with Nimeyah and what we found at Arwen’s home.