In the next moment though, we’re thrown in the opposite direction and Dray loses his grip on me. Perhaps flying withBlaze would have been the safer and more comfortable option after all!
As we near the edge of the campus, I spot the Smyte twins standing outside their tower talking with their thrall. They spy the vehicle coming and as we zoom past I catch Linny’s gaze through the window.
I shift around in my seat, keeping my eyes locked with hers until we careen around another corner and I lose sight of her altogether.
I shift back around in my seat.
“I’m finding it hard to understand how Linny Smyte kept her lack of powers secret for all this time.”
“Because she has Henny to cover for her,” Beaufort says.
“You really never suspected?” Thorne asks him. “Even when you were dating her twin?”
“No.”
“You did spend a lot of time together,” Dray says in a manner that has my eyes narrowing towards Beaufort.
“It wasn’t like that,” he says, meeting my suspicious gaze in the rear-view mirror.
“Linny seriously wanted it to be like that,” Dray says with a chuckle. “I think she had dreams of thruptledoms.”
“Tsk,” Fly says. “Not everyone has the hots for Beaufort Lincoln.”
“They don’t?” Beaufort says with a smirk.
“Anyway, it explains some things,” I mutter to myself.
“Like what?” Thorne asks.
“She trashed my room. Tore up all my clothes.”
“It was her?” Fly says. “I always thought that was Odessa.”
“Nope, Linny. I sort of figured she hated me like everyone else did, although it did seem particularly vindictive.”
“Poor Linny,” Fly smiles evilly, “not only do you have powers she’d kill for, you also have the man she wants.”
“I do feel a little bit sorry for her.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“It must suck being a shadow weaver with no powers. Do you think there are more like her?”
“No,” Beaufort, Dray, and Thorne say together.
“There might be,” Fly suggests.
“Linny is a freak of nature,” Beaufort says with an obvious disgust that rattles me. “It’s probably because they are twins. Henny’s always been bigger and stronger than Linny, she probably stole her magic all the way back in the womb.”
“Maybe,” I say. The explanation makes sense. I’ve heard of one twin being born much bigger than the other because it took all the nutrients from its sibling.
But I’m an anomaly too. A ‘freak of nature’. A lumomancer born from ordinaries. I can’t help feeling there may be more like us out there. Those who should have been born with magic but have none. And those who should have been born without it, possessing the ability.
Soon, we leave the academy grounds and travel along a single-paved road that cuts across the boggy marshland. There’s not a lot to see in the illumination of Beaufort’s headlights – just road and more road. As the sun sets in front of us many hours later, I struggle not to drift off and the next thing I know I’m jerking awake, finding my head resting against Dray’s shoulder, the vehicle now filled with the first rays of morning light. I blink up into Dray’s face.
“Hey, there Kitten, did you sleep well?”
“I think so, although,” I roll my shoulders and tilt my head from side to side. “I’m going to have one hell of a crick in my neck.”
