“Tempest,” I hissed.
A clanking of chains. I didn’t have time to wait for her to trust who I was and answer. I cast out small tendrils of magic to each door.
Empty, empty. Empty?—
My eyes rounded, and I blurred to the door opposite. Some unbidden forethought warned me not to rip the door from the hinges, but it was a near thing.
I squinted into the dungeon cell from the doorway. “You’re in here. I feel you.”
Chains clanked, and a form rolled over on the ground. “Fostbwyke.” She sobbed.
Trapped.
“Curlaupa,” she hissed.Run.
“You’re trapped in a small space,” I said in a soft voice. “And you need to run.”
Carmine had ripped this part of Tempest out of her and killed the rest. My fear of what I’d find left of my twin mounted as I inched forward.
She shook in a ball. I would never have imagined I’d see Tempest in that position, and the urge to flee the dungeons filled me.
I should have questioned Athira about her state.
“Tempest,” I hushed, my own throat filled with unshed tears. I rested a hand on her shoulder.
She whirled to a crouch, hissing. For the first time, Tempest seemed to realize that I was really here.
I kept my voice soft and calm. “I’m here, sister. I got through the barrier. We need to get you to safety.”
She had black scales like me, but the scales only dotted her here and there. I could feel that she had nothing of my demon strength, as I had nothing of Tempest’s magus strength.
I closed my eyes and pulled her into me. “Sister.” Tears finally escaped me. “Please believe that I only learned you were here two months ago.” There was so much she had to know. “I don’t know where to start, but we don’t have long.”
Tempest drew back, then pressed a hand to her chest. “Adeuto.”
I gripped her arms. “You feel him? How is that possible? You’re a demon.”
“She feels him.”
I peered over my shoulder. “What do you mean? Who else feels him?”
Tempest shook her head. “She does. The rest of me.”
A distant humming filled my mind. “What?”
“The rest of me. Magus side.”
I pressed a hand to my temple as the floor felt like it slanted beneath me. “The rest of you is dead, Tempest. Carmine killed your magus side. He reached in and?—”
“And draggedmeout. I was the part that could challenge his rule. He had no need for the rest.”
My knees gave way, and I sagged against the wall. “You’rewhole?”
I pressed shaking hands to my mouth. Tempest was whole? This had to be a cruel lie.
My twin’s demon side said, “She lived on, but… life has not been easy for her. She does not know that you live. Without me being fully within her, she cannot understand our language. She has only recently discovered that she is part demon at all, but she has felt the emptiness of my absence all these years without knowing the cause.”
Fuck.I couldn’t imagine what Tempest was going through. I mean, yes, I’d found out that I was a demon at sixteen, but I’d had other demons around during the process. And Carmine, too, for a while. Tempest had gone through this alone.
