Did a double take.
My step hitched.
Prominently displayed beneath a chandelier, lit up with dozens of lumoons in place of candles, hung a painting.It was life-sized, a masterfully realistic rendering.Its frame was a gilded, overly ornate, clunky thing as wide as my forearm.I startled to feel Rafaela’s lips near my ear only an instant before she spoke; I played it off as shock at the painting’s subject.
“It’s brought me great comfort over the years.It made me feel like my family was still together even when we’d been torn apart.”
Seated in the front in their matching thrones—Alonso’s ten percent larger and grander than hers—were my parents.Their crowns shone importantly atop their heads, highlighted with gold leaf, and their joined hands linked them.With his free hand, Alonso clutched the scepter of the D’Arco dynasty.Hers rested in the lap of lavish skirts.
Teo and I stood behind them, a hand each to the shoulder in front, the devoted son behind the mother, the equally devoted daughter behind the father.
As male and female, we couldn’t be identical twins, but save for the differences due to our genders, we were practically the same.
In his face, I recognized mine.Through him, I learned to accept myself.Long, straight, shiny hair, dark as thejagunejungle cat’s fur.Gold-leaf-accentuated circlets atop our heads.Bronzed skin that contrasted starkly with the pale alabaster of our parents.Brown eyes that were dark or warm, depending on our moods.The full, bright mouths.The striking features slanting out from round faces.The tall, slender, strong frames.
When I last saw this canvas, the painter had only just been sketching in our shapes with broad strokes of sepia.To complete a canvas of this size and detail would have taken many months.
How long have I been gone?I meant to ask.Yet a different question croaked out—ultimately, the one that truly mattered.
“Where is Teo?”
When Rafaela didn’t answer, I tore my eyes from the painting that wasn’t supposed to exist.
Her gaze was gentle, compassionate.Her eyes hadn’t been this soft even when she was explaining how she’d really “rebirthed” us, not killed us as the facts suggested.
Heartbreak squeezed my heart with a vengeance.
“Come,” Rafaela said, the one word maternal.Fear speared through me.“Let Alonso see you first.He’ll never forgive me if I keep you from him.”
Alonso would forgive her anything.“Where is he?”I breathed.
Rafaela sighed.“Just … come.”
She walked far down the hall and entered her rooms before I got my body to follow.
Alonso burst through the door and used his sänglure speed to race toward me.In seconds I was wrapped in his arms.He inhaled as if my scent were life itself, peppering kisses against my hair.
He, too, wore no crown.
His arms trembled against my back.“Sora, my darling little serpunta, you’ve come home to me at long last.”Like Rafaela, he spoke Durron, when he’d never directed it at me before.
I felt as if I would like to remain in his embrace forever and allow his strength to compensate for my flagging.Let the father battle the daughter’s fear, even though he wore no weapons and always had before.
Tempting, most definitely.But that had never been my way.
Tears stung my eyes but didn’t spill over.I drew back only as much as I needed to see his face.
“Where is Teo?”When my mouth quivered, I pressed my lips tightly together.Even in those awful moments, I understood I’d regret it later.There was no privacy anywhere within the palace, and certainly not with Rafaela just down the hall.
But I couldn’t stop myself.I didn’t care.
His mouth trembled.His forehead scrunched in pained creases and his throat bobbed.I slumped into Alonso’s arms and allowed him to carry all of my weight.He tried to hold not just me up, but also my grief, and that wasn’t possible.It was too great.Too monumental.Too all-encompassing.Too fundamentally altering.Too … eternal.It had already burrowed deep into my bones and latched on like spurs so as to never leave me.
When the first sob shuddered through me, I wondered how I’d ever get myself to stop crying.There seemed no way.
Heartbreak, you cruel, cruel cunt… I’m going to hunt you down and kill you if you don’t end me first.
Chapter12
