“Instead, you’re bound to my body for the rest of this life and the next,” he says.
Fear washes over me, pain, anguish—a hurricane of emotions, some my own and some Valdemar’s. He’s everywhere. He’s under my skin, behind my eyes, running through my veins, my heart pumping him around my body as if my life depends on him.
I stare into the wide eyes of the man who’s consumed me day and night for the past seven weeks. The man who I thought had killed my brother. The only man who knew what it was like to be inside my brother’s head.
“I am a twin. I already know what it’s like to be tethered to someone. Ed and I were made in the same womb with the same blood. His pain was my pain, his joy was my joy, his life was my life until it wasn’t anymore, and I had to survive on my own, something that doesn’t come naturally to a twin. So, if you’re asking me if I know how it feels to be bonded to someone, then I already know.”
Tearing his eyes from mine, he thrusts his hand through his hair. “You’ve sworn the Blood Oath to me.”
“Yes,” I confirm.
“For life,” he adds.
“I’m aware.”
“You and I will be….”
“One.”
“Is this what you wanted?” he asks.
The room swims.
Over the past few weeks, Valdemar has become a part of me whether I wanted it or not. In that time, things have changed, my perception of the past altered, and my feelings for him evolved into something unfamiliar.
“I didn’t want you to die. I didn’t want to lose you. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life being alone like I have for the past ten years,” I tell him.
A sigh wooshes from his mouth.
“You’re cross with me.” I read his thoughts so easily. Too easily. “This isn’t what you wanted, is it? I didn’t have time to ask you.”
His eyes narrow, and he grabs my hands.
“You didn’t need to ask me, angel. I’ve always been yours.”
My heart swells.
“Have you heard of the red string theory?” Valdemar asks.
I shake my head, unable to answer him, words getting lost amongst the blossoming in my chest.
“In Eastern philosophy, there’s a belief that when you’re born, there’s an invisible red thread connecting you to all the people you’re destined to meet and will be connected to throughout your life. That’s the only way I can explain how I feel—it’s like I’m tethered to you by an invisible force,” he tells me.
“When I met Ed, there was the pull, an unfathomable fascination with him, which is why we swore the Blood Oath. And I thought it was him. But the feeling never went away, this feeling that I was looking for someone and hadn’t found them yet.
“He never told any of us he had a sister, let alone a twin, but not long after we completed the Blood Oath, I could feel you through him, this presence, like a humming in my bones, a song in my head.
“I asked him about it, asked if he had a sibling, and he told me about you. I wanted to meet you, but Ed was reluctant tobring you into this world until, he said, the time was right. I wanted to push further, wanted to know everything about you, but I respected his wishes until he died and asked me to contact you. And the day you walked into the prison and I saw you for the first time, I knew it wasn’t Ed whom I was meant to be bonded with. It was you. It’s always been you.” He takes a breath, pondering something before he continues.
“I’ve often wondered if Ed knew your fate all along. After you’d visited me in the prison and I knew it was you who I was supposed to be bonded with and not Ed, I asked him if he’d always known, if he’d had a vision of things to come. But his reply was that sometimes you just have to let fate play out because there is no other way. As you know, he knew he could never change the future, never influence it enough to stop things from happening. Ed knew this. And that’s why I believe I’ve had to wait these last ten years to meet you. Because that’s the way it was always supposed to happen.”
My body trembles. Fate has a lot to answer for, and I’m awash with anger. Why did we have to walk this road to get here? Why did my mother have to die? Why did my father have to die? Why did my brother have to die? Why have Valdemar and I had to grieve for the last ten years to get here? Why has he had to spend the last ten years paying for a crime he didn’t commit?
But fighting my anger at fate’s cruel hand, there’s hope, an awakening at this new turn of events, of the love I feel for this man and the place we’re at now, and what lies before us.
The future.
I smile at Valdemar, knowing this is where I’m supposed to be, that at last, we’re together, but he doesn’t share my smile.
