Paige stopped in that narrow strip of light, debating with herself. Then she went inside.
“I was wondering how long you were going to stand there staring at the door.” Conleth didn’t look up from his laptop. “Something wrong?”
“No.” She glanced around, but Zephyr’s chair was empty. “You’re working late. I thought the director was handling the paperwork this summer.”
Conleth’s fingers never paused, moving with supernatural speed over the keyboard. “Our glorious leader has many talents. Financial forecasting, alas, is not one of them. Under no circumstances is he allowed to touch my spreadsheets. And it keeps me busy.”
“Don’t the campers do that?”
“Easily drifting off into peaceful slumber isn’t one ofmytalents.” He glanced at his phone, casually flicking at the screen with one hand while still typing with the other. “I’d rather behere doing something useful than lying in the dark while my brain attempts to claw its way out of my skull. Speaking of being useful, I assume there’s some urgent reason for this unexpected visit?”
She crossed the room to perch on the edge of Zephyr’s desk, watching the quick, precise movements of those agile hands. “I went out with Leonie tonight.”
A pained look flashed across Conleth’s face, though he didn’t take his eyes from his screen. “Did she tell you the apple story?”
“No. She took me to meet your brother.”
Conleth’s fingers paused. “I really need to stop underestimating Leonie. Particularly her capacity for vengeance.”
“He’s not what I was expecting.”
He grimaced. “My apologies for not warning you in advance, but I really didn’t expect you to run into him. It’s somewhat difficult to find the right moment to mention that you’re part of a matched set. Plus, you and I haven’t exactly been having a great deal of conversations lately.”
“I didn’t mean his appearance.”
At that, he finally looked up, one eyebrow lifting. “Oh?”
“Back when we first met, you said you understood what it’s like to have a brother like Archie, but I can’t picture Callum as a wild, impulsive kid. Or dragging you to unicycle lessons, for that matter.”
“Ah.” Conleth leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. “That would be my other brother, Connor. Also identical, just to warn you. If I ever appear to have gone completely insane, please feel free to hit me over the head with the nearest heavy object. Trust me, it won’t do him any harm.”
“You havetwoidentical brothers?”
“Yes, that’s the tone of voice most people use when they discover that particular fact,” Conleth said, his own bone-dry. “To answer the inevitable next few questions—yes, we are completely identical. Yes, our parents have always been able to tell us apart, though my father has something of an advantage there, being a pegasus shifter himself. No, we can’t read each other’s minds, at least not beyond the usual mythic shifter telepathy. We can’t feel each other’s pain, either. Something for which Callum and I are both profoundly grateful, as otherwise we would have a permanent hangover.”
Paige was still boggling over the mental image of Conleth in triplicate. “I can’t imagine even having a sibling my own age, let alone two literal clones.”
“I can’t imagine having a brother almost two decades younger than myself.” He shrugged. “Nothing’s strange when it’s all you’ve ever known. And the three of us are less alike than you might think. In some ways, at least.”
“I noticed.” Paige winced at the memory of how she’d berated poor Callum. “Though not quickly enough.”
Conleth winced as well. “I take it there was an amusing misunderstanding. Amusing for everyone else, at least. If it’s any consolation, it’s far from the first time people have gotten us mixed up. Dare I asked what happened?”
“I yelled at him,” she confessed. “I thought you’d arranged the whole thing with Leonie. It was kind of the last straw.”
“So that’s why we’re having this conversation.” Conleth returned to his work, fingers settling into place on his keyboard. “There’s no need to be embarrassed. Whatever you said, I’m sure I deserved it. Or would have, had I actually been present. In any case, thank you for the warning. Now I know to put my fingers in my ears when Leonie attempts to relay all the delightful details to me later. I doubt I want to hear your unfiltered opinion of me.”
“That’s not why I wanted to talk to you.” She hesitated, but she had to know. “Conleth, why did you invent that prophecy about meeting your mate at camp?”
Conleth went very still.
“Ah,” he said after a long, frozen moment. He shut his laptop, pushing it away. “So you also met Joe.”
“Yes, though he wasn’t the one who told me. Callum did. Or hinted, at least.”
“Callum?” Conleth sounded genuinely startled. He shook his head. “I shouldn’t be surprised. He knows me too well. Though possibly the reverse is less true than I believed. And here I was thinking I’d been so very clever.”
“I don’t think anyone else suspects the truth. Though Joe really did have a vision about us, you know.”
