“I did not know,” Phoebe said. “My father never told me of your existence.”
“Not just mine,” Koios said. “You have at least one more sister and a half-sister too. I also have four brothers, but not by blood, not that it matters at all to us. We are brothers and sisters.”
“You look…like me.” Phoebe took another step closer.
Koios straightened as much as he could and walked toward her. “And you like me. I’m very pretty.”
Her eyes widened, and then she let out a breath. “Yes, you are. But your wings…they are not healthy.”
“No, they aren’t. I’ve never been able to use them. I can’t even get them to retract.”
Phoebe nodded. “My father did not curse you. He blessed you.”
“Um, pretty sure this isn’t a blessing,” Koios said. “My heart has already stopped once. I’d rather not risk it happening again.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
“So explain it to me, Sister. I need help.”
“No one taught you, yet you know so much. I can see the wisdom in your eyes.”
“And I in yours. We are the same in more than looks, aren’t we?”
“That is the valravyn’s blessing. Knowledge. Wisdom. My father gifted you with the same blessing he gave me, but no one showed you. Your magic is hampered instead of enhanced.”
Koios reached for Ben’s hand and squeezed it. “That might be because I was held captive as a child. I was a science experiment for a very bad god.”
Phoebe paled and closed the distance between them. “How could my father have left you? Why would he leave you?”
Koios didn’t understand the love between parent and child himself, but he’d witnessed it in Ben and the other Jerrick children. That same adoration existed in Phoebe’s eyes, even though it had darkened as she tried to understand her father’s actions.
“He made a deal with the devil,” Ben said.
“To what end?” Phoebe cried. She grabbed the front of Koios’s shirt and held on. “At the cost of my brother, my twin?”
Koios covered her hands with his. “If your father isn’t here to answer our questions, then we shouldn’t judge his choice. He saved you, Phoebe. At least one of us escaped. Better one than none.”
A calculating look flowed through Phoebe’s eyes. “No, that’s not his way. But you had the gift. You escaped, didn’t you? This hell he left you to endure.”
Koios held her hands tighter. “We did. The people who held us captive captured my oldest brother, Dakota. They did not know that he is a lynx shifter. The moment they left us, he used his ability to pass through walls and rescued us.”
“And then what?”
“Then we hid beneath a row of buildings in a small town until we were old enough to do more.”
She had so many ideas flowing beneath her eyes. Koios could see them, like code moving over his monitor. If only he could read them as easily as he did the computer.
“You must stay with me, Brother. I can show you how to use your magic.”
Koios smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “Maybe one day I can come back and do that. But my pack is in danger. I won’t leave them to face it without me.”
Phoebe glanced at Ben, that knowing look in her eyes. “Your bear can stay as well.”
Koios chuckled and looked over his shoulder. Ben stood at his side, tall and stoic. He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing and showing Koios the level of nerveshis bearexperienced. Ben would let him make his choice, for better or worse.
“My bear is a doctor for our kind. He is invaluable to his pack and to me,” Koios said. “I could no more leave him than my pack or my siblings. I’m sorry, Phoebe. The last thing I expected to find was a sister. We had the slimmest hope of a cure for me, but even that was worth it.”
“But your heart. The bear said your body is failing.”
