“Oh, wow!” Derek gushed beside me, both of us just staring outside.
The front door banged open and then we heard footsteps approaching.
“Aha!” A male voice said, like we were caught doing something we weren’t supposed to.
I turned around and found a blond guy standing in the doorway, mouth agape as his gaze ping ponged between me and Derek.
“Hi, Juno,” Nolen said, smiling knowingly at who I now knew was Juno.
“Ah, Juno!” I said, holding out my hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
He took my hand gingerly, still not speaking a word.
“There’s two of you?” Another man said, coming up behind Juno. He had brown hair, and I guessed he had to be Remi.
“Remi?” I questioned, then handed him my hand next. “I’m Aiden, Derek’s twin.”
“I can see that,” Remi said, his tone confused but not unkind. He smiled at me then. “This will take a few minutes to get used to, I think.”
“Fair,” I chuckled, knowing they had no idea I even existed.
Derek flew past me and hugged Remi tightly. “I’m so sorry we didn’t tell you about Aiden.”
Juno cleared his throat. “Feel free to tell us now, then.”
And so, we did.
They’d both taken it well, and were just pleased we were all happy and healthy now. Remi seemed to take the news of how close I’d been to dying badly. Knowing we shared the same father made this meeting rather odd. I had a half brother who was right in front of me, and even if we shared DNA, he was still a stranger. I couldn’t wait to change that.
“Want to see our home?” Remi asked once we were done with the whole story. “We’ll move everything in tomorrow, so it’s rather bare at the moment.”
“We’d love to,” Nolen replied for us.
I loved that our house was already fully furnished. It wasn’t because I didn’t like making the house ours and choosing furniture myself, but simply because I couldn’t be bothered making decisions like that yet. Iknew this world was close to the one I’d grown up in, but I still needed to learn how to live here. Buying furniture just wasn’t on my list of priorities.
After seeing Juno and Remi’s lovely home, we went back inside and started making a list of things we needed to buy. The fridge was fully stocked and we had towels and linens and such, but Nolen needed specific spices for the kitchen and Derek really wanted some candles for the living room.
It would seem shopping was in order, but not today.
The doorbell rang, and I went to greet whoever it was. It couldn’t be Juno or Remi already, at least I didn’t think so.
“Aiden!” Oliver squealed, hugging me tightly.
“Hi, Oliver,” I rasped, feeling my lungs deflate.
God, I’d missed him.
“Oh, sorry!” he apologized and stepped back a bit. “I just can’t believe you’re okay! It was so scary, like, you were just kissing Nolen and then BAM!” I jumped at his loud description. “Then you were just out cold, a deadweight in his arms.”
I blinked, then closed the door behind him, urging him further inside. “I’m sorry that I worried you. I didn’t know I would faint.”
He waved me off. “I fainted, too. Seems like it’s sort of a rite of passage deal around here. I kinda love it actually, kiss the most handsome man ever, faint, and then wake up having magicanda fated mate? I mean, life goals, right?”
“Right…” I answered.
Oliver made it sound so easy coming here and learning you weren’t completely human. Derek seemed to take to it easily, too, and on some level I did as well, but it was still hard to wrap my head around. I was half human and half…nothuman. I guess the people here were considered human since their species was a match to ours, just with them all looking way more symmetrical in their facial structures. And then the whole magic thing.
Nolen had briefly told me that he actually didn’t know if it was their world having magic that caused them to carry it, too, or if they were born with it and offered it to their world so it could survive. No matter the differences in our worlds, the ruling species was the same but I was still half of each.
