I winced. I really did only have the one cup. I could make another, but I’d grown attached to that one. We’d been through a lot together. I was attached to all my meager possessions like that. The stand-ins for proper, healthy emotional attachments.
Fae said, “Look, I understand the risk. I know she was your twin. She was my sister, too. But there’s a way to fix this. There has to be, and running away hasn’t fixed anything. So come to the fitting. And we’re reading out Grandad’s will the day after tomorrow, so come for that, too. I’ll book you in with the healer tomorrow. Nine a.m.?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I guess you’ve got it all figured out.”
“I always do. See you tomorrow, then.”
They stood up, setting their mug in the sink, which Lunaris had already filled with soapy water.
They grabbed their coat from the hook by the door, and paused before leaving. “I know the others may seem off with you right now, but we’re all really happy to see you again. Truly.”
That was wishful thinking, but I nodded all the same.
As they departed, I scanned the trees for shadows, and I didn’t close my door until Fae got safely into their car and drove away.
When they had, I locked up, went down the tiny hall to my bedroom, and paused.
The door to my bedroom had always been the same color from the day Lunaris had first transformed: a neutral, inoffensive beige.
It was now the color of baked cherries.
Despite the fact I slept in the spa’s car park, I ran late to my appointment with the healer the next morning.
It wasn’t deliberate—I’d run out of clean washing. Working from out of a caravan meant my uniform mostly consisted of joggers and hoodies, but I didn’t want to show up to this appointment looking unwashed. I feared there might be a physio or massage element, so I was extra thorough in the shower.
All said, I was only ten minutes late, but it was enough that Fae greeted me with a scowl.
“I’ve filled out your forms for you. Please check them over and make sure I didn’t forget anything,” they said, shoving the papers into my hands.
I skimmed over them while following Fae past the circular stairs to a hallway of doors for separate treatment rooms. A disconcerting sense of déjà vu overwhelmed me. Each door had been painted a different color. Fae stopped outside one with a ginkgo leaf stenciled on.
“Wait here and I’ll get him,” they said.
Disappearing inside, I heard them say, “Hey, he’s ready for y— Is that ahickey? I didn’t see that when you came in. Did you get that at thefuneral?”
A familiar voice replied, “We all grieve in our own ways.”
I nearly bolted for the stairs, but there wasn’t time. Already, the door opened. Already, Fae led out the new healer to introduce me.
We needed no introduction. We’d already met rather intimately.
Fae said, “Kessian, meet my brother, Taliesin. Tal, meet Kessian.”
In unison, Kessian and I looked at one another and said, “Oh, shit.”
Chapter 5
Shit? Why shit?” Then Fae zeroed back in on the bite mark I’d left on Kessian’s neck. “Oh,shit. Please tell me you didn’t fuck my brother.”
Kessian replied, “Does it make it any better if I say he’s the one who fucked me?”
“Ugh! No! And you!” Fae turned on me, jabbing me in the chest with a finger. “At Grandad’s wake?”
An incriminating silence was all I could muster.
“I can’t believe you. Well, actually, I can believe it of you, Kessian. But Tal?”
I could only repeat what Kessian had said. “We all grieve in our own ways.”
