“Wait. What the fuck does that mean? You see yourwholelife?” He’s staring at me wide-eyed.
“I don’t know Bubba, that's what she said. We didn’t have a lot of time, but she said she found her biological family, but she couldn’t tell me much, just that we are destined for greatness and that together we are unstoppable.”
“This is so fucked up.” He’s aggressively chopping the veggies for the pasta. “I don’t even know what to say to any of that.”
“Oh, that isn’t even the most fucked up bit. Apparently, her and dad didn’t think we needed to know there were more worlds out there–and before you start I don’t know what that actually means–but she said that supes fled their world a long time ago because of a war, and I’m guessing that has something to do with her family. She said they thought it didn’t matter if they didn’tteach us about the other world and she’s sorry for failing us. So yeah, that's basically everything.”
He’s quiet for a minute, while he cooks our steaks and gets the alfredo sauce and noodles going. I know this is how he needs to process his thoughts, by focusing on something else. So I give him that time. He’ll discuss how he feels with me when he gets his thoughts in order. I can feel his feelings through our bond though, which is really tripping me out. I can feel him flipping through, sadness, anger, shock.
He takes a deep breath, takes the steaks out to rest and then faces me. “Do you actually think it was Mom and not just your brain playing tricks on you?”
Closing my eyes I take a deep breath and think back to how I felt in that moment, how she felt. When I open my eyes he’s staring at me, waiting for my answer. “Yes, that was one hundred percent Mom. I could feel her magic, smell her honeysuckle scent. I have no doubts it was her.”
He nods like he’s expecting it, “We need to call Dad. We can Facetime him when we sit down to eat. You need to bolus before we eat since it’s almost ready. So do your insulin and then set the bar and get drinks. I’ll make plates.”
“Yes, boss.” I deadpan, but I know he’s only trying to look out for me. Unfortunately, he’s right and I can't simply sit down to eat without doing a correction. After I do that, I get our silverware and drinks ready. I run to grab my I-pad out of my room so we can set up Facetime with our dad and still be able to see the screen. Marshall plates up dinner and sets it up on the bar.
We don’t speak as I get the tablet set up, but I have a sudden thought occur to me as I’m scrolling to find Dad.“Hey Marsh, did you or anyone call him when I blacked out?”
“Nope. We are eighteen, and since I’m here with you I’m listed as your next of kin. And I was busy worrying about your insulin levels, so you get to tell him yourself. You’re welcome.”
“Ass,” I mutter as I hit the button to initiate the video call.
He picks up on the third ring, and seems excited to hear from us. “Hey there kiddos! How’s everything going?”
“Hey Dad!”
“Hey Pops,” Marsh says over my shoulder.
“Okay, what is with those faces? What happened?” He looks between us worriedly. It’s crazy how easily he can read us; it made it nearly impossible to sneak around when we were younger.
“Well good news is, we’ve gotten our full powers. However, shit kinda hit the fan when it happened.” Marsh states matter of factly
“What the hell does that mean? Are you both okay? Do I need to come out there?” He asks in a rush.
“No Dad, we’re fine. It just kind of knocked me off my ass a little bit, but there’s more.” For the next thirty minutes, I have to explain every single thing, in detail, Marsh listening attentively while he eats. We have to pause a couple minutes when we all start crying. It may have been years since she passed, but the loss is still as fresh as the day we lost her.
After I finish explaining everything from my perspective, Marshall tells it from his side, thankfully giving me a chance to eat my pasta as well. We take the tablet to the couch to finish the conversation, leaving our plates to clean up later. The room is cast in beautiful shades of reds and oranges caused by the shimmering sunset reflecting off the ocean. When we get settled on the couch, it feels like sitting on an actual cloud.
“It really does, though. This room is amazing,” Marsh says suddenly, and I whip my head to face him.
“Did I say that out loud?”
“I didn’t hear you say anything, Mags,” Dad says, confused.
“Okay, well, it seems we left an important bit out. We can also communicate telepathically, and feel each other's emotions. When our magic connected, it formed some type of bond.” Marshall explains.
“I don’t even know where I’m supposed to begin after all of that.” He sits quietly for a couple minutes, mulling everything over.That’s definitely where Marsh gets that quirk from.
We watch our dad swirl his whiskey until he sets it down on the end table next to him. “Okay, so to start, it’s not completely unheard of for twins to share magic like that. Like the healer said, normally it would be an identical twin, but it makes sense if she’s right about y’all being mirror twins. That alone is rare, but also not entirely unheard of. You two have always been completely dependent on each other. It was worrisome when you were little and refused to be separated at all, but it got better once you hit middle school and started having separate classes. That part doesn’t really shock me.”
“That's fair.” I agree we have always been a matching set. Marsh nods too.
“I will see if I can find more information on witch twins, but as for the other matter, it does sound like it was Mom. There have been people that have claimed they saw a loved one after their magic gains full strength, but it’s extremely rare and normally only those witches with necromancer or soul magic. So it is pretty amazing that you got that chance. She was right, this isn’t the only world; there are actually multiple, four total, I think. Earth is one, Faerie, Astrexus is the supernatural one where most witches, shifters, vampires, and the like are originally from, and Drecidale is the demonic realm. They aren’t actually ‘worlds’ like different planets per se, but more accurately I guess you could say they are different realms in this world.”
“Why didn’t either of you ever tell us? Like, I can kinda understand Mom not mentioning it since we were only eleven when she passed, but you’ve had eighteen years to tell us. Seven since mom died.” I see my dad’s face drop as I ask, shame and guilt evident in his features, and he can see how upset we both are.
“Honestly kids, we didn’t think it mattered. My parents fled Astrexus a few decades after the war broke out and it didn’t seem like it was ever going to settle.” He runs his hands through his hair. “It’s not taught in school until the college level either, just a very brief and intentionally vague history since no one really likes to discuss that dark of a past.”
