The Gemini Reign

“I am in your head. You can’t see me.” Selene. It was her again! She was so annoying. Except… What did she mean by Rage?

“Come inside, Justin, Now!” Her voice was urgent and excited, which was very weird. She was never this enthusiastic.

I ran back inside, and Selene was beaming at me. “We found her!” My eyes widened, and I accepted the hug she was giving me. We pulled apart, and I bombarded her with questions.

“Where is she? Do you know if she is okay? Can we go now? I’m going to go. Now. Text me her location.” I was walking back out the door when she stopped me. “Wait! You can’t go.”

I looked back at her, “Like hell!” I spat out and walked out the door.

Then pain shot out through my body again, and I cried out. “It was you!” Selene dragged me into the house from where I was standing, frozen in pain.

“No! No, This is for your good,” she pulled me to the couch and then nodded to her “security guards,” and they hauled me up onto the sofa and started tying me down. I couldn’t speak because the pain was still coursing through my body.

Valerie spoke up for me, “Selene, Avery is his sister. Let him go.”

“Stay out of this! You’re supposed to be on my side, cousin.” Selene’s bestia or beast was coming out, restless. She needed to shift.

Selene looked down at me and said, “You need to be here where it is safe. She needs you more. I’m sorry.” She walked away, and the pain went away completely.

“No! Come back; we can do this together. No, Selene, don’t do this! She needs you too.” I shouted at her back. She didn’t look back once. I couldn’t do this without her. She couldn’t die. I began reassuring myself. She was stronger than me, older and wiser. If anyone could do this, it was her. Right?

“She’ll be okay—just rest. There’s nothing you can do to help her right now.” Valerie tried to comfort me. She got up and left the house.

Eventually, everything went black, and I drifted off to sleep.

Avery turned to me, hurt and angry, “Why? Why didn’t you tell me that she was—”

She cut herself off by screaming so loud it caused the house to shake as I was still shackled to the bed when she returned…without Selene.

I woke up in pitch black, sweating, and panting. I squinted in the dark, trying to make out my surroundings. It was too dark; All I knew was that I was in a bed. Suddenly the door opened, and light poured into the room. I winced and held up a hand to block out the brightness. A feminine silhouette appeared in the doorway.

“Selene, Valerie?” I called out, still disoriented.

“No.”

Avery

I felt Rebecca’s eyes burning through me as I paced back and forth.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” Rebecca said, her voice sharp.

I had let Rebecca sleep through the night. I knew how dumb that was, but I couldn’t have slept even if I tried. I didn’t want to risk sleeping, and my anxiety wouldn’t have let me anyway. The questions and fears still burned bright, and I couldn’t help but worry.

What if we never got out of here? What if they never found us? Could I trust Rebecca? Could I trust that boy? Who was he? Why did I feel connected to him somehow? Why did it feel like we had met before?

I needed answers, but first, I or we had to get out of here.

I finally turned towards Rebecca and answered her, and by “answered,” I mean, I lied. “I tried to wake you up, but you weren’t waking up, so..” Except I didn’t anticipate how she would react.

“Really?” She asked solemnly. Ugh, I wished I had just woken her up. What was I supposed to say to her? I hated lying. I threw my hands up and prepared myself to lie again.

“Yeah, why would I lie?” I cringed internally and looked at her so she would believe me.

She looked at me earnestly and said, “I’m sorry! I usually don’t sleep so deeply. I must have been drained.”

Who knew I would be so good at this? Except she wasn’t done. Her eyes narrowed, “You’re lying!” she said in realization, her eyes then widening.

I tried to explain, but she interrupted again, “We can’t escape when you’re barely awake. Why did you do something so dumb? Lie down on the bed. We can escape later when you get some sleep.” I stared at her, eyes wide. Was she crazy? We were not on vacation! We were in some weird house or warehouse and were in a life-and-death situation.

I voiced my concerns, now whispering, suddenly aware of how dangerous this situation was. “Are you crazy? We could die today! This isn’t a joke.”

Although we were being pushed around before, I was suddenly conscious of how lucky we were. We had a bed to sleep on, water, and this morning some girl brought us food. I definitely could see how she had gotten so comfortable. Hey, even I was getting comfortable! I didn’t even know if I could trust Rebecca. I also didn’t know if that food was poisoned or if it would kill me. It must have done something. Otherwise I—

My thoughts were intruded upon when I heard the footsteps leading up to the locked metal door of the room we were in. The same person who had brought us food had come after Rebecca was asleep and locked us in. I wasn’t surprised. I didn’t think for a second that they would leave the door open.

I heard a mechanical beeping like someone was typing into a keypad. That or it was a part of the massive metal door that had been open as we were coming in, so I couldn’t have seen it. We kept on hearing the mechanical beeping every hour or so. I didn’t have a watch, so I didn’t know exactly. We stayed in the room, thinking of ways to escape. We realized there was no way to get out except through the big door. It was like someone read our minds because the door opened, loud and abrupt, making a creaking sound as it was pushed open by one of the guards.

As I saw the woman who walked in, my blood chilled, my heart dropped. Adrenaline and anger flooded my veins, and I stood up straighter as I looked her in the eyes.

Angelica.

The woman who killed my mother. The woman who captured and enslaved me for three months. The woman I hated with everything I had. I should have known that it was her who was behind this.

How could I have known? She was supposed to be in jail. She was supposed to be gone forever.

Her obnoxious dyed platinum blonde hair bounced with every step she took towards me. Her green eyes narrowing at the sight of me. Her scarlet red lips sneering as she spoke, “Well, well, look who it is.” She turned towards the guards behind her, “It’s my prodigy slave!” she screeched. “I would be careful around her. Oh, wait! Never mind, she forgot how to fight because of that wretched dragon that’s always watching her like… well like a dragon, I suppose.” she said, turning towards me.

What? What was she talking about? She must have gotten crazier since the last time I saw her. Dragon? She must have been saying this to mess with me. I did nothing more than clean and cook. I wasn’t anywhere close to being one of her mercenaries. Or was I? Some small, deep part inside of me believed her, but the rest denied it, silencing the thought like it was nothing.

I ignored the foolish thought and spoke, clearing my mind of confusion, “How did you get out of jail? You…old hag!” I stopped myself trying to breathe evenly. She wouldn’t scare me anymore.

I looked back at Rebecca, who was wide-eyed with fear. She shifted her eyes to mine, and I mouthed, Stay calm. She gave the slightest shake of her head as to acknowledge she understood.

What I thought felt like minutes must have only been seconds because when I turned back to Angelica and the guards, they seemed unfazed.

Angelica started to speak, “My, oh my! That was so scary!” she said sarcastically, smirking at me. The guards behind her laughed, and she smiled an evil smile.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere. There was a loud crash and screaming. The ground underneath us started to shake, making my legs wobble—Rebecca squealed behind me. I turned just in time to see the fire form from behind her. I whipped back around to see that Angelica and her guards were gone.

Justin

“Who are you?” I said harshly, even though I was panicking inside.

The person opened the light, and my eyes focused on her. My eyes widened as I looked at her. She was Avery’s counselor. There was a man behind her—another one of Avery’s teachers. I sat up straight and moved to get out of the bed.

“Who are you?” the man teacher asked. I realized I was in Avery’s room. I assumed one of the witches fixed her room up because it was restored to its natural state. They must have been here for Avery.

Rage burned through the disorientation. “Why are you here?” I growled, not answering his question. “What do you want with Avery?” I asked, not giving them a chance to answer the other question. I reigned my anger in and waited for an answer. I was now standing with my arms crossed, my back straight as I towered over them. There were perks to being six-foot, three inches.

The counselor sighed indifferently and said, “I am Avery’s maternal Aunt, Dahlia Cornelius. And this is..” She gestured toward the other teacher and said, “This is her father’s brother, Amel Adams. Now, it is your turn”. She said the last part sternly. I stepped back, not sure whether to believe them or not. Selene rarely talked about our parents’ siblings, but she did mention their names when speaking about them. Except how would I know whether these people were the real Aunt Dahlia and Uncle Amel or if they were imposters.

I tried to remember anything Selene might have said that could help me in this type of situation. “Pietas ad coronam caeruleum,” I shouted and hit my chest.

Both of the teachers immediately drew weapons and tried to contain me. I knew my answer. They were family.

I leaped back and shouted again. “Fidelitas ad verum coronam!”

It meant loyalty to the real crown.

They stopped and gaped at me. I sighed with relief and realized how paranoid I was. If I had just scanned over my relatives, I would have seen the similarities to my parents. Aunt Dahlia had the same red hair and blue eyes as my mom. Uncle Amel was practically a carbon copy of dad. Except he had brown hair and eyes instead of the blonde and blue dad had.

Aunt Dahlia collapsed on the floor and started crying. She turned to mist, and we couldn’t see her for ten seconds before she composed herself and was visible again. I had never seen a pixie before. It was amazing! Mom was a half pixie, but I only knew that about her for three weeks. The weeks before…she died.

Aunt Dahlia kept her head down and kneeled in front of me, and Uncle Amel joined her. I sat down in front of them and grabbed their shoulders.

“We are family. You don’t have to kneel.” I was uncomfortable with the attention.

Aunt Dahlia looked up at me and asked quietly, “Is it you? Justin?” I nodded. Why was she so happy to see me?

“I raised you for two years.” She said. I didn’t understand. She must have felt what I was feeling. Pixies could do that.

Aunt Dahlia got to her feet, and Uncle Amel and I followed. She explained,

“Although your parents came home to you every night, I took care of you during the day. They had many enemies. That meant you and Selene had to be protected by the best warriors in the land. The queen’s sister and—”

“The king’s brother.” Uncle Amel finished. I sensed there was some sort of tension between Uncle Amel and Aunt Dahlia.

“I believe I was doing the speaking,” Aunt Dahlia said to Uncle Amel.

“No, you assumed that you were doing the speaking.” Uncle Amel replied.

“Well, you seemed shy, so yes, I assumed. Now I think we should finish explaining, and since you seem so chatty, why don’t you tell Justin what happened.” She turned back to me, her face indifferent, and crossed her arms.

Uncle Amel seemed surprised. I looked at him and asked, “Are you blushing?” His eyes widened, and his cheeks got redder. I looked at Aunt Dahlia, and there was a smile on her face.

“So, are you gonna start?” she said in a teasing tone but quietly.

He cleared his throat, “Well, your parents were expecting another child.” Uncle Amel flushed even brighter, “They wanted for you, Selene, and the new child to normally live for the beginning of your lives and understand the responsibility of the throne. Selene, of course, left for Zabaria after Aidens capture…”