Page 177 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

He chuckled. “Your sister, Aunty Tempest.”

The toddler said the words as though I were the silliest person in the world. He couldn’t have any idea how they made my heart pump and my soul scream. I’d only had one sister. She was dead. He must be referring to a half sister. “My father—your grandfather—had other children? Another daughter?”

The demon child placed his hands either side of my face. “My mama is called Syera.”

Andie’s muffled curse barely registered as I stared.

Syera.

He’d said the name like he’d practiced it one hundred times. As it was, on his lips her name still sounded more like Sera. “Syera.”

“You shared a tummy with her,” he said factually.

“My twin.”

“A twin,” he said in excitement. “Yes.”

I rested my hands over the boy’s. “Your mama is my twin sister, Syera. And your father is the demon king.”

What the fuck? What the fuck. What the fuck!

The boy nodded several times in rapid succession. “That’s right. Mama said our hiding spot was no good now. I have to stay with you until she comes.”

My breaths came fast. I squeezed my eyes shut. “She’s dealing with the demon king.”

“Yup.”

“He could be lying,” Sascha said low.

“No,” I whispered. “I’m bonded to him. I’d be able to sense it.”

“Mama said we’d get a bond,” the boy chatted. “But it took so long for the wall to get weak enough.”

The wall. “The barrier between realms?”

The boy lifted a shoulder. “And then you didn’t come, but Mama had said you wouldn’t. I just hoped because sometimes I was very bored.”

I’m going crazy, I thought at Wild.

Wild’s answer was slow to arrive. If you’re going crazy, then so am I.

My sister can’t be alive.

He’s not lying.

“But I can’t feel her,” I replied aloud to him.

“Who?” the toddler asked.

I swallowed. Because if I started to believe this, and then Syera was still dead after I unlocked that box… What would I do then? “I can’t feel my twin anymore. Your, uh, mama.”

He chuckled. “Demons don’t share.”

I stared. “What do you mean?”

“Demon boys don’t share their mates.”

Was I the only one struggling with all this? “My sister is mated to the demon king,” I replied dumbly. “And demon men don’t share their mates.”

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