Page 31 of First Light

It was Lachlan and her.

Not her.

Not Carys but Seren, the name that the woman in the hall had called her.

The name of Lachlan’s late wife.

“Tell me about your wife.”

“We grew up together. I can’t remember a time I didn’t love Seren. Then she got sick and I lost her. I thought I’d die too, but I didn’t.”

Her fingers touched the surface of the portrait, touched the cheek of the woman who could only be her twin in this world, and Carys halfway expected to feel her fingertips touch her own skin.

Seren. Her twin.

She turned to Lachlan and Duncan, who had stopped arguing and were staring at her.

Lachlan walked toward her, his hands raised. “Carys, I can explain.”

“What is this?” She pointed to the portrait.

Lachlan spoke slowly. “It’s my wedding portrait.”

To a wife who wore Carys’s face.

She felt her stomach drop. “Oh God.”

The room around her started to spin, and she pressed her hand to the wall near the portrait, her fingers digging into the cold stone.

“Carys, I can explain.”

“Can you?” She forced out the words, forced her eyes to focus on Lachlan. “Who am I?”

“You’re you,” Duncan said through gritted teeth. “And don’t forget it.”

“Of course you’re you, Carys.” Lachlan’s voice was low and soothing, a voice she loved coming from the man she loved. “And I loveyou.”

“Who is…she?” She was trembling with rage. Fear. Confusion. She felt the tears welling in her eyes because she knew.

She knew.

“Seren,” Lachlan whispered, looking into her eyes.

Carys’s hands were shaking, and she gripped them to keep herself from shattering to pieces. “She’s me, isn’t she? She’smytwin. And your wife. The one who died.”

“Her name was Seren,” Duncan said. “She died two years ago.”

Two years ago, the same time that Carys had been laid low with a bout of depression that had never made sense. A grueling blackness that had left her feeling like half her soul was missing.

Because it had been.

“Oh God.” She gasped. “OhGod!”

Lachlan ran to her. “You have to understand. I was drowning in grief.” He grabbed her wrists, trying to look at her. “All I wanted was to find you and see your face and know that part of her was alive somewhere in the world and then…”

Don’t say it. Don’t say it.She squeezed her eyes shut to try to block out the betrayal.

“I love you.” Lachlan pressed his cheek to hers and whispered desperate words. “You have to believe?—”

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