Page 28 of Ethereal Shifters

“Don’t take her. We can sort this out, we can fix everything, but this is madness. What are you doing?” My father is shouting, and he sounds desperate. But why?

My mother is the complete opposite. “You get to keep the one, not two. Do you understand? If I don’t take one of them, then he’s going to take both of them. We will have no chance. I sacrificed everything for them. I gave up everything, and so did you. We agreed about this.”

“It’s different now. They’re here,” my father pleads, “Please, no.”

My mother doesn’t say anything for a long time. There is just the sound of babies crying. “Choose one. The other goes and we never speak of her again. She will be dead to us.”

When I wake up with a gasp, clinging to Finnegan’s shirt. He’s carrying me up the stairs into the academy, and he stops when he sees I’m awake. “What the hell happened? We are going to the healers now?—”

“No, I’m fine now…it was my Nexus.” I touch my head. “I don’t know, my Nexus was screaming in pain and then… It was just a weird dream. I don’t know what happened.” I try to reach for her, but she’s almost crying like a wounded animal in my mind.

“Can I help?” Georgina steps up, her sickly sweet voice grating on my nerves. She touches Finn’s arm, careful not to touch me, like I have germs. I feel like she is the one with the germs. “You look like you are having a problem. Maybe we should take you to the healers, and they can take a look.”

“Get your hand off me,” Finnegan growls at her, and his tone even scares me. “I don’t know what the fuck’s wrong with you, Georgina, but she’s crying in pain, passing out, and then you’re here. If you did this, you are dead.” He holds me closer as Georgina rips her hand off him. “You touch me again, even just put your hand on me, I’m going to break your fucking hand, do you understand?” She pales as she takes a step back. “This connection, whatever the fuck it is, I’m going to figure out a way to claw it out of my chest and burn it. If you’re not careful, you’llbe burning right next to it with whatever fucking magic you used to create it, because it’s not real. I know what therealthing is. It’s not you. It’s my mate, in my arms, and you are nothing. You may have all the other tutors here convinced, but I see right through you.”

I love him so,sofucking much.

He holds me to his chest, carrying me away as I look over his shoulder at Georgina on the bottom step. She’s not scared. If anything, she’s smiling, a coldness to her eyes that feels like it slams straight into my own soul. For the first time, I think I’ve seen the real Georgina, and it’s pretty fucking terrifying.

Chapter

Thirteen

“What about this?” I braided my hair again for the fourth time, this time a French braid straight down the middle, and I frown. It’s still not right.

“Finn’s sister will not care whether your hair is braided or down or messy. She just wants to meet you, to get to know you. You’re now very close to being fully mated to her brother; you just need to go through a ceremony again. I’m sure that will come along soon because your mates will have an appointment with the priest the second that they’re back open.”

I haven’t thought about that part yet. The problem with the ceremony is the bond will link all of us, including Hollis, and he will hate me for that. If I accept the mating and he doesn’t…I’d have to feel him reject me, and I’m not sure how my Nexus would react to that. She would lose her shit, I’d expect, completely lose it, and I don’t want to ruin what peace we have found, but I also want that final connection. To officially and magically be bonded to them on every level.

“Yeah, I know, just…I want to make a good impression because Finnegan just—” I stop. I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m just nervous. “I’m not good with relationships or any of this messy stuff. So it’s important to me that I get this right.” I down the conception mix that I take monthly now to stop any unwanted pregnancies. The last thing I need right now is a baby. Or want. I’m not sure I want kids at all when they could be cursed like I was as a kid. The academy give all trainees shots, but they aren’t a hundred per cent and I like to be certain when it comes to this. Plus, my Nexus always grumbles when I take the mix and that worries me enough to make sure I take it. A nexus with a breeding kink and five, kinda six, mates? Hell fucking no.

“You’re doing great,” Annie softly offers, looking up from her phone. I still don’t have my phone back from wherever it disappeared to when the academy was locked down, and going shopping for a new one is out of the question. I need to ask one of the guys to pick me one up. “Now I’m going to leave you to it. I’ve got a study break this morning, and I’m already exhausted. I need to get it done, ready for Aleksander’s lesson later. I’m going to go to the library to focus in peace. Good luck and see you later in class.”

“Thank you.” I hug her before she leaves, and she smiles. “I know, I’m hugging now. It’s a new thing I’m trying.”

“It’s that happy effect on you,” she shouts over her shoulder before the door shuts, so she doesn’t see me rolling my eyes at her. Should I get changed again? What if she doesn’t like my clothes? I’m in a top that has a Taylor Swift-inspired lake district painting across the front of it, from some knock-off shop that Rhodes found and bought me a few of the tops, knowing that I’d love them. This one I love the most because“The Lakes”is my favourite song. My jeans are high-waisted and dark, and I have my favourite boots on too.

My body’s still aching from early morning private training with Rhodes, but at least it was better than my dream state classes because my Nexus is hiding after what happened on the stairs. She feels like a wounded animal, and I don’t know how to fix her. The dream, or vision or whatever it was, doesn’t make sense either. It’s not a memory…because how would that have happened? It can’t be. I figure it was me crying, but was there another baby there? Where did that baby come from? Why does it feel like I’m being really stupid and just missing something? I told Rhodes about the dream, and Finnegan too, but they can’t figure it out either. I keep staring at the carved statue of me on my bedside like it’s screaming at me to go and see Beta Francis, but getting away from here with the rite coming up and too many eyes isn’t happening anytime soon. The next rite trial is in two days now, and the fear of what could happen is breathing down my neck. Thankfully, no more assassins have tried to kill me. Small bonus. Not for my Nexus, though.

There’s a knock on the door that pulls me from my spiralling thoughts, and I smooth down my clothes one more time before opening the door.

Finnegan’s there, and his sister is standing at his side, and hell, she looks just like him. A smaller female version, though. “Would you believe me if I told you this is the first I’ve seen my brother nervous except for when he was six and he ate bad soup at the farm, and there was no toilet nearby?—”

“Please, please stop talking,” Finnegan mutters, softly elbowing her shoulder.

She rolls her eyes. “I’ve never seen him nervous in his entire life. He’s usually really sure about everything.” She smiles widely. “I’ll tell you the rest of that story and a dozen more embarrassing ones soon.”

“I’m regretting this already.” Finnegan grunts. “Gwenieve, this is my sister, Feyre. Feyre, this is my mate, Gwenieve. I callher Sun because she is the light of my life, but she likes to be called Gwen by others.”

“Urgh, your romantic side is nauseating.” Feyre rolls her eyes at him and faces me. “Is he always like that with you?”

“I like it—him—all of him. It. Oh my Gods, I like him.” I blurt out a mixture of words that make me sound crazy. “I’m really nervous too because I want you to like me because I love him.”

Her blue eyes sparkle. “Good. I’m just really glad to finally meet you.” She steps up to me and throws her arms around my shoulders for a short hug. When she steps back, I really look at Feyre. Her hair is the same brown colour as Finn’s, but she’s shorter than me, paler than me, too. She’s wearing dark Converse with flowers painted on them, and tight skinny black jeans and a black shirt. There’s a tattoo on her upper arm, one of the twin Gods. “I don’t know what my brother told you about me, but none of it is true. I’m actually a very nice person.”

Finnegan’s face says everything. “She’s also very good at being sarcastic.”

“Is that a family trait? Because Finn’s really good at that, too.” I cock my head to the side.

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