Page 50 of Destiny of the Witch

‘At least you knew about magic,’ he said dully. ‘I had no idea.’

‘No.’ I sighed. ‘You’re right. It’s not the same. Not exactly. But I know you. The real you. If you look me in the eye and tell me you have no memory of being Blaise, I swear I’ll believe you.’

He put his plate on the bed, then leaned towards me, his expression earnest.

‘I swear to you, Romy, I don’t know anything about Blaise St Clair. The name means nothing to me. None of this makes sense. I don’t care who they say I really am, and I don’t care who you really are. I’m John and you’re Romy, and I just want us to go home and get on with our lives.’

I took his hand and squeezed it tearfully. ‘I feel the same,’ I told him. ‘I still love you, Johnnie.’

‘You mean it?’

‘Of course I mean it. You’re the love of my life. Nothing changes that.’

‘I love you, too,’ he said fiercely. ‘We’re not going to let them part us, are we?’

‘Not if I can help it,’ I promised him. ‘Somehow, we’re going to—’

The door flew open, and John dropped my hand as Keely and Harley entered the room. I saw immediately that they knew what had happened. Harley’s eyes were red and swollen with crying, and Keely—always more stoic—looked on the verge of tears herself.

‘I think you’d better go with them,’ John said, leaning back against the headboard and picking up his plate. ‘You three obviously have a lot to talk about.’

I gave him a grateful smile and followed the twins back to the room I was currently sleeping in—the room the three of us had shared when we first arrived on this island a whole lifetime ago.

We each sat on our respective beds and stared at each other.

‘It can’t be true, can it?’ Keely asked at last. ‘You’re Romy. You’ve always been Romy. But Lowen says…’ She broke off and stared out of the window, and knowing Keely I guessed she was desperately trying to conceal the fact that she was crying.

Harley didn’t even attempt to hide it. ‘I can’t believe this!’ she burst out, tears streaming down her face. ‘You’re our big sister. We can’t lose you!’

‘Except she’s not our sister,’ Keely said flatly, still staring out of the window. ‘She’s Lowen’s sister, and Trinity’s sister. She’s a Pendragon, just like them.’

‘We can’t lose you!’ Harley repeated, sounding even more desperate this time. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around me as if she never wanted to let me go.

‘One will become three, three will become two, two will become three,’ Keely intoned. She turned to face me at last and I saw her cheeks were wet with tears. ‘That’s what Lyrica meant, wasn’t it? Our loss is the Pendragons’ gain.’

‘That’s what she meant?’ Harley stared at her. ‘She knew, all that time!’

‘Three will be reunited, remember? The Pendragon children. It was always going to happen,’ Keely said bitterly. ‘And Emrick and Mum knew it. I’ll never forgive them for this.’

‘Don’t say that,’ I said gently. ‘If it hadn’t been for Emrick and Mum’s actions I might not be here at all. We could all be dead—me, Lowen, and Trinity. If they hadn’t given up so much to protect us the Pendragons would have killed us. I owe them my life.’

I didn’t know where this sudden need to defend them came from. It surprised me, and Keely and Harley looked stunned.

‘Well,’ Harley said at last, ‘I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.’

‘It’s the only way of looking at it,’ I told her. ‘What do you want me to do? Rant and rave about it? Block them from my life? For what? For sacrificing everything to make sure the three of us survived to adulthood?

‘Look, I was angry too at first. I was devastated. But the fact is, Mum could have had a normal life. She could have walked away from me, taken you two back to Castle Clair and lived comfortably under the protection of her in-laws. Instead, she risked everything, lost everything, to raise me as your sister and make sure I had a chance of the sort of life she’d given up.’

The twins exchanged glances.

‘She’s right,’ Harley said. ‘Look how scared Mum was all those years, and now we know why. She’s lived with a terrible burden. How can we be angry with her?’

Keely sank onto the bed and rested her head on my shoulder. ‘I know,’ she said wretchedly. ‘I just want someone to be angry with, because I’ve lost my sister and it’s breaking my heart.’

‘You haven’t lost me,’ I promised her. ‘We’ve grown up together. We’ll always be sisters, no matter what. I’ve just got two more siblings now, that’s all. And a chance to find out who I really am, and where I fit in this world.’

‘You’re a Pendragon,’ Harley said. ‘Half fae! You must have magic, just like Killian. Well, not exactly like Killian because he’s—’

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