I turned on the shower and slipped in. Within minutes, I knew this was going to be a painful endeavor. I didn’t have the strength to wash my hair, or even shave. Lifting my arms was like lifting weights. I washed up and rinsed off as quickly as my body would let me. I had to sit on my bed and recover my breath.
It took a half an hour for me to feel rested enough to get up and get dressed. As the fabric drifted over my skin, I cringed in discomfort, and felt a few joints pop.
If taking a shower felt like running a marathon, I was in serious shit.
I was willing to do anything to get this extreme exhaustion out of my body. My head was spinning, for crying out loud.
Sometimes food helped. My insides recoiled as I thought of the long walk to the cafeteria. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it without fainting, but I had to try. I didn’t even take my bag with me. Even that was too heavy on my weakened frame.
Gods, I sure hoped this shit passed soon. I couldn’t handle being slowed down like this.
As I left my dorm room, I noticed there was an unusual chill in the air. I did my best to prevent it from creeping up my shoulders underneath my sweater, but my skin still developed an eerie coldness I couldn’t describe.
A moment later, it was gone. I could hear laughter in my head— I scowled as I felt the leshane retreat at the edge of my bond, back to Ethan.
He was winning. I hated it. I had to do something to save my mate, but this whole situation seemed utterly hopeless.
My breakfast was filled with a lot of protein. The pain didn’t go away, but at least the fatigue faded a little. I hoped I could make it through class today.
“You all right, Emma?”
Arthur was giving me a concerned look. He’d passed me in the hallway on my walk back from the cafeteria and stopped when he noticed I was spacing out.
I shook my head to break the lull in my brain, but it didn’t work. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
He frowned. “You’ve been out of it a lot lately. Is something wrong between you and Ethan?”
Everything was wrong. It royally sucked. My eyes searched Arthur’s form for something else to talk about, anything to change the subject.
My eyes caught the name at the top of his essay, which was sticking out of one of his textbooks. Arthur Ignacy.
My breath hitched. No. That… didn’t make any sense.
“Arthur Ignacy?” I read aloud, and Arthur took a glance down at his paper.
“Yeah. That’s my name.” He adjusted his glasses. “Anything of it?”
“You said you were raised by your grandparents.” I chewed on my lip. “Do you know by chance who your father is?”
“I’ve been told of him,” Arthur said. “Anastazy Ignacy.”
My heartbeat was pounding so fast against my ribcage I thought it might burst. I took another look again at Arthur’s red hair, his green eyes… which were so much like mine. “What day were you born?”
“May seventh,” he said. He looked fairly creeped out by where this was going.
“That’s my birthday, too. Anastazy Ignacy was my father.”
Arthur’s face paled. He looked me up and down, as if seeing me for the first time. “But… that’s impossible.”
“Who was your mother?” I was practically shouting now. Several people passing in the halls looked at me like I was a crazy person, but I didn’t care. I was more or less trying to get over the fact I’d been lied to my entire life— again.
Arthur swallowed a lump in his throat. “I don’t know her… my grandparents said she gave me up. But I know her name was Evonna. Never got a last name.”
I slumped against the wall in total shock. The facts were adding up so quickly I couldn’t deny they were true. I always thought I was an only child. I never thought I had a sibling, let alone a twin.
But Arthur looked so much like me.
He began to stutter. “Could this be real?”
“If I’ve learned anything, there’s no such thing as coincidences in the fae world,” I replied. “Arthur, come with me. We need to confront my mom, see if this is true.”
“I— I don’t know if I want to see her,” Arthur said. “She gave me up, but still kept you, right? That’s horrible.”
“It is, but we don’t know why,” I said. “Don’t you