The Dragon Realm (Dark World The Dragon Twins #2) - Michelle Madow Page 0,56

life echoed through my mind.

Centuries ago, most dragons had a Twin Flame out there, somewhere. A mirrored soul they were destined to find, and would search for until they did. We wait to be intimate with anyone until receiving our shifting magic. Because only when we’ve become whole—when our dragon side unites with our human side—are we ready to find and connect with our twin. Before that moment, even if we met our twin, we’d be attracted to them but we wouldn’t know for sure if it was a Twin Flame connection. Our first shift changes that.

And then, the final part:

Every Twin shares at least one element with the other.

Fire.

Ethan and I had always been connected by fire.

But the pain shredding my body apart was so intense that I was going to explode from it. It was like I’d turned to light and had been fractured into a million pieces.

Ethan had crowned the wrong twin.

The Holy Crown was killing me.

I was going to die. The Crown would be destroyed.

Without all four Queens, the world as we knew it would fall into the hands of the demons.

So many people were going to die. And all because—for some unknown reason—Ethan thought he loved me.

What had he been thinking when he’d placed that Crown on my head? What must his expression have been?

Had he been looking at me with love? The same way the Ethan from my alternate memories had always looked at me?

Suddenly, the pain was gone, and I was leaning against a wall, in a small bedroom similar in design to the living room of the cabin. I stared down at my hands, surprised to find them intact.

I could still feel the weight of the Crown on my head, and I reached up to touch it.

It was whole.

I hadn’t destroyed it by wearing it. More importantly, it hadn’t destroyed me.

So, what had happened?

“Ethan must place the Holy Crown on the head of the twin he truly loves,” Isemay’s voice sounded from the next room. “If he places it on the other twin’s head, not only will the Crown be destroyed, but its wearer will die, too.”

I blinked, hit with déjà vu. The world felt like it upended, and I pressed my palms against the wall to make sure I didn’t fall over.

No, I thought as I steadied myself. Impossible.

The door in the room was cracked open from when Genevieve had come inside to fetch the box holding the second half of the Crown.

As quietly as possible, I walked over to it and peeked through the crack.

Genevieve stood at the wall, next to the table with the second half of the Crown on top of it.

The second half of the fully complete Crown that was also sitting on my head.

This couldn’t be happening.

“Ethan?” Mira said.

I couldn’t see her, but I remembered her expression in that moment. Worried and scared.

I remembered because I’d been standing next to her.

“Sorry,” Ethan said, and I heard him unzip his backpack. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Genevieve will put the halves together,” Queen Katherine said.

Ethan’s footsteps sounded on the floor, and then he came into view and handed Genevieve our half of the Crown.

My heart caught in my throat, and I could barely breathe. Because everything that I was watching now… it had already happened.

This has to be a dream, I thought. Something happened when Ethan placed that Crown on my head. Maybe it knocked me out? And now I’m remembering the final minutes beforehand.

That made sense. Total, complete sense.

At least, more sense than the other possibility. Especially since, as I’d learned from the nightshade, I was apparently prone to vivid hallucinations.

Could the Holy Crown have driven me crazy?

I reached for my head to touch it again. Because I was wearing the Crown. But at the same time, Genevieve stood meters away, holding both halves of it. It was here and there.

There were two Holy Crowns.

Sort of. Maybe the one I was wearing would disappear once the original became whole again.

If that one was the original. Hadn’t mine existed first?

Like before, Genevieve brought the halves together. I stepped to the side just before the bright light exploded through the room. If any of them saw me… well, I had no idea what would happen if they saw me. But I doubted it would be good.

Especially if I saw me.

The light died down, and I resumed my post near the door, watching from the shadows through the crack.

As I knew it would be, the Crown in Genevieve’s hands was