The Dragon Realm (Dark World The Dragon Twins #2) - Michelle Madow Page 0,58
failing projection, then flashed out.
“Gemma?” Ethan sounded more fearful than I’d ever heard him before.
Mira spun around, stared at the empty place where I’d been standing, then turned to Ethan. “What did you do?” Anger laced her tone, and she clenched her fists, frost crawling up from her palms to her wrists.
Ethan stared at where I’d been standing, speechless.
Mira zeroed in on Queen Katherine. “You,” she said. “You did this.” The frost reached her elbows, and wind rushed around her.
“I did nothing,” the queen said, and while I couldn’t see her, she sounded firm and resolved.
“Then where’s my sister? Where’s the Crown?”
“Those are questions for your boyfriend. Not for me.”
The wind stopped, the air eerily still as Mira faced Ethan. “What’s she talking about?”
But Ethan was no longer looking at Mira. Instead, he was focused on the place where I knew Isemay stood. “You told me to crown the twin I loved,” he said. “I did what you asked. And it killed her.”
Smoke floated out of his palms and toward the ceiling.
Fire.
The cabin was made of wood. If he released the full force of his anger, it would all go up in flames.
I couldn’t let that happen.
So I reached for the handle of the door, pulled it open, and stepped through. “I’m alive,” I said, and Ethan paled, like he was seeing a ghost. “And I think I just traveled back in time.”
36
Gemma
Ethan hurried toward me and wrapped me in his arms. Then he leaned back and cupped my face, his fingers brushing against my cheeks as if he was making sure I was real. “You were gone,” he said, disbelief haunting his tone. “I thought I’d killed you.”
I stared up into his familiar hazel eyes. There was so much I wanted to say to him—so much I wanted to ask.
“You crowned me,” I said instead. “You chose me.”
He nodded, and his adoring expression said it all.
Ethan loved me.
Wind whipped through the room like a hurricane, and Ethan held me close, steadying me. We both looked to Mira, who was standing at the front of the room with murder in her eyes.
Her lips curled in disgust, and she glared at me like she hated me.
“Mira,” Ethan said her name steadily, still holding onto me so tightly that I could feel his chest vibrate as he spoke. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?” Dark anger seeped from my twin’s tone, and the frost crawled all the way up to her neck. “Why did you do it?”
He let go of me and faced her, his hands up as if he was preparing to defend himself against her. “I had to,” he said. “I didn’t want you—either of you—to find out like this. But if I crowned you, it would have killed you.”
“You were supposed to love me.”
“I do love you,” he said. “But I love Gemma, too.”
“You mean you love Gemma more.”
He didn’t deny it.
“I can’t believe that you—either of you—would do this to me.” Tears fell from her eyes, turning to ice as they rolled down her cheeks. One after another, they broke off, fell to the floor, and shattered. “How long have you been together behind my back?”
“It wasn’t like that,” I said.
“Really?” she sneered. “Then what was it like?”
I pressed my lips together. Because I barely knew where Ethan and I stood. Where would I even start with explaining it to her?
“It’s not Gemma’s fault,” Ethan rushed to my defense. “She didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” Mira raised her arms to the sides and shot icicles through the walls, leaving circular holes in the wood they’d ripped through.
Ethan took a slow step forward, still ready in case he needed to defend himself against her. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated. “I never meant for you to find out like this. But if you’ll calm down, I can explain.”
“You just told me you love my sister more than me, and you want me to calm down?” The wind whipped more furiously around her, and she rose up to float a few centimeters above the floor.
She’d never been able to use her magic to levitate before. I wasn’t even sure she knew she was doing it now.
I’d never seen her so angry. And I had no idea what to say to her to get her to calm down so she wouldn’t lose control of her magic.
Nothing could fix this. And given everything that had happened in the past few minutes, I was in as much shock as she was.