but my past was murky. My future was bright, but it was tainted.
That was what happened when you made a deal with a devil called Adam.
ADAM
I was sixteen when I first saw her.
She was slender, too slender really, especially for the exertion of our sport. She had long brown hair that swirled around her in the water as she swam. It was in a high topknot on her head when she was relaxing, tucked in a cap when she meant business.
Her skin was the color of coffee. Not café au lait, not with African American hints to her heritage, but another ethnicity I couldn’t put my finger on.
She looked like she was drenched in gold glitter when she surged out of the deep end like a water nymph, tiny droplets clinging to her skin, making me want to touch her. To feel that soft silkiness against my palms.
Her eyes were a deep, dark walnut that also contained hints of gold and bronze, and they were shielded by thick lashes the likes of which I’d never seen before in my life.
If she’d been in my class, I’d think she had those stupid eyelash extensions or something. Instead, as poor as the people in this district were, I knew these were real.
Just like everything else about Theodosia Kinkade.
She had a smallish build, short for someone with her power, but the second she was beneath the surface, it was like she commanded the water. It was as though she belonged in there, and whenever she raised her body out of the liquid, I felt like she mourned it and it mourned her.
I’d always thought poetry was pathetic, written by dicks in need of pussy to get laid for real. But the second I saw her, I understood what Shelley and Byron and all the so-called greats had been going on about.
Not only when I saw her swimming, but when I just looked at her.
She was poetry in motion.
Made to be painted, formed to be written about. Existing to make my heart swell.
As well as other parts of my body.
Her face was dainty, delicately pointed at her chin with angular cheeks that looked just this side of gaunt. Her nose was straight and thin, just like the rest of her, and her brows were kind of thick, but they framed her face in a way that gave her more structure.
She was different.
So different than all the girls in my class, so different than the mothers of my friends, so unlike Mom, that she grabbed at me with invisible hands. Drawing me to her without even trying.
“You’re staring.”
I hadn’t noticed my brother slithering along, moving toward me, so I jolted in surprise as he broke my focus on the girl who’d captivated me. Because I was pissed at the interruption, I wanted to glower at Cain, but I didn’t. Couldn’t. Instead, I muttered, “Shut up.”
His lips curved. “Umm, nope. This is too good. You’re falling for one of Mom’s charity projects.”
“I’m not falling for anyone,” I growled, pissed off and flustered all at the same time.
Cain was the only person I knew who could worm his way into my control, making me lose my temper. But that worked both ways. We were twins. Had shared every major milestone since birth and probably would for the rest of our lives, considering we were damn fine swimmers who were aiming high. He knew me as well as I knew him, and because of that, we were well aware of the other’s weaknesses.
Mine was a tendency toward being prideful and bossy. Cain? He had issues. I wasn’t sure why, when we’d been raised in the same house, under the same stressors, with the same parents and environmental strains, that I was fine and he suffered so badly, but I wished I could take some of his pain away, even if the reason was selfish.
If he was normal, then maybe he’d let up. Stop being so fucking…
God.
So what?
So Cain?
That was why I let him tease me. Getting Cain to smile was impossible some days, and it made it easier on me in the long run for him to be in a good frame of mind.
He elbowed me in the side. “Stop grinning like that at her. You look like a real dick.”
I forced my mouth to remain flat, forced my features into an expressionless mask. “I’m not grinning,” I told him blankly.
“You are.” He rolled his eyes. “Stop staring at her,” he demanded. “You’re going to look like a