Page 65 of Wicked Deeds

“Well,” Meredith said, “let me know if you two want me to compare the records. You can download a copy of your history and the match from the database. Send it through to me, if you want. I’ll send you a secure upload link. Then if you decide to go ahead, just let me know. Deal with the sister part first, then worry about the other one.”

Crap. What if Gwen freaked out about the possibility of me being her sister? Me with all my magical drama. She might hate the idea. Want nothing to do with me. But she’d said last night that she’d be interested in a sibling.

“Whatever you decide, the protocols are there to follow” Meredith continued.

I nodded, but my brain was whirling. If there was any possibility Jack was my father, I absolutely didn’t want him finding out I was his daughter. I was assuming he didn’t know, of course, because it was the only thing that made sense to me. He could have played things very differently at theSerenity Fallstournament if he wanted to waltz into my life as my long-lost father.

Instead he’d revealed his true colors. And I didn’t want anything to do with them.

So it might be in my best interest—and Gwen’s—to see if those protocols were truly as ironclad as Meredith thought.

After all, I knew a bunch of genius computer geeks. And I knew damned well some of them skirted the wrong side of the law at times. If I asked Damon to hack a database to find out if the guy who’d matched with Gwen was Jack, then he’d try his best to do it. And his best was damned good. Surely we could find a way for me to follow this thread without Jack finding out.

Meredith was still talking and I tried to pay attention, but nothing she said was sticking. Which she didn’t miss.

“Look, you both need some time to sit with this. Talk to Gwen. Call me when you two have a decision. I need to get to my patient.”

We said goodbye and I slumped back in my chair, feeling as though someone had turned the world upside down and shaken it around. Lianith wandered into the room and jumped up onto the desk, angling her ears for scratches. I obliged, still lost in a whirlwind of chaotic thoughts.

The person I really wanted to talk to was Damon, but he’d already left and I knew he had a morning of international calls.

I left him a message, made sure I had all my privacy settings set on the highest levels in the Annex database, downloaded my medical history, and double-checked my notifications. Still only one. I downloaded it, too. So whoever Gwen’s mystery man was, he hadn’t yet been connected to me. And if he did, I wanted to make sure he didn’t get anything more than I was legally obliged to give him.

When I logged off the database, my hands were trembling.

I had to work off some adrenaline. I could call Callum to come over and let me try to beat him up, but it would take him some time to get here and I didn’t want to wait.”

So I did the next best thing and logged myself into Damon’s training program.

Escaping into the virtual world and beating up some imps or something was just what the doctor had ordered.

We’d added a few of the creatures we’d encountered in the Fae realm, but I stuck to imps. No worrying about whether they were bad or not. And the handy part about VR was that it seemed to work the same way as real-life exercise when it came to stress reduction.

I didn’t really pay attention to the time as I squared off against a series of imps. So I almost lost my virtual footing, only narrowly avoiding falling on my ass, when Madge interrupted me with an in-game message.

“Maggie, Gwen would like to speak to you.”

Oh God, she was awake. No more hiding away in VR. I had to tell her the news.

Crap. My avatar was sweaty, my limbs felt heavy from exertion. I no longer felt shaky, but this was a conversation I wasn’t so sure I was ready to have.

But I couldn’t see another option. Not if we were sisters.

Ahalf-Faesister. Would my life ever stop getting weirder and weirder?

My grandmother, I knew, would have been delighted, even if the half-sister bit came from my unknown father. She’d always wanted more children, but it hadn’t worked out. She made a point of semi-adopting any friends I brought home.

I disengaged from the game and opened my eyes. Gwen was sitting in the chair next to mine and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Holy crap,” I wheezed. “Can we ease back on the jump scares?”

Gwen yawned. “Sorry, I didn’t think.” She wore pink-and-white-striped pajama pants and a tank top covered in some pink-and-white anime character I didn’t recognize. Her hair was half falling out of a short ponytail. But even in ‘just rolled out of bed’ mode, she was beautiful. She was staring at the monitor above the chairs, so I took the opportunity to study her. Short, blonde, and nothing like me. But, quite possibly, my sister.

Genetics were weird.

Her incision under the surgical shield looked normal. Nothing red or crusty or bleeding. She had a bit of color back inher face and she seemed alert enough. So, no medical reason to put off telling her the news.

“Is that your training game?” Gwen asked, pointing at the monitor.

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