Page 13 of The Evil Twin

“Not long,” he said. “Hurry up and get dressed, we need to go back to school. Althea’s awake.”

CHAPTER SIX

Althea was not only awake when we got back, she was sitting in the common room, stuffing her face full of finger sandwiches. She was normally so elegant, it was strange to see her eat like a normal person, but apart from that, she seemed no different. Well, apart from that and the shimmer on her skin where the goop from Other-me’s experiment had stuck to her.

“I’m absolutely starved,” she said as we came in and sat down. “They said I’ve been out to it for a few weeks, and it feels like it. I could eat a mountain of these!”

She didn’t say anything else until she’d polished off the whole plate. Then she daintily wiped her fingers on a napkin and set the plate aside.

“You’re all staring,” she said.

And we were. Tennyson and I, Nikolai and Hannah, Harper and Sam, even Other-me, we couldn’t stop looking at her, though I suspected it was mostly for different reasons.

“I missed you so much,” I told her.

She smiled. “You met the curator, didn’t you. That’s good.”

I blinked at her. That was a heck of a guess.

She pointed to the shimmer on her skin. “Apparently, I have visions now.” She glanced over to Other-me. “Thanks for that.”

It was the most sarcasm I’d ever heard in her voice.

“I’m also the one who woke you from your coma,” said Other-me. “You should be more grateful.”

I snorted.

“As you’re the one who caused her coma in the first place, I wouldn’t give myself too much credit,” Tennyson said coldly.

“Hold on,” said Hannah, turning to Other-me. “How exactly did you wake her up?”

It was a good question. “And why didn’t you do it sooner?”

Other-me shrugged. “I wasn’t sure I could. I was just playing around, really, taking these powers for a test drive.”

I could feel Tennyson prickling beside me, so I put my hand on his arm to calm him down. Not much got him truly angry, but putting his loved ones in danger was the best way to do it.

“This is why she needs to be restrained,” said Sam. “She thinks we’re all her guinea pigs to do whatever she likes with.” He glowered so darkly at her that I was pretty sure he didn’t just want her restrained, he wanted her dead and buried. It was almost scary, that look. Poor Sam, he’d been used by so many people, they’d twisted him into someone almost unrecognizable.

“We need her,” said Althea, with a sigh. “I foresaw something. I don’t quite understand it, but there was a ritual involving you both.”

I nodded. “Makes sense. A ritual to get back my power.”

Althea shook her head. “No. Well, yes. But no. This was something more… Something almost dark.” She rubbed her temples. “Sorry, I haven’t quite got the hang of precognition yet, it seems. I’ll need to research.”

“You need to rest,” said Tennyson. “You should go home for a few days, regain your strength.”

“The full moon is in a few days,” Althea said. “I’ll be fine after that. Don’t fuss, Tennyson. I’ll take it easy, but I need to be close.” She shot a look toward Other-me.

“I can help you research,” said Hannah. “Just point me in the right direction.”

Tennyson looked resigned. “Fine. Lucy also found something that you should look at. Your Latin is a little stronger than mine, but if it’s too much for you, I can work on it alone.”

Althea smiled at you. “He showed you the book? The curator?”

I nodded. “Yep, but…” I glanced over at Other-me. “Maybe we should talk about this later.”

“There’s actually something we need you to do,” Althea told Other-me. “Something only you can do.”

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