The Cursed Diamond

|21|

I wake up to the sound of muffled voices. For a brief, peaceful moment, I forget where I am. The reason I'm in this predicament in the first place, but it all comes crashing back.

My sister and I are the only living tribrid twins.

"Freya. Freya." the voice speaks. I try to open my heavy eyelids.

"Freya!" someone shakes my shoulder.

"Yea." I croak, lifting my hands to rub my eyes.

"Go get her some water." I finally hear mother howl.

With a final groan, I sit up. I'm not in the kitchen anymore but on the living room couch. How did I get here? My head pounds. I look around. Mother tries to hide her worried expression. Talia walks into the living room with a glass of water. When she catches me looking, she hides her matching worried expression with a smile.

"How's your head feeling?" Talia asks, breaking the silence. "You hit your head a bit when you passed out."

"I'm fine, I just have a bit of a headache," I whisper, grabbing the cup of water Talia hands me. I glance over at my mother and quickly glance away. "My whole life has been a lie."

"I'm sorry, Freya. All I wanted was to protect you." mom sniffles.

"It doesn't make what you did right." My heart rate increases.

"So where's the necklace?" she asks.

"I don't wear it anymore."

"That's not a good idea."

"You want me to live my life as a human?" I argue.

"If that's what it takes to make sure you are safe, then yes!" mother shouts.

"But at what cost, mom? Don't you think I deserve to know my sister? My birth father? My birth mother?"

"Trust me, Freya, you don't want to know who your birth mother is." she rolls her eyes.

"Avoiding my questions like usual," I whisper.

"Why do you say that?" Talia turns and asks her.

Mother takes a deep breath, her expression turns serious.

"Don't tell me there's more!" I shout, shaking my head.

"You know I have two sisters," she continues.

"They don't live in Greece?" I ask, twirling my hair around my finger.

"They don't. My youngest sister and I didn't agree with your mother's choices, so we each took one of you and went our separate ways."

"Did we both get those necklaces that dampen our powers?"

"Yes, they dampened your powers but also hid you. No one could track either of you while you wore them."

"Did you stay in contact with them?"

"No, it's too dangerous. Someone could wait for me to contact them so they can track them."

It's becoming harder to breathe with every second that passes. I try to take a deep breath. "I need to get out of here."

I quickly run and don't stop until I reach the familiar forest preserve. The one that I would go to when I needed an escape from reality. The day I lost Ghost comes to mind. That feels like a different life. The problems I have now to make those feel so small in comparison.

The wind blows my hair onto my face, and I quickly tuck them behind my ears. As I walk, I get a whiff of some beautiful flowers. The setting sun turns the world golden. The footsteps of a person bring me back to reality.

"You shouldn't run off on your own like that." Talia smiles.

"Yea, running off seems to be my thing lately," I smirk.

"So what are we going to do with the whole twin situation?" she asks.

"Finding my twin is the priority right now. I think it's safe to assume that she is also in trouble. We need to find her."

"Your mother mentioned that last she checked, she lived in New Hope, Pennsylvania."

"I think I should go see if sister and aunt are still there. That's the only clue I have to go off of."

"I'm not letting you go alone. We'll get a flight there Friday morning and fly back Sunday night."

"That should give us enough time to go investigate. I'll see if I can find anything with the last name Winters. I think my mom mentioned my aunt's name, Wendy."

"That's a good start, Freya."

"I know." I nod.

"Let's head back and say goodbye to your mom. There are lots do, some of which are to pack our bags and book the tickets," she says. I nod, following her in silence.

Thoughts of being the only known tribrid twin fill my mind. But, I've always wanted a sister. I wonder what she will be like. Will we get along? Is she going to be happy to meet me?

"Promise not to start another fight with your mother?" Talia pleads, interrupting my thoughts.

"Fine." I pout, looking up, realizing we're back to my childhood home. "But we're just saying goodbye." I continue.

"Yup, now let's go see if we can gather some more information. I feel like your mom knows a lot more than she's letting on." She admits as she opens the door.

"Thank goodness you found her." she beams as she closes the door behind us.

"I wouldn't have come back without her. She's like a sister to me." Talia smiles at me.

"I'm truly happy she has someone as supportive as you are in her life."

"So you don't hate my guts." Talia jokes, trying so hard to not burst into laughter.

"You may not agree with the way I went about it, but I had Freyas best interest at heart." She shrugs. "And now that she knows about the supernatural world, there's no reason to lie."

"I like this version of you better," I tell mother, fidgeting with my ring. A huge smile spreads across her face.

"As much as I want you to, I know you won't leave this alone." She shakes her head in disapproval. "But regardless, I have something that will help you out." She quickly turns to the shelf in the living room. She moves a small statue and the shelf opens. There's a secret passage! That's so cool, I can't even be mad.

"Is that where you hid all of your witchy things?"

"Yes, it is," she answers, holding an old-looking book. "I want to give you this."

"What exactly is that?"

"It's the family spellbook. It has different spells that will be of use, like how to hide from getting tracked since you don't want to wear that necklace."

"Thank you," I whisper, grabbing the spellbook.