Page 62 of Borrowed

Hollow, pale eyes.

A face I knew better than anyone.The dark strands of hair fell like smoke around the body, blurring into something too familiar.

“Tabby…” the voice wasn’t in my mind.It wasn’t spoken to me.

I shook my head, not understanding.My hands trembled.“No…this—this can’t be…I can’t be…”

I was staring at a reflection of myself, but…

The room spun.

The image touched my cheek with reverence, her eyes shining, a soft smile trembling on her lips.

“You kept me,” she whispered, the voice I always knew a soft whisper in the undertone.“Even when I burned.Even when you couldn’t save me, you brought me back.”

My skin went cold.My mouth opened, but no words came out.

In the shards of stained glass across the floor, I saw a reflection.

A man.

Pale, naked…

Blood drying in streaks down his thighs, mouth parted in horror.

Not Tabitha.

Toby.

I stared at the man.

He stared back.

The black butterfly was so slow now, the wings unable to flap any longer, the body still.

I turned away, burying my face into the image’s chest because I couldn’t look any longer.Because I didn’t want to know.

“Don’t leave me,” I said, voice muffled.“Please.I don’t want to remember.I don’t want to!”

Outside, I could hear the police.They were screaming a name…my name.

My true name.

“Tobias Crowley!You’re under arrest for the murder of Beatrice Crowley, Mila Bastion, Father?—”

“I won’t,” my sister’s image promised, kissing my forehead and wrapping her arms around me like a coffin.“I told…you.I don’t exist…without…you.”

She was fading.Leaving me again, like in the flames.

I watched the cops get closer, my tears blurring the flashing lights that painted us in war colors.

Tabby was nearly gone as the mist of the fire consumed her.

“Please.”I cried.“You can’t leave me, my twin.I love you.I’m nothing without you!”

But the truth was always there, just below the surface.She burned and…I broke.In the silence after, I borrowedher name.

Her face.