Page 26

Chapter Twelve

“ W hat the hell were you thinking? Oh, Einn! You’ve ruined everything!” It was the most emotion she’d seen her twin display in at least a century and of course, it was rage and disappointment, and it was pointed at her.

Sadly, and as usual, she couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Tveir was losing her mind at a high rate of speed with no end in sight.

“Why did you do that? How did you do that? Have you lost your mind? You’ve ruined everything!”

“You already said that,” Einn sighed, but her sister wasn’t listening.

“The one time! The one and only time I don’t watch you like a hawk, and you do this!”

Her left arm, knobby elbow and all, flew out to the side with incredible speed and precision.

Not only did it form a perfect right angle, by her index, middle, and ring finger extended the straight line and formed an arrow pointing directly at Einn’s work of masterful art.

She was proud of what she’d done. She’d shown initiative and ingenuity and that was what pissed off Tveir the most.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Einn leaned her right hip against the edge of the countertop of her workstation. Catching about every third word that her twin was shrieking, Tveir had one hundred percent of her attention when she ground out through gritted teeth, “Now, they’re going to…”

“Now, they are going to run to that blasted Island like the Hounds of Hell are after them and we will be waiting.”

“We will be what?! We can’t…”

“Oh, yes, we can go there. Of course, we can go there. There is literally nothing stopping us from going there except for your insane need to be in control of absolutely everything.”

“Why I…”

“Oh, please, you do it all the time, and usually I just let it roll like water off a duck’s back,” Einn snapped, taking a confident stride toward her sister.

“But not today.” Pointing her curved finger at the tip of her sister’s nose, she kept right on going.

“Now, riddle me this, Sister Dear, where is the one place we can go?”

“Earth, but…”

“And where is that blasted Island with all those Dragon… no, wait, Amazon, no, wait again… Amazonian Dragon freaks?”

“Earth…” Tveir’s response trailed off into a split second of silence. Then she picked up where she’d left off and started fuming all over again. “But that isn’t…”

Swinging her crooked, gnarl-knuckled index finger upward, Einn stopped when it was as straight as it could get and pointing toward the ceiling.

Slowly shaking her head, she plastered on the smuggest smile she could muster and stood utterly still.

After three full seconds of silence, she met her twin’s eyes with a confidence and superiority she’d waited centuries to feel.

Einn was coming out as the Number One twin, the leader, the head bitch in charge, and she wanted the world to know.

But until she was out in the world, she would start with her twin.

“But that isn’t Asgard? Hmmm, is that what you were going to say?”

“Why, yes, yes it was, but only because…”

“Yeah, I know it was what you were going to say because I am the twin that can look into anyone’s mind anytime I want–especially yours because we share the sacred bond of twins.”

In the blink of an eye, she opened her puffy, purple lips as wide as they would go and let the tangerine-colored tongue roll out.

Pointing her finger toward her throat, she made the gut-wrenching gagging sounds for precisely half a second, then added, “And that’s how I feel about the sacred bond of twins, in case you were wondering. ”

“Yeah, well, you used to like it.”

“That was then. This is now. Things change.”

“Whatever.” Tveir rolled her eyes and huffed like a toddler. Then added in a sullen tone, “And yippee for your mind reading skills, Einn. To date you’ve had about five beings, besides me, to practice on, unless you count the insects, lizards, and other creepy crawlies that live here in our Realm.”

“They count. You’d be surprised how complex their minds are. And how kind and giving they are, and willing to work with one another to achieve their goals. You could learn a thing or two from all of them. They. Have. Hearts.”

“I don’t think…”

“That’s right, you don’t think of anyone but yourself.”

“Einn! That’s not…”

“It is as fair as fair can get. Don’t forget, I know what you’re thinking. Just like a second ago when you said, ‘Earth, but that…” You were going to say, ‘…but that isn’t Earth.’ And you were going to say that because you thought I didn’t know the difference?”

“No. I didn’t say that or mean that. Do not put words…”

“But you thought it,” Einn matter-of-factly stated. “In my book, that’s the same damned thing as saying aloud, especially when you know that I can hear your thoughts. You do it all the time. You are so passive-aggressive.”

“No… I mean, I… Well…”

“Just stop, T. You can’t backpedal fast enough.

You’re busted. Face it…” Waving her air in a grand gesture that would’ve made any WWE Wrestler proud to have her on his team, Einn ended with her hand sweeping past the outside of her thigh and her fingertips pointing at her twin.

“… you have never given me credit for anything . I have actually heard you telling Father that I have wild, fanciful ideas that are in no way grounded in reality on many occasions. Then turn around and take credit for the invention that came from those wild and fanciful ideas.”

“I never said…”

“Oh, yes you did.” Einn nodded with solemnly.

“And until this moment, I was willing to let bygones be bygones, but then you had the utter nerve to think that I didn’t know the difference between the place of our birth–the majestic, amazing, and absolutely splendiferous Realm known as Asgard–and the green and blue ball that sits third from the Sun on the Milky Way. As if!”

Throwing her arms in the air, Einn was thrilled beyond compare when her overbearing and highly annoying, not to mention as uppity as a socialite on Fifth Avenue, sister took a step back.

The fear in Tveir’s eyes was exhilarating, albeit short-lived.

It was the first time Einn had ever had the upper hand, and she was utterly giddy.

Another step forward and she wagged her finger in Tveir’s face.

“I know what I’m doing. I have the master plan this time.

” Swinging the wagging finger out and around, Einn tapped her right temple and kept right on going.

“I know what’s what and how to make it all happen.

I figured it all out and you’re still wondering which end is up. ”

Closing the distance by one more stride, she leaned forward and lowered her voice.

“All these years, all these centuries , of being treated like the loser, the black sheep, the one of us who was just a bubble off center while you acted all high and mighty paid off. You didn’t even see me coming, did you? ”

“Well, I… It’s not that… We always just…”

“We? Who the hell is we? I did all the work while you made charts, and graphs. I was turning screws and soldering until my fingers bled and my eyes felt like they were covered in sand while you played on the computer writing prospectuses and procedures for projects I was creating.”

“But that is our system. It works for us.”

Jumping forward with such momentum that she landed with the tips of her toes touching the ends of her sister’s, Einn poked Tveir in the chest as she spat each syllable. “It. Was. Your. System. Not. Mine.”

Raising her hand, once again drunk on the power that her twin’s recoil gave her, Einn made an instant and definitive decision.

There would be no more Miss Second Fiddle and no more Ms. Nice Girl.

She was the first twin, the smartest twin, the best twin.

After all, her name was Einn which meant first and that’s all there was to it.

Snapping her fingers, she had only to envision her sister bound and gagged and locked away for her dream to become a reality.

In the blink of an eye, a single beat of her heart and a blur of dusty lilac skin and bright orange hair the texture of straw, Tveir was sitting on a bench in a cage with Cold Iron bars looking like she’d just seen a ghost.

In less than thirty seconds, the shock had worn off and Tveir was on her feet demanding to be released.

Holding up her hand with her palm hovering as close to the caustic metal as she dared, Einn whistled loudly then yelled, “And that’s enough of that shit!

Damn! I wish I’d gone ahead and gagged you too! ”

“Einn, you let me out of here right now.”

“Nope, not gonna do it.”

“But I…

“But you have been a pain in my ass since the moment we were born, and I am sick and tired of it.” Raising her arms over her head, doing the most incredible jazz hands she’d ever done, and adding one hell of a high kick, she sang at the top of her lungs, “And it’s my party now, Sista!”

“No! No! Nooo…mmmmmmmmmm!”

Snapping her fingers, Einn Magically gagged her twin and chuckled when Tveir’s muffled shouting got even louder. Pushing up on her long, crooked, and knobby toes, she twirled back to her workstation and started to explain.

“You see, T, I have always wanted us to be partners–like real partners. The kind of partners where I just explain what I’m working on in nauseating detail like you explain your damn charts, and graphs, and blasted timelines.

But you never wanted that. You never let me clarify, elucidate, or explain anything. You always…”

“Mmmmmhmmmnmmm.”

“You need to hush, T. It’s my turn to talk.

” Pausing, she thought for a second, then continued, “Oh, yeah, as I was saying, The only time I got to say anything was if I made a production out of it, sang a song and did a little dance.” Turning back to face her twin’s cage, she smiled brightly and nodded. “But now you get to hear all about it.”

“Einn, please.”