Page 58 of To Scale the Emerald Mountain

“Tomorrow evening, I believe. I was surprised when he sent word that he wanted to visit. It’s been many years.”

“I don’t know why you were surprised,” Nana says. “I told you when I saw him a few months ago that he expressed interest in coming.”

“Well, I didn’t think he would. I’ve lost count of how many years it’s been.”

“Have you heard from the brother?” Angelise asks.

“No, I haven’t heard from or seen Lo since their father’s funeral,” Father says, his voice drooping.

“I saw him in Bokhaii, but we didn’t speak. I don’t know if Alec spoke to him that night or not. But from my understanding, they’re still estranged,” Nana says. Now she sounds sad. I’m about to go play somewhere else. I don’t like it when the adults are sad, but Nana hugs me tight, and I decide to sit a moment longer.

The small gate to the courtyard swings open, a sound I know well since my brothers and I play out here often when I’m at the castle. Father’s sadness goes away, and now he’s surprised. He stands, smiling big and putting his arms out. Angelise smiles too but doesn’t get up. Nana slides me off her lap and stands. Taking her seat, I get back to my apple.

“Alec! But you’re early!” Father walks over to his guest, and I hear them slap backs while they hug. Men are strange. “How are you, old friend? It’s been too long.”

“Alec, I’m so glad you came,” Nana says. I hear a light kiss connecting with a cheek.

Father sits again and asks his friend, “How is kinghood treating you?” His voice is playful, but something about it doesn’t sound real.

A lowlaugh reaches me, and it’s the happiest sound in the world—as warm as fresh honey dripping from its comb.“It has been an adjustment. Quite different from my last line of work, but it is beginning to settle. It is good to see you, too, Mhay,” the loveliest voice says, his words tilting in odd places that I’ve never heard before. “I apologize for being so early.”

He stops talking when I finally turn around to see who owns that voice, and he’s looking at me. My face splits wide when I see his dark eyes.

“You’ve met my wife, and my two boys over there. This is my daughter—” Father stops talking when I leap to my feet and run towards the man they call Alec. His eyes go wide before he drops on one knee, opening his arms wide to catch me when I jump into him and wrap my arms around his neck.

I don’t remember meeting him, but I know him.

Alec lets out a gasp before I let go of him to see his eyes up close. They’re the same color as melted, dark chocolate and are shiny, but he beams down at me with obvious joy. His smile is so wide his eyes crinkle at the corners before he then glances quickly behind me at the other adults. I follow his stare.

Nana, Father, and Angelise are all standing and staring at us with their eyes and mouths wide open, Nana clutching a hand over her heart. They look funny.

Even Nikhos and Lahndro have stopped their game to see what’s going on. Nikhos starts laughing while the adults still stare, not saying anything.

I turn back to Alec and grin. “We’re going to be best friends!”

He laughs, but a small tear leaves his eye. “You know, I think you are right.”

Lahndro looks around at everyone acting so strangely, and Nikhos continues to laugh. “What is happening?” Lahndro asks.

Nikhos slaps his knee, hunched over in a fit of giggles before he stands erect. “Ellya has a mate!”

My eyes open as the memory reaches completion and meet the beautiful, depthless brown eyes of my mate. They shine with a light that his twin’s lack, alive and soulful and loving.

Alec absentmindedly brings a large hand to his chest—right above his heart—and rubs softly. I know that he has just relived my memory with me. The weight of our bond has snapped right through whatever magic has made me forget, reminding us that we belong to each other.

As I witness Alec massage his chest, a blinding light within my own flares to life. It fills the shell of an organ that hollowed the moment Locane sliced open my hand and dragged me within his wards. My hand lifts to my chest, mirroring Alec’s action as the intensity of the ancient, living magic of our mate bond makes itself known to me again.

A quiet instinct radiates from that glow, a subtle whisper rolling through my being.

Mine.

With that reminder, so many things begin to make sense. The familiarity I so often felt with Locane, the certainty of knowing him, it was my connection with Alec. I was recognizing the pieces of Alec in his identical brother, the two of them having split from each other in the womb.

The memories that felt like they were missing pieces, tiny shards of importance flecked away and lost, the distorted voices, the invisible calming presence, it was him. It was Alec. He was there all along but hidden from me.

A tug pulls in my gut, so strong my back physically arches forward, begging me to go to him. The same sensation I felt so many times before I was put behind the wards of Locane’s making. Realization washes over me that all the times I felt that tug and thought it was Locane guiding me, it was Alec reaching for me, trying to find me while his brother somehow kept us hidden from each other.

I take in Alec’s appearance, almost the same as that day all those years ago when we first met. Only today he’s significantly more worn down. His hair is disheveled, like he can’t stop from running his hands through it with those long, slender fingers. Alec’s eyes are exhausted and red rimmed, like he hasn’t been sleeping, and stress lines crease them at the corners. His black shirt is wrinkled and partially untucked in the front, the long sleeves pushed up unceremoniously past his elbows, and the top three buttons are undone, giving a peek at his dusting of dark chest hair.