SWNOVELS Chapter the twin thing
Twenty minutes later, Delilah was standing by the table looking like Essie. Tight jeans and metal band concert tee, with leather jacket were Essie’s favorite traveling clothes. Make-up heavily applied around her eyes with scarlet lips and a pack of cigarettes in her breast pocket complete the ensembles. Del lit one and let it burn, fanning herself with the smoke. Now, she looked and smelled like her sister. Essie came in wearing one of her white gowns, smelling of incense, her hair was swept up in a complex crown braid.
“The acolytes are packed and going to the plane.” Essie as Del announced.
“Thanks, be careful, sis, something feels off about these petitions.” Del as Essie pointed at the lists. “They’re almost too easy.”
Essie took a deep inhale off a cigarette and threw it in Del’s censer, “So even I could do them and maybe have some cotton candy.”
Frowning, Del pulled her sister into a hug, pressing her forehead against her twin’s, “I never should have said that.”
“‘Never should have’ seems like the normal for what we put each other through when we were younger.” Essie leaned back, “Your eyes are wrong.” Essie took her makeup bag from the pack Del was taking and fixed Del’s make-up.
They were checking each other over when Nyall came back into the room freshly showered. He blinked at them. They both looked at him with identical blank expressions.
He narrowed his eyes in the bright sunlight, then walked over to the one that looked like the Delphi. “Hello Essie, you look very pretty in a dress.”
Both gaped at him, as Essie demanded, “How did you know? You can’t see her marks in this light, and you can’t smell us over the incense and tobacco smoke.”
Comhnyall shrugged and then kissed Del on the cheek. “A wolf always knows.”
Louis rushed in, “Delphi, where are the lists of petitions assignments?”
“Keep your fur on, Louie.” Del, in Essie’s clothes, sat down and put her boots on the table with a thump. She lit a cigarette as he scowled at her.
“They’re… on the… table.” Essie pretending to be the Delphi, scowled her sister.
Fake Essie blew a smoke ring at him, then picked up the papers from under her boots, “Sorry, sis. I scuffed up your stuff... Loui, not sorry.”
He openly glared but she turned her eyes back to her sister, “So, where are we going and what are we looking for?”
Essie pretending to be Del, sighed tolerantly, before taking the paper work and handing it off with an apologetic smile. “Thank you, Louis. I needed rest after the eclipse and Mamó’s death other night… There is something unsettling going on and I needed to meditate on it. For some reason, there is a years-long gap in what I can see. Dark omens are looming, and I need to figure them out. I am sending Essie to escort young Ainsley and Nyall to bury their grandmother then take the acolytes to the Moon’s Gate. Afterward, I am sending Comhnyall and you to gather information on the Eastern seaboard and then check the White Mountain pack. I think the Sunwolf took them. The packs resisting the alliance with the brown furs are most at risk. I need all the Wanderers, Pack Oracles, and Servants to be on the lookout for Sun-worshippers who the Moon says will become more active after the eclipse. Louis, I want the temple security doubled, tell Ketsu, they are going to attack before the summer solstice.”
Louis’s eyes bugged out, “Sun-worshippers attack the temple? Delphi, are you sure?”
“They already attacked here,” Del as Essie reminded, “Or do you need to see where they stabbed me again?”
“Enough Essie.” Dressed as the Delphi, Essie shook her head looking sad, “One of them is a burning sword. He seeks to lead wolves from the Goddess to worship his god of war. Send the notice out to our allied packs today, highest priority. Tell them all I am sorry; I will get them more details as the Moon reveals them to me. I need more rest and to meditate on the visiting Alpha’s petition before I meet him tomorrow. I feel a storm coming.” Her lips pressed in a thin line of concentration, and she chewed the bottom one slightly, the way Del always did when she was worried. Then she waved him away. “Thank you again Louis. I couldn’t do it without you.”
“Are you sure I should leave you, sis?” Del pretending to be Essie asked.
“Go. Louis and Ketsu will keep me safe. I am going to sleep; I will take the first petitioner as soon as the Moon rises.”
Nyall was impressed, if he didn’t know how to tell them apart, and that Del was feeding Essie what to say through their sibling bond, he never would have known the difference. Louis bowed to the fake Delphi and gave fake Essie the side-eye. She rolled hers at him.
He reared back to snap at her but fake Del begged tiredly, “Please not today.”
“He started it again,” fake Essie snapped.
As the twins argued, Comhnyall walked him to the door.
“So, how long are you stuck with the chain-smoking bitch this time, Nyall?” Louis snarled.
“Three weeks, then Del is coming to the Gate. Louis, don’t call Essie a bitch, she doesn’t consider it an insult, but it upsets the Delphi,” Comhnyall reminded.
“Delilah puts entirely too much faith and trust in that whore of a sister, she is worthy of so much more.” The way he said it had Comhnyall’s wolf growling, so he turned and walked back toward the main room and away from the wolf that he had never fully trusted.
As Louis left, fake Del said loudly to fake Essie, “Essie enough. So, as I was saying, we must find this apostate wolf at all cost and...” The door closed. “And I thought the pompous arse would never leave. So, tonight and then in a few nights I ‘scry’ for the Alphas and then rest up for a week or two, only taking some petitions before I head for Moon’s Gate and we can switch back. What was his answer?”
Del dressed as Essie hands her sister a small notebook, “The question he sent was about his pack falling away from the Moon, his answer is the same as Marcus’ was. His pack will be split, he cannot save them all. If the alpha changes the question just see what you can see or call me. The other Alpha coming in two weeks asked about his son’s inheritance. I saw a crown of bone in his hands for several seasons past before it passes to another who takes it from his son with hands washed in innocent blood, later this bloody handed one will howl a warcry against the moon. I think his son will fall to the Sunwolf. See you in a few weeks, and please, for the love of the Goddess, do not antagonize my petitioners coordinator. Louis really is the best wolf for the job.”
“He’s a schmuck.” Essie snarled, and lit a cigarette.
Del took it from her hand after the second puff, and tossed it in the incense censer, “Uh, I don’t smoke, Miss Chimney, and if he is such a schmuck, then pray tell, dear sister, why did you sleep with him and lead him on for a year. Then seduce him again while he thought you were me?”
Essie shrugged causing the white gown to swish, “It was mutual. He’s a good roll, very enthusiastic, and I was bored. You know he thought being close to me would get him closer to you ’cause he’s a freak that way. You were the one he wanted to mark; me, he just wanted to mate. It was fun while it lasted.”
“Well, you pretending to be me the last time didn’t help what he thought,” Del scolded.
“He wanted both of you? And because she pretended to be you, he thought what? That he could have ye both?” Nyall asked, angry and shocked.
“He can’t tell us apart and thought I had finally fallen in love with him, but Essie always has a smoke after sex, and she gave herself away,” Del explained, rolling her eyes at her sister.
Essie laughed evilly, “The look on his face was totally worth it. Especially when I told him a Naphtal Delphi has to remain celibate, unless she is with her True, and that since Luca had died, Del never could be with another until she left her station which Del would never do it. Grandpapa even told him the same,” Essie whispered conspiratorially, but waving her hand at herself, “Aaaand that was why I, as her twin, felt it was my duty to be such a slut and sleep with those lusting after her like horny chihuahuas, so she could do her job without being bothered by lecherous wolves.”
Comhnyall turned to Delilah repeating in a horrified tone, “You need to be celibate or with your True to remain the Delphi Oracle.” He didn’t know if his boon covered that.
Essie snorted and started laughing uncontrollably, Del just shook her head, answering, “No, but can you think of a better myth to keep a power-hungry Alpha or prestige-starved wolf from abducting a Delphi, marking her, and taking advantage?”
Nyall nodded slowly in understanding, it was a clever ruse. Normal oracles could have other mates if their true died or they never meet, but the Delphi was considered special, sacred.
Del put her hand on his cheek, “Nyall, I regret nothing.”
Before he could respond, Ainsley came in the room, lugging a suitcase and a box of sketchbooks.
“Are you ready to depart, Ainsley?” Essie as the Delphi asked.
Del lit a cigarette. Ainsley looked between them, then took the cigarette from Del and handed it to Essie before shaking her finger at them. The twins both laughed. The switched clothing and attitudes did not fool the youngest oracle at the temple.
Del smiled, “She always knows too. We’ve been doing this for years, and besides our grandfather, you two, Ketsu and Kaiyou are the only ones who have ever figured it out without being told.”
As they drove toward the airport, Nyall squeezed Del’s hand. He leaned over and whispered, “Thank you.”
“For what?” Del seemed perplexed.
“For not regretting this morning, I will never regret it either.” He meant it. They weren’t born to be true mates but it didn’t mean they couldn’t be happy together. The Goddess and their dead mates had given them their blessing, they would become trues when they marked each other.
During the seven-hour flight, she fell asleep on his shoulder. For the first time since the morning Moire went to the Moon, he felt like breathing wasn’t just something he did trying to fill his emptiness with air. He thought about the future, Nyall was the only surviving adult male of Wemyss. He was considering going to the old-world pack to teach the surviving juveniles what his father had taught him, to continue the legacy that was their birthright. He had time before the war he hoped. He wondered if Ainsley would like to go with him or Del. But if Del went, Essie would follow. He wondered if the twins had ever had a vacation together or if they just worked, he had never seen Del do anything for leisure or pleasure except read a few hundred pages in a book when she couldn’t sleep. He was glad the acolytes were in the back with Ainsley or asleep. He bent his neck to rest his chin on her hair and inhaled the scent of purest snow beneath the masking odor of perfume and Essie’s tobacco.
When they landed, the acolytes went with several warriors and Montreal Warrior Holly who pretended to be Essie, to The Moon’s Gate, while Del, Nyall, and Ainsley headed to Nova Scotia. Del enjoyed the trip immensely. They took their time by driving south to check the White Mountain Territory, which was abandoned, then east to the coast. Ainsley insisted they go to a few lighthouses because she knew Del loved them. They never spoke of their lost mates or packs, only of their hopes for a future beyond the war.
A week after they left Montreal, they arrived at the Portland Ferry terminal. Nyall decided the shoulf they take the ferry across to Yarmouth rather than drive past the place where Luca had been injured unto death. Nyall reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind Del’s ear.
“Ye know, Shamus has left the Sea Wolf to me after he goes to the Moon to be with Rowena. Perhaps ye can run the light house, and while I be at sea or maybe a book shop if people don’t mind that ye read all of them first.”
“How about a light house with a bookshop on the first floor?” She juked but Del looked sad as she watched the land that once belonged to New Wemyss approaching. “I got you a present.” Changing the subject, she held out a leather stamped key chain with a wolf on a beach howling to waxing crescent moon. They had seen them in the visitor gift shop of the last lighthouse they visited.
He chuckled as he reached in his pocket, “I got ye one as well.” It was a cabochon moonstone over the waves.
“I love you.” Laughing, she kissed him fiercely, then turned to face the rail, pulling his arms tightly around her so he was behind her and wouldn’t see her worried tears.
Delilah followed as Nyall and Ainsley walked over the ground that had once been their home. It was a cool night, even by wolf standards, and the waning Moon watched Her children with sadness. Nyall was grateful he and Ainsley were traveling with Delilah, with her calm compassion and gentleness, and not her energetic, often sarcastic sister. Her softness soothed his grief, like balm on a silver burn.
Del burned incense before she shifted and sang the song of passing for a healer called home, and then the one for an oracle gone to the Moon. Mamó had been an oracle by birth and a healer by training. His heart ached as his wolf dug a hole in the frozen burial mound that held the ashes of the Wemyss dead. Ainsley emptied the bag of ash into the ground. Her little red wolf leaned against Comhnyall’s golden wolf as she silently cried. His wolf joined Del’s and howled goodbye to his mate’s great-great-grandmother. After Delilah walked Ainsley back to the rental Jeep. As she shifted and dressed, he couldn’t help but admire the way her sacred tattoos moved in the moonlight. She drove the tearfully exhausted Ainsley away while Comhnyall’s wolf ran the area.
It was almost dawn when he made it north to the farmhouse. He looked around the place that once held his happiness. It was bittersweet to be here, knowing that he had been here with Moire and after, and that now Del waited for him with Moire’s blessing and her scars. The farmer who rented the fields had done well keeping the place in good repair, but the old house remained sadly empty after they had left. He shifted on the porch as he had done so many times and walked through the shuttered house. Ainsley was asleep in her old room but Del was on the sofa. He picked her up gently and carried her to the bedrooms, he didn’t know which bed to lay her in, Mamó’s or Moire’s. The painful pounding of his guilty heart woke her.
“What’s wrong, Nyall?” Del squirmed and he set her down.
“Is it okay if you sleep in Mamó’s room alone? I... I just need some time. I can’t... I can’t share her bed,” He explained almost embarrassed.
“And I would never ask that of you. Sleep in the room you shared with her, remember your happiness with your mate, I understand. You and Moire shared her whole life.” She cupped one cheek and pressed a chaste kiss on the other. Then she went into Mamó’s old room and closed the door.
Nyall closed the door and laid on the floor next to his and Moire’s bed. The floor was cold and hard, but he had not been able to sleep in the bed since that horrible night. The mattress was long replaced but the frame was the same, the meaning was the same. Nothing of her lingered here except his memories, but that didn’t stop the pain. He wept as the sun rose. Wept for Mamó, wept for his family and pack, wept for his mate and pup. There was no shame in grief, as Del often told those who came to seek a message from the dead. Tears were as valuable as gold when shed in grief.