T*Witches: Destiny's Twins by Randi Reisfeld, H.B. Gilmour Page B

like Cade’s all crushed on Cam, right?” Alex challenged the malicious girl. “I’d say ‘nice try,’ but ‘pathetic last attempt’ is more like it.”
    But Amaryllis had hit her target — Cam’s heart. Alex had heard her sister’s gasp, saw her quick tears spring up.
    “Don’t go there. She’s lying,” Alex warned Cam, forgetting to send rather than say the message. “She’s just doing what Thantos trained her to do —”
    “Sure I am,” Amaryllis insisted. “And I’ll use anything to do it — even the truth! Which reminds me, Camryn — remember Jason, the boy who would be boyfriend, your true-blue high school biscuit who’s at college now? He’s not all that wild about you anymore, either —”
    “Shut up,” Alex ordered.
    “Or what? You’ll use your famous telekinetic beam to bean me … with, say —” The girl surveyed the room. Her eyes lighted on the massive
Morphing and Transformation Handbook
on Cam’s bed. “— that book. Go on. Use your supposedly awesome glare for something other than gaping at me. Let’s see you make that sucker rise up and strike me!”
    “Don’t!” Cam shouted, grabbing Alex’s shirttail as she spun toward the bed. “She’s just trying to get you to do something hateful. Something to mess up our viewing!”
    “Aren’t you the clever twin?” Amaryllis mocked. “Grab a crayon and take notes, Alex. You’re kinda slow compared to Cam. She is so the pop princess. And so boringly always right. Oh, by the way, princess, your mom is definitely planning an at-home get-together for your birthday. A totally ho-hum dillyo. Ten people for supper. Supper!” She turned to Alex. “Guess that means you’ll be celebrating your sixteenth with the celebrated Six Pack. Oh, yeah, and Em’s doing the cooking! Isn’t that too cool? You’re in for a treat, one of her inedible barf-inducing specials! Guess the post-dinner festivities will be a spew fest. A fabulous night to remember.”
    “No way!” Cam shouted. Then added less surely, “She wouldn’t.”
    Alex turned toward the bed again as if she were going to telepathically hoist and lob the book across the room at the troublemaker. To add authenticity to the threat, she focused on the thick volume forcing it to fly up into her hand.
    “Stop!” Amaryllis hollered. And when Alex faced her, the girl stuck out her Alex chin and said, “I mean, it’s your Initiation month. Vengefulness, unjust punishment,bullying a lesser witch — which I am; I’m not even scheduled for Initiation yet — all that is totally frowned upon. Big time. It’ll cost you major stones. You don’t want to foul up your viewing by doing anything sleazy to me.”
    “Cam might not,” Alex said, letting the handbook drop and hoping the door to her thoughts was still locked, “but since I’m not going back to Coventry, I’ve got nothing to lose, have I?”
    Her impersonator studied her, trying to make out whether she was serious or not. And then, as clearly as if she’d spoken them aloud, Amaryllis’s thoughts became transparent to Alex.
    If Alex was telling the truth, then at least part of her mission was successful, the clone mused. She’d kept one twin from being initiated!
    But would that be enough? Would it satisfy her demanding master?
    It had to, Alex heard the girl tell herself. Hadn’t Lord Thantos said that stopping one of them would cut their skill and strength in half?
    Despite the bluster, Amaryllis had begun to tremble.
    As she heard the witch’s desperate thoughts and read the fear in her eyes, Alex’s anger began to cool. In its place came an unexpected pang of regret. She felt — what was it?
    Shame.
    The emotion floored her, flooded her. She felt ashamed at having fooled the frightened clone into believing that she was going to skip out on her Initiation. Amaryllis was counting on it, hoping that it would appease their vicious uncle.
    Wisdom, intuition, trust, courage, and honesty. The virtues on which she