Read Spirit Binder for Free Online Page A

different from mine. I just didn’t know he’d … had I known, I would have … I would have … I didn’t know.”
    “How could you not know?”
    “He’s strong, agile, a master sword-fighter, practically invulnerable with incredible healing powers.”
    “But not a mind mage, just a magic wielder.”
    “Yes, but it would be foolish to underestimate him even if he does not possess our type of power. We share the same blood, we are in fact … twins.”
    Twins. That was news. She’d known her mother had two siblings. Almost every history lesson ended with the Apex’s glorious unification of Cascadia under the Worship of Spirit. This unification was brought about by Rhea, her brother Dougal, and their sister, Rowen. But if siblings were rare, twins were unheard of, though, supposedly, it hadn’t always been so. Stories of the Before spoke of the overpopulation of the Vanquished, who all but destroyed everything they needed to survive. And still now those without magic, or the Lackings, bore more offspring than those with magic … Theo pulled her thoughts back to the ramifications of Dougal as Rhea’s twin.
    “Which makes crafting spells to block you much easier.”
    “Yes, paired with his natural resistance.”
    “And,” she glared down at the scars that were now barely discernible on her hands, “he sees me as a solider of spirit.”
    “Yes, rather than the manifestation of spirit that I know you to be.”
    “A soldier to be used against you.”
    “Yes, if sending you against the castle was an attempt on my life.”
    “And why would that be?” The question seemed to give her mother pause, but she used the moment to turn from her contemplation at the window and return to her desk.
    “I told you,” Rhea answered, as she settled in her chair and began looking at her paperwork once more. “We disagree over ruling through the Worship of Spirit, our faith, or ruling as … as …”
    “As what?”
    “As the world was ruled in the Before.”
    “Before? My uncle wants to return to the world to as it was before the rise of Spirit? He wants to … to … reinstate the governance of the Vanquished? How does that make any sense?”
    “I don’t know, darling. Can we leave it at that now? I have so much to do.”
    Cascadia doesn’t run, doesn’t survive without me. That was the underlying context of her mother’s request. It was always the underlying context, and she was just a terrible person if she asked for too much attention, if she diverted her mother when the people of Cascadia needed her every moment … this happened every time she started figuring things out. Her mother closed down and turned her away.
    “Is that it? He kidnaps me, keeps me for ten years, and I stand here missing half my life.”
    “There is no need to be dramatic about it. I’ve sent an envoy. I’ve requested his attendance. Without your memories it is difficult to know anything for sure.”
    “And if he does come? What then?”
    “Would you have me go to war, Theodora?” Her mother’s quiet, pointed question was delivered without judgement. This coolness was always a warning sign that she’d gone too far or asked too much. As if she condoned war! Peace had reigned for over thirty years. Even the marauding clans and separatist enclaves of the continent didn’t brave the mountains or her mother’s magic to attack Cascadia. She understood the balance Rhea had fought for and maintained.
    “I guess it made sense, when I was sixteen, to keep me separate from how things are … how things run, but I am twenty-six now.”
    “Next month.”
    “A month makes all the difference, does it?”
    “No, darling, but allowing yourself time to heal, before burdening yourself further, that makes all the difference.”
    Reasonable. It was difficult to argue with a mother who was supposedly just worried for her daughter, but Theo did have a sinking feeling that, healed or not, Rhea wasn’t going to be forthcoming about