Read T*Witches: Double Jeopardy for Free Online Page B

because you were crying, I thought you were …” She smiled now, at a memory etched in her brain. “When you were newborns, Artemis clutched her tiny fists and turned red with rage, but never cried. Apolla was placid and calm. I imagined she would become the more emotional one —”
    “I never cry.” For some dumb reason, Alex needed to be sure this woman — Miranda — knew that about her.
    “But she still goes red with rage,” Cam offered. “And I’m still the calm one.”
    Right
, Alex silently contradicted,
that’s why you’re shaking and sweating
.
    Miranda cocked her head; a faint smile played on her lips.
    “You heard that?” Cam asked slowly, awestruck.
    “It’s one of the very few gifts I have left,” she explained quietly, “And even that one is … undependable.”
    Alex heard her swallow, heard every beat of thiswoman’s heart pounding, in a rhythm that matched her own.
    “Does that mean you —” Alex started
    “Have no powers? I mean, you used to, right?” Cam stammered, “That’s what they told us.”
    “They used to tell me that twins finished each other’s sentences. I didn’t think I’d ever see that for myself.” The yearning, in her eyes, and in her voice, was palpable.
    It seemed to let loose a string of soul-baring questions, hopes, fears, accusations. Words tumbled in free fall, long-harbored feelings so raw, finally expressed. Because all three spoke at the same time, their words intertwined, one overlaying the next, the beginning of one person’s sentences ending with the question mark of another’s.
    A tape of the confused conversion would have sounded like this —
    “I can’t believe it’s really you!” “Why didn’t you come looking for us?”“I thought I’d never see you again.” “How could you leave us?” “Didn’t you want us?” “How could you not know we were alive?” “Have you been happy?” “Has someone been taking care of you, loving you?” “I never stopped thinking of you, I never thought this moment would really come — I never thought I’d find you …” “I’ve been waiting all my life …”
    Miranda got in the last words, and they hung in the air. “I thought I’d killed you.” She began to weep, her frail bodyconvulsed in wracking sobs. She made no motion to cover up her agony. Tears rushed down her face in torrents.
    Alex and Cam made for her, but stopped suddenly only inches away, afraid to touch her.
    Seeing their bewildered faces, Miranda forced herself to stop crying. She lifted her chin, almost defiantly. That was when a small window to her soul cracked open — and her daughters could see the tiniest spark of who she had been, and might one day be again — proud and fierce, childlike in some ways, maternal and nurturing in others.
    Calmly, Miranda looked from Alex to Cam. And said, so matter-of-factly that their jaws dropped, “I’d like to hug you now.”
    The twins lost it. Laughing at the wildly impulsive request, or command, for it sounded like both, crying because they could finally give into their lost-child-found dreams, they fell into Miranda’s outstretched arms, and pressed themselves to her.
    As Alex inhaled the mingled scents of rosemary and lavender, the sweet sting of pine, the fear that she could never accept anyone but Sara as her mother, faded; didn’t matter. Fierce love and loyalty for one did nothing to diminish the intensity of her feelings for the other.
    Holding Miranda tightly, Cam knew what Alex was feeling.
    She wished she could feel it, too.
    She’d been born to this woman, had lived inside her, their hearts had once beat in the same body. But now, Cam’s heart had a mind of its own. It belonged to Emily. And while she and Alex clung to Miranda, Cam knew she could not, would never, betray the woman who loved and reared her.
    If Miranda knew how torn Camryn felt, she didn’t let on. Nor did Cam break their embrace.
    Refusing to let go of one another, exhausted and exhilarated,