Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [199]
‘Like a sister?’ Rosette’s eyes went to Nell who shook her head.
‘Like a daughter,’ Grayson said.
Rosette pounded the table, tea jumping out of the cups. ‘My child is dead. You buried him yourself. I have no other! Certainly not a full-grown daughter.’
Teg mopped the table. Nell had her eyes closed. Jarrod stared as if he were a million miles away. An’ Lawrence seemed asleep. No help there. Grayson had hoped they would have something to say. He didn’t want to try and explain how this could have happened but he realised he was the only one who could. ‘Rosette.’ He touched her hand and she pulled back. She didn’t look at him. ‘Rosette, listen. I think I know what happened.’
‘Tell us,’ Nell said, opening her eyes.
He cleared his throat. ‘When you were in Cryo, under Everett’s care…it must have happened then. He took samples of your DNA. He knew you were different and he catalogued everything. When we got you out, he still had the samples.’
‘Samples of what?’ Rosette asked. Her eyes bored into him.
‘Cell structure, tissues, maybe more. Maybe cultured ovum. Everett started an in vitro program in the Borderlands and I think that’s where Shaea—and Jarrod’s new body—are from.’ He looked at Jarrod. ‘Xane’s memories correlate, don’t they?’
Jarrod nodded. ‘Could fit.’
‘I have no idea what any of that means,’ Rosette said.
‘It means, Rosette, effectively, you’re right. You never had another child, but someone did for you.’ Grayson did not meet her gaze.
‘Twins?’ She pointed to Jarrod. ‘Was Xane mine as well?’
‘She birthed both Shaea and Xane but only Shaea is your blood.’
‘Who, Grayson?’ she asked. ‘Who birthed them?’
‘Her name is Regina. She’s a shaman, a witch in the Borderlands.’
‘And Makee stole the twins?’ Jarrod said, his voice very quiet. ‘She must have followed us through the corridors, hid there and tracked Everett onto the Borderlands.’
‘Why?’ Rosette said through clenched teeth. ‘What possible reason?’
‘To get the spell,’ Nell said. ‘She needed someone of the blood to carry it. She must have known Everett’s plan all along.’ Nell crossed her arms tight. ‘She intended this from the start. Everett took the female from you, Rosette. That’s why the male developed.’
‘My boy?’
Nell nodded. ‘Twins aren’t uncommon in our line but the males don’t grow past the first trimester. The mitochondrial DNA prevents it.’
‘Luka Paree’s tampering…’ Rosette stared at her hands.
‘Rall, old witch Rall.’ Jarrod shook his head. ‘It’s all making sense.’ She was Makee in one world and Rall in the other, keeping an eye on the two children.
‘Not much of an eye, from what I can tell.’ Rosette’s face was flushed. ‘You said you two were gutter-raised.’
‘We were.’ He rubbed at his scab and Rosette pulled his hand away. ‘I don’t see why she took Xane though.’
‘Maybe she didn’t know which of the babies was the right one. She couldn’t know half the truth of our DNA or the spell it carries.’ Nell looked at An’ Lawrence. ‘Where is La Makee now?’
The Sword Master shifted in his seat. ‘The Lemur raven died in my hands.’
The cups and saucers rattled as a tremor shook beneath them.
Rosette glanced at Grayson and broke the silence. ‘What do we do?
‘My question exactly,’ he said.
Rosette stood. ‘We’ve ASSIST trackers sniffing our borders, fit to detonate what’s left of the northern hemisphere, my…offspring is traipsing through the corridors on her own, Passillo in tow—unless she’s dropped it in a ditch or sold it to a baker for an apple pie. She has no idea of what it is. I don’t even fully understand its link to the Entities. Would she know how to navigate? Where would she go? And Kreshkali’s vanished, who knows where.’ She leaned closer to Nell. ‘Did I miss anything?’
‘We’re cut off from the resistance at Half Moon Bay, and the corridors out of this world are filling up with magma.’
‘Are they? I didn’t know that.’ She looked at An’ Lawrence. ‘Did you see Kreshkali when you came through the portal?’
He shook his head.
‘Where could