Gemini

Chapter 11

My mind was waging a war against itself. It was a battle between what it already knew and what it currently found. The second Lyra stepped out, I slumped on the chair and breathed heavily.

So many things flashed before my eyes. Memories I had buried deep in my mind. And memories I never knew it was mine. Many did not make any sense and a few memories after listening to the conversation in the past hours, my mind made a few connections.

Feet shuffled and slowly, everyone trickled out, leaving me and Gem alone. Only God knew how hard I was trying not to freak out.

"My... that family," I whispered. "They... they are Magycs?"

Gem nodded. "All of them are. Hasseleh and Pughazh are not. They... they are stars."

My jaws dropped. Say what now? My first betrayal was Anita being a witch. Fine, I met her a year ago, and she came to my house as part of a mission to protect me. I can forgive her. Then was Gem. He knew me. And I thought I knew him well. But after today, I did not know anymore.

But I could feel his sincerity. His fear. He answered most of my questions, except a few. Either he was embarrassed to answer that or there must be something constraining him. He did say something along those lines.

And now, he said that Hasseleh and Pughazh were stars. I had grown under them and I never found out. But then again, I was grown up by my mother's murderers and I never found out about it either until now.

But hearing about Hasseleh struck me deeper than it should. Like her hatred had no meaning and I deserved nothing of it. Why would she hate me? What had I done to her?

"Stars?" I whispered. "They're stars?"

Gem closed his eyes and touched my forehead with his. Suddenly, I could forget about the confusion, the feeling of betrayal and madness swirling in me. Gem had hugged me before and we had cuddled during our movie night, but this was pretty intimate for me. Our faces were inches apart and if I leaned in, I could graze his lips with mine.

But he had no thoughts of kissing me, apparently. Torment was written on his face as he squeezed his eyes tighter and his jaws were set firm. His hands on either side of my face were however tender as if he was holding the most precious thing in the whole world. In his world.

To ignore his feelings for me would be foolish. I raised my hand and touched his cheek. And he slowly opened his eyes.

"They broke the promise, Riga," he said, his voice croaked. "They broke it."

I looked into his eyes where pain and self-blame were evident. His anger and his pain suddenly made sense. Especially, after that memory where Hasseleh said she wanted to kill Gem and Auriga.

"They... they should have told me all this?" I asked.

He nodded. "They should have."

I cocked my head. "You... you know them?"

He closed his eyes for a minute and then opened them. "I know."

I was so tempted to ask him how, but the pain on his face made me hold my words back. Obviously, this was something he was regretting. Why would I poke him where it hurts?

I sighed. "We'll go out?"

He nodded and after a second, he returned to the Gem everyone knew. "Can't have people waiting, can we?"

I shook my head and went out.

Outside, Lyra was hugging a red-haired man. At this point, I was not sure if he was a shifter or something, but I could feel that he was not a human. Calling him a male would be fine. To call him human would not do justice to either of the races.