Tethered Souls (Tethered Twins Book 2)

Chapter One

"Will?"

My mind tried to take in the impact of those four little letters but couldn't comprehend what it had just heard. Could it really be that my brother had survived? If that was possible why had I experienced the agony of his death? Why was he no longer Tethered to me?

Those questions bubbled up inside of me whilst I remained trapped inside this new form. I knew two things to be true: One, the man in front of me I would recognise anywhere – his enormous frame, the brutal scarring on his face and the frayed leather jacket meant I could identify him as the man I knew only as 'Vlad'.

Since the time I had last seen him he'd managed to gain a new scar across his neck which was covered with grey, sharp looking bits of metal, that were haphazardly strewn together to stop a cut from opening again. This was an injury he had sustained in a fight with my best friend Grace. A fight in which she told me she had left him for dead.

Dead, yet somehow clinging to the fabric of life, I had my own theory as to how he survived. The orange glow in his eyes made me suspect he was likely nothing more than a puppet for an unseen force. I'd seen enough of those orange eyes to last a lifetime and they always meant someone was being controlled by a third party; unable to act for themselves.

Whether Vlad still contained any life within him was irrelevant, all that mattered for now was the two sharp knives he held in his hands. He glared menacingly as he sliced them into each other, sending little shards onto the floor.

The other thing I knew with certainty was the way I felt right now; the mixture of feelings inside of me felt exactly the same as it had done in the moments before Will had died. Confusion, fear, sadness and anger circled around me, those four familiar pillars doing their best to hold up the foundations of my shattered mind.

On top of the pure emotion was another element that tied them together. This was no mere feeling but rather a primal instinct. Before Vlad had spoken my brother's name I had already known I was in the presence of Will. A twin always knows what it feels like to be Tethered to their brother or sister and there was no denying it, the body I now occupied was Will's.

Yes, it was impossible. Yes, I had felt Will die. Yes, I had lost the connection to him I had felt since the day we were born. None of that seemed to matter now. Will was alive and I prayed he was well. If there was a way we could be connected fully again, to regain that Tethered feeling, then I would embrace it with all I had.

Despite all the emotions I felt and the desire to see my brother again, I was nothing more than a passenger in his mind. Whatever Tether event had caused me to see through his eyes again was playing out right in front of me and until it ended I could do nothing more than watch.

And watch I did, trying to take in as much detail as possible, vowing that as soon as the Tether event ended I would make my way to Will and hope that he hadn't travelled far. I needed to believe that he could somehow explain how we had both cheated fate and why we were no longer Tethered together day by day.

I repeated the details of the room over and over hoping they would stay with me when I was back in my own body – white padded walls, steel lockers, bright strobe lighting, grey machines transporting an orange fluid, a maniac standing at the doorway sharpening knives...

Vlad put the knives down on a metal tray where they scraped against it and I could feel the adrenaline rushing around Will's body. I knew this was it; Vlad was back for a second attempt on Will's life and I hoped my brother could make his miraculous escape again.

Except there was no escape.

Instead of reaching for another weapon Vlad threw Will a blue towel which he grabbed in the air. "Cover yourself up," said Vlad.

Will stepped over a knee high ledge and rubbed himself down with the towel. He was covered in what initially appeared to be water but with a darker colouring and a thicker consistency. He looked behind him at a large grey tube from which he had emerged and I could feel his lips form into a smile. "You are the last person I expected to see," he said.

Hearing his voice was further confirmation that it really was Will. There was no denying it and as he looked at himself in the reflection of the tube I could see the face of the brother I thought I had lost.

Whenever Will and I had shared a Tether event before we had always been aware of the other's presence. Yet if Will knew I was looking through his eyes and experiencing his senses he certainly didn't mention it to Vlad.

"Our mutual friend thought it would be a fitting punishment for me to be the one who woke you," replied Vlad.

When Will had finished drying himself he walked over to a grey steel locker and retrieved a large piece of folded purple fabric which he placed on the floor. He then put on a pair of brown boots with woolly insides, black jeans and a dark grey T-shirt with blue swirls on it. On his hand he wore a silver ring to signify his engagement to Faye, which made me wonder if he knew what had happened to her.

Not that I had any idea what I would tell him. "Sorry Will your fiancé was trapped in a coma by a team of assassins who were sent to capture me after I pissed off one of the most powerful men in the world".

I felt guilt at my part, although not enough to alleviate the knowledge that it was Faye's fault that we were in this mess to begin with. She was the one who had allowed Will to be tortured, kicking off the entire chain of events that led to me feeling this guilt.

As I thought about the image of Faye and Yuna huddled around each other, trapped in a coma together, Will had finished getting dressed and Vlad offered him a knife. "It's for your protection" he said.

"That's what I have you for," replied Will as he handed Vlad the large folded piece of fabric.

Could Vlad really be working for my brother now, and who was their mutual friend? The orange pools that reflected in Vlad's eyes certainly indicated that he was being controlled by another force and with Tobias gone it certainly wasn't him.

Using the medical machines in the room Vlad subjected Will to a series of tests for his heart rate, blood pressure and mental activity. However long Will had been stored in that tube it certainly hadn't affected him or his general health. He seemed faster and stronger now, no longer like the bookworm I had known him to be.

When Will had passed the tests they called a grey lift which had a royal seal on it – a yellow tiger on the left, a fierce red dragon on the right and a single crown resting atop a red and blue coat of arms. I'd seen the seal before on the very same lift and it further hinted at Will's location – The Houses of Parliament; the same place where Tobias had been operated on and where Vlad had been left for dead.

As they got into the elevator the floor number was presented on a digital display as 'U8' despite that number not existing on any keypad in the lift.

He had been hiding in plain sight this whole time, located on a secret floor. Whilst I had taken the offence, going after Tobias and seeking answers, Will had chosen defence by hiding himself away.

I couldn't blame him. If I'd been the one attacked I would have also fled, it was only because of my anger over his supposed death that I chased after such a deadly man.

Vlad unfolded the fabric, revealing it to be a large flowing coat which he handed to my brother. The coat was made of a dark purple velvet with yellow and red interlocking circles in various sizes. It had a large hood and ran all the way down to his shins.

"I assume there was only one reason you woke me?" said Will.

"Yes," replied Vlad, "Tobias is dead."

"And...." asked Will, flipping the hood of the robe over his head.

"The capstone is ready."

"Emmie?"

The final voice shocked me, for it was not a part of their conversation, it emerged from a third party and echoed until it was all I could hear. "Emmie! Emmie!" my name began to sound clearer and I could hear the distress in their voice.

I felt myself being pulled away from the images in Will's eyes. As I watched their lift open into the darkness of the library, I lost contact with Will and my world went black.

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