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12. Oria

My ribs were on fire after the intruder punched me a few times and bolted out of here. I was doing just fine until I got a good look at him. He looked exactly like Gray. I was expecting maybe an older brother who kind of looked like him, but he was a replica of Gray. The same feeling I had with Gray was happening with this person and I didn't know how to process that.

I expected him to run to Gray but he ran down the stairs and when I heard the door slam, I sagged against the wall trying to breathe through the pain. Every breath felt like a thousand stabs into my ribs. As much as I wanted to stay sitting, I needed to reset my traps and make sure the other twin had left.

My body shook as I tried to heal myself, but no matter how much I was concentrating, the need to throw up overruled my ability to cast my magic. My stomach soured giving me just a moment before as it emptied its contents. It wasn't much, the bile burned my throat as I wiped my sleeve against my mouth. Guess I was going to have to wait to heal myself.

Going down the steps was the worst feeling, each step down rattled me and I was on the verge of passing out when I reached the bottom. My vision was going in and out, my heartbeat was in my ears as I tried to breathe through the nausea. I peeked out of the door searching for the man.

He was nowhere in sight and as much as I wanted to go after him, I knew I would be no match for him like this. I set my trap, resting a moment as I set my trusty frying pan down because I could no longer hold it. I dragged myself upstairs feeling clammy and on the verge of passing out.

My body gave out the moment I got to the top of the stairs as I leaned against a wall. I immediately took off my mask, flinching at how aggressively I had removed it. It was too constricting, it made me feel like I had to work hard to breathe. I slid down the wall, relieved that I could just sit still and not have to move.

If his brother brought any more people, I was screwed. He would have me overrun with just one more person. I needed to make more supplies, restock and I needed to heal myself, but my eyes were already drooping by the time I could muster up the words to try and heal myself again.

Hissing startled me awake,making me flinch abruptly.

"What the fuck do you want, Loki?" I grumbled, feeling groggy and in an immense amount of pain.

He patted at my cheek like he was waking me up and I had to fight the urge to slap him away. Then I realized the morning sun was coming up. I didn't even know how much time had passed by and at any moment Gray's brother would be back with more people to get his brother.

"Flos nitor et rutilans tua virtus luceat," I whispered, feeling my power slowly travel over my body.

It wasn't the big rush of power I was used to, it took longer to heal my injuries even though it didn't feel like I wasn't a hundred percent. Something was wrong with my magic and I didn't know whether I should be happy or sad. But why now? I especially needed it now more than ever.

Moving my body around, I still felt a twinge of pain, but nothing compared to last night. Slowly getting up, still afraid of feeling pain, I realized I was still in my all black getup that made me feel a lot more badass than I really was. It also concealed my identity for the time being until I figured out how to keep anyone from thinking I was the person who made the vials of Oria.

I made my way down the stairs to make sure I had set enough traps because I didn't know if I had even set them up properly. Once I was satisfied, I made my way to Gray"s room wondering if I should tell him what had happened, but breakfast sounded more important.

After making a quick bagel with cream cheese, I made my way to Gray. He was staring at Loki, and I realized I never put him back to sleep. He looked up at me, his glare roaming over my body, like he expected to see something.

"You should have mentioned your brother was your twin," I said, walking up to him inspecting to see if they had any differences, but they were exact copies of each other. His brows furrowed instantly.

"What did you do to him?" he snarled, his gaze was venomous and I truly realized what sort of relationship they had.

It wasn't just sibling love, but that connection I had heard about between twins. The "I would die for you in an instant, without hesitation and with no thought" kind of love. Since I was a little girl, I had longed for siblings, to have someone in my corner or someone to be able to tell everything to.

"You mean, what did he do to me?" I raised my brow wishing I hadn't healed myself yet.

"You look fine," he snapped. "Where is he?"

"He left," I said, with no reason to keep that information to myself. "He managed to get what you were looking for."

He searched my eyes for the truth, not that I blamed him. The moment he realized I was telling the truth, he scowled.

"I thought it wasn't here, Sunshine?"

I shrugged, not even thinking that his question needed an answer because we both knew I was lying. I also wanted to add that he found the batch I had been making and now the outside world knew that Oria was made here, but a small amount of hope kept me from breaking down that they didn't know it came from me. My secret identity was the only thing that was keeping me safe, and if anyone found out I was done for.

"I'm sure he'll be back," I said, sitting in front of him on the floor, debating if letting him go was in my best interest now.

"He probably went to give it to our friend," he said, as his scowl eased. "We've been away for too long. I just hope that we aren't too late."

He took a deep breath.

"I hope it's not either," I said truthfully.

"You know now that he has the —"

"But I lost my bargaining chip," interrupting him. "Do you know what this means now that this place has been found?"

"My brother is not going to do anything to you," he said, looking confused.

"Your brother might not, but someone else might," I said, realizing how I wasn't the naive one in this conversation.

"I feel like I"m missing something here," he said, looking around the room. "Look, we would never do anything to harm you."

I laughed while turning around.

"Then you clearly are so naive or you are feeding me a bunch of bullshit," I snapped, feeling the need to cry rise up in me. "You know what people will do when they realize it's made here? It's happened before and it will keep happening because men like you think they need to have the world at their fingertips. All you do is destroy beautiful things because you think you are owed it."

My breathing was hard after my rant. I immediately worried that I had spilled my secret. The silence was too much for me to handle.

"I take it you've been found before?" His tone was less harsh and more inquisitive; when I didn't respond he sighed.

"We are not like other men, I fell into this business with Ryder, and funny thing, he was robbing me the same time I met him," he chuckled. "I know we might not seem like honorable men, and honestly, we do steal and make money off people, but we would never hurt you. It's like a rule; you don't hurt women or children unless they start it first."

"Not everyone abides by that rule," I said, looking away.

Gray was more naive than I was.

"Who hurt you?" he snapped.

Looking up, his face was contorted in anger, sending shivers down my spine.

"Does it matter? It"s been years, but history always has a way of repeating itself, Gray," I said, getting up, feeling a need for a shower, but the anxiety of his brother coming back was distracting me.

"Who were they?" he asked again.

His tone was guttural, with a hint of possessiveness that I shouldn't have liked.

"It doesn't matter, Gray," I said, walking towards him to put the artifact back on his body.

"Don't… please," he said, his green eyes looking into my hazel eyes. "If my brother comes, I can talk to him, or you can still let me go before he comes back, and I can make up some excuse."

"I don't trust you," I said, picking up the artifact. "I can't trust anyone except myself."

"What about those people we saw leaving?"

"What people?" I stood back.

"There was a woman and a few men that left this place the day before you caught me," he said, raising his brow. "Do you trust them?"

"Does it matter?"

How long had they been scouting this place?

"Do you trust them?" He cocked his head to the side. "Are they in your corner, do they protect you? Is one of them your lover?"

"I think?—"

"Answer the questions, Sunshine," he clipped.

"You—"

My magical trap snapped, making me still. Fuck, I thought I had more time.

"What's wrong?" He studied me like he already knew.

I leaned over to put a sleep-inducing artifact on him, but the pleading in his eyes made me hesitate.

"I want to help you," he whispered. "I can help you."

"No one can," I said, before letting the artifact drop to the floor.

I turned around to leave the room when I felt the trigger of the trap in the room's window, but I realized I had been too slow as I felt arms come around me. Panic overran my system, I thrashed, throwing my head back connecting with his face. He let me go, as pain exploded in my skull, giving me enough time to run into the living room as Gray shouted something from the room—at least I assumed it was him—but not before he reached for me again.

My instincts took over as I stepped out of his grasp running for my skillet by the stairs. Before I reached it, he grabbed me by the waist, lifting me up and throwing me against the wall.

"Seriously, a fucking skillet, woman," he snapped, lifting me up, but I tried throwing my head back again.

"Let me go." I thrashed, hoping to dislodge his grip, but he held on this time and didn't let me move an inch.

"Stop," he yelled, which only made me thrash more in his grip.

I dug my nails in him, kicking my legs until I made contact with the sofa, using it as leverage to push off as hard as I could. He wasn't ready for our combined weight to throw him off kilter and we fell onto the floor.

What I wasn't counting on was hitting my temple on one of the barstools. My vision blurred as I tried to move away, but he didn't let me go far.

"Dammit," he snarled.

"Get uff mee," I slurred, pushing him away as my world was spinning.

"Shit," he said, before we went tumbling down again. "For god"s sake, would you stop?"

"Soren! Don't be rough with her," Gray yelled, my eyes getting heavy with exhaustion and from the pounding that started in my head.

"Gods blessed." I heard him say before he threw me over his shoulder, and all I got was a view of his ass.

Loki's loud growl along with a hiss echoed in the room. My last thought was, I hope he's a menace to them before I passed out.

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