T*Witches: Destiny's Twins Read Online Free PDF Page A

crystal. She was scowling at Ileana but couldn’t help remembering that the girl, the beautiful and impetuous child, had been Karsh Antayus’s adored fledgling.
    As it always did when she thought of her old, now-departed friend, Rhianna’s heart softened. “Lady Ileana,” she began. Then her eyes twinkled as she recalled what Karsh had confided to her, that the brazen young witch had rejected the title. No lady was their Ileana.
    Rhianna cleared her throat but could not hide her smile. “I understand you prefer to be called goddess.” She tried to sound serious.
    Ileana’s jaw dropped. She got as far as “But how —?” Then realizing that it must have been Karsh who’d told Rhianna, she burst into tears.
    Which nearly brought tears to Rhianna’s eyes as well. “Yes, yes,” the wise old witch said, honking into her handkerchief. “We all miss him, Ileana. And we all share Lord Karsh’s certainty that Aron’s daughters are most magnificent fledglings and destined for leadership —”
    “If that black-bearded, two-faced, cold-blooded brute doesn’t find a way to stop them,” Ileana shot back.
    Rhianna raised her brows again. “I assume you’re speaking of your father?”
    “Who else stands to gain if Apolla and Artemis fail their Initiation? Of course it’s Thantos who’s behind this.”
    “Does this mean you believe they
can
fail?” Rhianna asked pointedly. “You, their guardian and champion? Surely you know them as well as anyone.”
    Ileana saw the tricky old witch’s point. And had toconsider it. Did she think that Thantos, her merciless father and the twins’ uncle, could best them? Well, he’d certainly put in a good effort.
    Ileana remembered the first day of the infants’ lives, when she and Karsh had hidden in the snowy woods with the babies, listening to the approaching clatter of Thantos and his bloodthirsty horde. He had not found them then. She recalled Karsh’s tale of how the twins had discovered each other, when once again, they’d escaped their uncle’s trap. And later, in Marble Bay when her treacherous father had tried to lure the twins to him. And again and again.
    Thantos had known all along that they, not he, had been chosen to lead their family. They and only they, two bright, still vulnerable young witches, fledglings, stood in the way of his grasping what he believed,
wanted
to believe, belonged to him — the wealth and power of the DuBaer dynasty.
    He also knew, as did everyone on the island, that once the twins were initiated, their destiny — and his — would be sealed.
    “Maybe he’s just been unlucky so far,” she told Rhianna, knowing how unlikely that sounded.
    As they always did when her feathers were ruffled, the Exalted Elder’s wings suddenly unfurled. The
whoosh
of wind, a sound like the slap of sails filling in a squall, made Ileana jump back.
    “First of all,” Rhianna sternly lectured, “we do not believe in luck! We create our own good fate through right choices and actions.”
    It was all Ileana could do not to roll her eyes at the old saying.
    “Yes, it was your grandfather Nathaniel’s wish, and your guardian Karsh’s mission, to place the girls where they might do the most good — at the helm of your extremely powerful and, may I say, increasingly troublesome family. They have but to pass their Initiation — which you and their mother assured me they will do with flying colors — to take their rightful place in our community.”
    “Of course they’ll pass,” Ileana blurted. “But why should they be subjected to different and more difficult tests than other fledglings?”
    “Because I say so,” Rhianna declared, leading Ileana to the door. “And I, not you, Ileana DuBaer, am their Initiation Master — exactly as Lord Karsh intended for me to be.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    THE THIRD TWIN
    “Do you think we were triplets?” Cam asked skeptically.
    Alex shook her head. “No way. Everyone on Coventry, including our mother,” she