Dark Legacy (33 page)

“You saw yourself in his mind.” Sarah’s knee came up, barely missing Metting’s crotch. “And you liked it. Admit it, you deranged bastard. You liked hurting me as much as the Wolf!”

“It killed me, every time you woke another day in the center, in that cage I built for you.” Dark emotions seethed beneath Metting’s admissions. “And I let my feelings cloud my judgment. I didn’t see Ruebens for what he was. I’m begging you, don’t do the same thing now. Hate me if you need to, but listen to what your mother tried to tell you. There’s more to the Temple legacy than you and your sister know.”

Jarred helped Maddie stumble closer, dread leaching the warmth from his touch. Sarah had gone limp beneath her Raven. She was staring into his eyes now.

“That’s it, Sarah. Listen to me. Me—the man you once trusted, not the specter you made me into in your dreams. I’m trying to protect you and your sister. I’m fighting to keep your legacy alive and out of the clutches of men like Ruebens.”

“The…” Sarah shook her head. “The Wolf is dead. It’s over. You killed him. You killed the Wolf and all of his men. It’s over…”

“No.” Metting’s head dropped. His dark hair brushed Sarah’s cheek before he sank back on his knees.

Only then did Maddie notice that Metting’s soldiers had surrounded them. The clearing was silent and still, except for the storm still rumbling overhead.

“No?” Sarah’s mind reached for Maddie. So did her hand.

Their fingers found each other.

“What do you remember about your legacy?” Metting asked.

“Nothing,” Maddie said. “We found some old piece of paper, and our mother took it away. Secret powers and twins and good battling evil…I don’t remember any more. What did my mother overhear the Wolf’s men talking about?”

“It didn’t seem to matter,” Metting said instead of answering. “Neither of you had ever had any serious relationships. There was no reason to suspect…”

“Suspect what?” Maddie demanded. “What did you see in the Wolf’s mind?”

“A little girl, with dark eyes and dark hair and an innocent smile. A child who has no defense against the darkness, because she’s alone.”

Sarah shivered at his description.

“I saw her, too.” Maddie didn’t get it. “In the playhouse dream and here in the clearing when the Wolf was controlling our nightmare. But that was Sarah when she was a little girl.”

“No, it wasn’t Sarah the Wolf was projecting.” Metting sounded so sure. “It wasn’t Sarah that Ruebens was thinking about when he lost control of your minds and
decided to cut his losses. Your mother wasn’t talking about Sarah, when she tried to tell you what she’d overheard. When she said,
another will be born.
”

“She’s…” Sarah’s voice was distant, looking inward. “The little girl…She’s part of our legacy.”

“What legacy!” Maddie demanded.

“Twins will be born to the line,”
Sarah recited in the dead Wolf’s voice.
“And with them, great good to commence. Or great evil, should darkness descend. Through them, another will come, to spread light far and wide. Or to cast the ultimate shadow on a lost mankind.”

Maddie shivered, as the words she’d read as a child crawled over her skin.

“She’s…” Sarah said in her own voice. She was rocking, just like the little girl had been in their playhouse. Her head dropped to her raised knees. Her hair covered her face. “She’s…”

“She’s what?” Jarred curled an arm around Maddie as his alarm grew.

No matter what this is,
his mind assured her.
I’m here. It will be okay. We’ll make sure of it.

“The Temple legacy speaks of another child.” Metting pushed to his feet. His men fell in line behind him. “The Brotherhood have monitored you both since you were born. Watching for any chance that this child might come to be.”

“But neither of us have children,” Maddie insisted. “There is no child!”

Except there was.

The child whose image had been there, over and over, in her links with Sarah. Links poisoned by the dream programming the Wolf had planted in Sarah’s mind.

Maddie could see the little girl now, in Sarah’s mind.
Rocking back and forth. But not in their childhood playhouse. She was in a laboratory of some kind, surrounded by cold steel and bright lights and no one to love her. There were only dark creatures training her to kill. Forcing her to become what Sarah had barely escaped.

“Oh, my God…” Maddie confronted Sarah’s Raven. “How could your brotherhood let this happen!”

“I can only surmise—” Metting began.

“Surmise?”
Jarred demanded.

The memory of Phyllis’s final words returned.
Another will come. It’s not over. These people…Don’t let them do it again…

“Oh, my God,” Maddie repeated. There was another little girl out there with special gifts she didn’t understand and couldn’t possible control. “Trinity?” she asked, the pieces of the puzzle she’d been racing to solve finally clicking into place. “The name of the research center is Trinity…”

A nod seemed to be the only response Metting could manage.

Dream Weaver wasn’t dead. The center wasn’t through with the Temple legacy. Not even close.

Maddie knelt in front of Sarah. She brushed her sister’s bangs aside. Tears were streaming down both their faces. Jarred was there, too. Laying a supportive hand on Sarah’s shoulder. His unspoken promise to protect Sarah, no matter what had happened between them. Because she was part of Maddie.

“Trinity,” Sarah was repeating, over and over as she continued to rock. “Trinity…Trinity…” Her gaze tracked to Maddie’s. “Three…There are three of us…All this time, and I didn’t know. What did they do to me? To her? We have to find her,” Sarah pleaded. “We can’t let her go through what I did.”

Jarred tightened his grip on Sarah’s shoulder as Metting knelt, too.

“We will find her.” Maddie had never meant anything more. “Together.” She looked to Jarred and felt the healing light of his love reaching for her, warming her. “From now on, we’re not in this alone.