Free Follow Me Through Darkness by Danielle Ellison Page A

the Northern Compound. All twins back then got the branding.
    Cecily doesn’t look convinced of anything. If she’s surprised or cares, she doesn’t show it on her face. Her lips remain in a thin line. Thorne takes my hand, lacing our fingers together, and every place our bodies touch sparks through to my soul. It’s been months since I felt our physical connection, and I have to fight away the urge to kiss him so I can feel this more intensely.
    We only connect through the branding when one of us is feeling a stronger-than-normal emotion or when we want to feel what the other person is feeling. Usually, it’s just a steady hum, like a heartbeat, and I carry my own feelings. But when Thorne is around, when he’s feeling something intense, when I’m tuned into him or touching him, then it’s a different thing entirely. It’s like a drug sometimes, our connection, and I can’t get enough. Other times it’s a burden I don’t want to carry. The two change too often to keep track.
    He pulls us to our feet and shows her his branding. Together, we are complete. If our branding was put together, it would be beautiful. Where mine is dark, his is light. Our curves of color fit into the emptiness of the other person’s-two halves that make one whole and fill in the void. We each have the opposite half of a circle, with a line in the middle where our halves would join. That line is crossed with another, so if I look at it sideways, it resembles an X. The same X that exists across the regular branding.
    “Sit,” Cecily says, and as we do, she turns to show us her marking. Her half is the same as mine.
    Thorne releases my hand, and the change inside me goes from burning to nothing. Stillness. The usual pulse of my heartbeat. But the loss of the fire always leaves me wanting more.
    Cecily stands up and walks around the room, her shape silhouetted on the ceiling.
    “You are not twins,” she says as a statement instead of a question.
    “It was to save my life.”
    “How?” she asks. Her voice is weak.
    I glance at Thorne, but he doesn’t move and avoids my gaze. “For the first two years I was alive, it was said I was his twin.”
    “Seems like a big mistake to make.”
    I nod, gulp down a lump in my throat at the thought of my mother. “My mother died giving birth to me, and Thorne’s twin died at birth. I was switched with his biological sister as an act of protection. No one except Thorne’s mom, Sara, knew until I was two-not even my father.”
    “Why would one lie about that?”
    The room is quiet but anxious, and I feel it in the air and in Thorne’s emotions. I need to tell Cecily all I know so she’ll help. Maybe we can use the branding to connect, to remind her where she came from and how she fought her way out.
    “My grandfather had malicious plans, from what I know, and they switched me to hide me. I honestly don’t know all the answers. No one ever really talks about it.”
    “How old are you both?”
    “Seventeen,” Thorne answers.
    “You were born two years before my sister and I got out,” Cecily says with a pause. “They spent years separating-years killing-twins after Deanna and I escaped. Why would they let you remain together?”
    “Your escape made the Elders test and separate twins. It was revealed, at the time of our test, that we weren’t related,” I say. “Since we weren’t blood relatives, they didn’t believe it would affect us. There was no proof of anything abnormal.”
    Because Xenith’s mom lied, but I don’t say that. Thorne is quiet, his eyes not leaving me. I have a lot to tell him about the things I’ve learned. I hope I get the chance to explain all of this.
    Cecily’s head bobs around in a way that makes me worry it could fall off her neck. “When we escaped, the Elders began to fear twins instead of treasure them. Before then, twins were special and desired- preferred, even. After that, they were no longer allowed to be born.” Cecily’s voice is heavy.