Free T*Witches: Destiny's Twins by Randi Reisfeld, H.B. Gilmour

there was a bash brewing.
    No. She couldn’t have. She wouldn’t have.
    Then what was Amaryllis talking about? Or was she just “sowing dissension” — finding ways to confuse and conquer — as Thantos had programmed her to do?
    Well, if it was confusion the Coventry witch had been trying to promote, she’d succeeded. Cam was thoroughly confused now. And too wound up to sleep.
    And there was no one to talk about it with. Her twin hadn’t moved or made a peep since lights-out. How could Alex sleep at a time like this?
    “Sleep?!” Alex had unexpectedly declared. “Not with you yammering. Mute the mind-muttering, would you? I’ve got issues of my own!”
    “Like what?” Cam had asked eagerly, sitting up and snapping on the light.
    “Shut that off!” Alex had ordered. “I’m trying to get some Z’s.”
    She was.
    Trying.
    And failing. When
were
they supposed to return to Coventry for their final tests and actual Initiation ceremony? she’d been wondering. On their last visit to the island, both Ileana and Miranda had been vague about it. Sometime during their birthday month, was all they’d say.
    And all Rhianna had said was, “You will be called at the auspicious moment.”
    Auspicious? Favorable, lucky, promising … When was that supposed to be? When the sun was at its zenith? When the moon was in the seventh house? Could they have been less specific?
    Sun and moon!
The excited thought was Cam’s, playing off Alex’s unspoken question.
    Of course!
    They’d been born when both the sun and moon were in the sky — Alex just as the full moon was fading, Cam minutes later as the sun rose.
    “It’ll be at the full moon!” Cam turned the light back on. “Like when we were born!”
    “What are you doing?” Alex whined.
    “Looking at the calendar,” Cam answered, racing to her desk. “Full moon in October …?” She pounded the calendar page with her forefinger. “It falls on the sixteenth! O.M.G., that’s like, two weeks away!”
    “Ya think?” It was Alex’s turn to punch a pillow. Which she did and turned her back on her sister. “Shut the light!”
    The cafeteria was noisy and crowded the next day at lunchtime. Alex was already there when Cam walked in. Alex and Cade were sharing a table with Dylan and the boardies, most of them done up in baggies, knee-length shirts, and knit caps riding low on their brows. Neither Cam nor Alex had gotten much sleep the night before — and their minds were still on Amaryllis.
    Beth and Bree were at their usual place, Cam saw. Beth was munching tuna salad in a pita, while Bree was checking out a veggie burger, peering under the bun to be sure not a scrap of beef had slipped past the steam table police.
    Behind them, two tables away, same as yesterday, Nadine Somerfeld sat alone. Cam hoped the new girl would look up so she could smile or nod at her or maybe walk over and say hi. But the vibe coming off Nadine was tense and defensively “I’m cool alone.”
    She was focusing intently on … Cam telescoped in on the book the new girl was staring at… a social studies textbook. But she hadn’t turned the page — and Cam could see that her eyes were not moving, not following the text. Nadine wasn’t really reading, she was just trying to look engrossed.
    As she headed for the Six Pack table, Cam’s thoughts turned away from her Amaryllis-inspired angst and she felt a rush of sympathy for the nervous newcomer. There was something touching and familiar about Nadine’s loneliness and her attempt to cover it up. Obviously, she cared about what other people thought of her. The book was clearly a prop. But she was doing her best to cope, to pretend she was totally independent and importantly occupied.
    She reminded Cam of Alex. And of herself. Before she and Alex had connected, Cam had done her share of pretending. She was popular, made the honor roll year after year, was always picked first for a team — but inside, she had felt as lonely as Nadine looked.