When she was satisfied it was all there, she looked up and pinned him with one of her coldest glares. He didn't so much as raise an eyebrow, gazing at her with an equally cool look.
“So what do you want?” she demanded. “People don't just hand cash over unless they want something for it, Mr Orion.”
Oh so he has a name.
“Professor,” he corrected and I frowned.
And a title apparently.
“How old are you?” No way was this guy a professor. Unless he was some hipster DJ who'd labelled himself as Professor Dizzy D or something equally lame. But he just didn't have the tool vibe that accompanied that kind of lifestyle choice. He was entirely at ease except for a vaguely tense air about him that said we were the ones who were imposing on his day.
“Old enough to be a professor.” His eyes swung to me and seemed to suck everything in like a blackhole. My heart accelerated and I started to deeply fear having this stranger in our home.
I moved to stand before the couch, folding my arms as I waited for an explanation while trying to keep my cool. I wasn’t sure I managed the indifferent glare Tory was pulling off. Especially not in these pyjamas.
“You're going to listen to me and remain calm and collected,” he said in a powerful tone and I felt an instant desire to obey. I nodded easily, half aware that I didn't want to listen to this random guy, but doing it anyway. I dropped down beside Tory on the coffee table and we both gave him our full attention.
He beamed at us and there was that dimple again. Just the one. Denting his masterpiece of a face and somehow making him even damn hotter.
“Since your eighteenth birthday, you have both been giving off a signature that my kind can sense from a world away. Literally.” He paused, letting those odd words sink in.
I opened my mouth to ask a question but he held up a hand to stop me, continuing in his gruff, baritone voice. “I will explain, just keep calm.”
I nodded, a lightness replacing the sneaking unease in my chest.
“Go on,” Tory encouraged, a frown lining her forehead.
He leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. “I'm not a beat-around-the-bush kinda guy, so here it is: you're not human. You're Fae. Which means you have an unawakened power in you defined by the stars themselves. You belong in Solaria: a mirror world of earth where Fae rule. Are we keeping up?” A flash of dry amusement swept over his face and though I couldn't find it in me to be angry, I was certainly frustrated.
I wanted to scream at him that he was crazy and he needed to leave or I was going to call the cops. But I couldn't get past the floating calm taking hold of my body.
I shared a look with Tory, her nose crinkling as she gave me a he's batshit crazy expression.
“You're both Gemini,” he stated. “Hot-headed, hence the Coercion I've used on you to keep this all running smoothly. Especially as we're already running late,” he muttered, lifting his wrist to check his watch. Dials and silver cogs spun wildly on the strange thing; it was unlike any watch I'd ever seen.
“Gemini…as in the star sign?” Tory asked. I'd always secretly liked reading horoscopes but Tory didn't buy into stuff like that. I wouldn't have gone as far as to say my star sign had any real impact on my life though. It just sort of intrigued me.
“Precisely,” Orion said. “Gemini is an air sign so once your powers are Awakened you'll-”
“Hang on,” I spoke over him and his expression told me he didn't like that one bit. “Do you really expect us to believe we have powers? Like magic?”
“Honestly? I don't care what you believe. But I have a job to do and part of that job is explaining this to you. Frankly, I'd rather not waste my breath as you're going to find out soon enough anyway.”
“What does that mean?” Tory asked with less fury than I'd have expected from her.
“It means I've been trying to speak with you all day, but apparently breaking and entering and stealing motorbikes was on your agendas so I've been running around after you like a dog. And I really don't like chasing people about so let's just say I'm not in the best of moods right now.”
I pursed my lips. He was rebuking us like a school teacher. But he was just some strange psycho who'd strolled into our house and was apparently pissed at us for not making this easier on him.
His lips twitched with irritation as he checked his watch for a second time. “Right, we're going.” He stood, tugging something out of his pocket and I stared up at him in utter confusion.
“Wait a minute.” I stood too but it did little to compete with his towering height. “You said we're Fae? What does that even mean?”
“We're a different race. A better one.” He shrugged and I scowled. “Careful Miss Vega expressions like that are punishable in my classroom.”
“Vega?” My nose wrinkled. “That’s not my name. Wait, please tell me you’ve got the wrong twins?”
He shook his head. “That is your true surname in Solaria. No one will call you anything else once you get there, mark my words.”
“Er-excuse me?” Tory cut in. Her jaw was gritted as if she wished she could have shouted those words. “We're not going anywhere with some creep from the lobby. What drug are you on exactly? Judging by the fancy attire I'm gonna guess coke?”
The 'Professor' gave her a predator's smile that made my stomach knot. “Look, I have far better things to be doing with my time than standing here in a dingy apartment with a couple of girls who think I'm an addict with a screw loose. But I didn't get a choice in the matter. So just humour me, will you?”
“You haven't explained anything.” I shook my head and could feel an inch of my former fear raising its head. “And why should we believe anything you say anyway?”
He snatched up his satchel, flipping it over and pouring the contents out on our coffee table. A waterfall of papers fell everywhere, pages and pages. Pictures of us as babies, newspaper articles about the day our parents had died in a house fire. How we'd been pulled out of the ashes, two perfectly unharmed babies. A complete miracle. Amongst it all was our file for foster care. Every detail we knew about our history could be found amongst these cascading sheets of paper. So why on earth did this guy have them?
Orion sifted through all of it, extracting a photograph of our parents arm in arm on their wedding day. My father's hand lay on our mother's large belly, their eyes gleaming with happiness. I'd never known them, and I never would. And having that picture held in my face right at that second undid every chain that seemed to hold my emotions in check.
I snatched it from his hand, hugging it to my chest as the tears threatened a dramatic outburst which I couldn't afford in front of this shiny prep guy.
“What are you doing with a photo of our parents?” Tory hissed.
“They're not your parents,” he said coolly as if that didn't rock the foundations of everything we'd ever known about ourselves. “You're Changelings. Fae born. Elementals with natural magic flowing in your veins. Your real parents swapped you for the twins born to that couple.” He pointed at the photo in my hand and my brows dragged together. His expression was so impassive – how could he be so heartless? To just say such devastating things with not even a hint of emotion.