Claiming The Spare Twin novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Give It Back

They carried Odette to her room, and I went with her.

My mother didn't try to stop me. She wanted her daughter in bed, and she wanted me where she could see me.

Finlay stayed outside in the hall with two Council guards he trusted, because the Alpha could not enter a Beta's household uninvited.

Odette lay on top of her white quilt with a wet cloth on her forehead.

She woke at dusk and looked around the room, and her eyes found mine.

"What happened?" she said.

"You fainted in the ring."

"Did I?" She frowned, and her hand went to her chest. "I had a dream. Did I say anything?"

"You said, give it back."

For a heartbeat, she went still.

Then she laughed, weakly. "Fever. I say all kinds of rubbish with a fever."

"Odette."

"I'm tired, Linn. Please. Let me sleep."

She turned onto her side with her back to me.

I stood there looking at her thin shoulder under the quilt.

She had never in her life turned her back on me.

I shut the door softly and went into the hall.

"She says it's fever," I told Finlay.

"Do you believe her?"

"No."

My mother's voice came from the stairs.

"Linnea. A word."

Finlay straightened, but I shook my head at him.

I followed her down to the first-floor landing, where she stopped and looked at me with her arms folded.

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