I didn't answer. I just kept smiling, and the longer I smiled, the darker their faces grew.
"Are you done?!"
Cole's composure finally cracked. The mask fell away, and so did his patience.
"The three of us have empires to run. We don't have time to stand here and indulge your breakdown!"
He let out a cold scoff and stormed off.
Finn shook his head and followed right behind.
Malcolm, my twin, reached out and patted my head. The gesture was impossibly gentle. His words were not.
"Stop acting crazy. Got it?"
The hall fell quiet. I sat there, turning Malcolm's words over in my mind.
Was he worried about me, or was he worried the transmigrator would never come back?
The answer was obvious enough.
"It's okay," I murmured, my eyes hollow and unfocused. "I'll manage to die eventually..."
I dragged my feet, pain ground into every bone, stumbling step after step toward Cole's study.
My hands shook as I opened the computer.
I pulled up the security footage from the villa, timestamped to the periods I'd been "unconscious."
And there she was, on the living room feed. The same body as mine, but a completely different person wearing it.
A chill crawled up from the soles of my feet.
My brothers and Miriam.