“What?” Tess finally gasped out. “Who? What? How?” “Shh,” Kyle said with a laugh as he placed one finger on Tess’ lips to silence her. “You’re babbling. We’ll explain it, I promise. But first I think that it’s really important that we get out of here. Exactly how do we do that?” He turned and asked his newly found sister. “Oh that,” Maria said with a shaky laugh and an easy grin. “That parts easy. See all we are is in another plane of existence, there are many of them that lie parallel to ours. Michael and I found one when we were five. It took us hours to get out of it. But it really isn’t that hard. Just close your eyes,” she told both of them as she followed her own instructions. “Now clear your mind completely. And I mean of everything. Think of whatever calms you the most, whatever little thing in this world makes you happy and complete.” Kyle and Tess did as they were told, each clearing their minds of everything except thoughts of the other. Tess thought of Kyle and how he wasn’t backing away from her in fear, at least not yet, and it did calm her. She reached out with her small hand and interlocked hers with his. Kyle just pictured Tess. That was all it took. All he needed to calm himself, to fill himself with harmonious essence was her image. Maria did as she had when she was five with Michael. She pictured her and him fighting with each other, playing some type of Maria-Michael war game where there really was no winner, instead it was a never-ending cycle of one-upmanship to see who would outlast the other. It had been their favorite pastime as children, as it was their favorite pastime now, except now when one of them one there were bigger and more fulfilling rewards. Maria sighed as she thought of some of those rewards and then she moved to grab both Kyle and Tess’ free hands. With a deep breath Maria began to recite a spell that none but Michael knew that she had written. “Take me where my heart resides, Take me where my soul flies. Goddess above here my call, Bring me to those I love.” ******************* With a gasp the three bodies lying in the middle of the circle opened their eyes as one unit and sat up. Tess locked eyes with Kyle and smiled, then she moved away to give him and Maria room. With a whoop the two embraced again, Kyle standing up and swinging Maria around in a circle. Maria laughed freely and hugged Kyle again and again before he sat her down and turned again to Tess. Gently Kyle drew the tiny girl to him and with the most reverence that any of those watching had ever seen in anything outside of a movie he brought her lips to his. “Thank you Tess,” he told her softly, so softly that only she could hear. “You’ve brought me more than you could ever know.” Maria watched them with a soft smile on her face and then she turned to the beacon that had called her home. “Michael,” she yelled as she ran to where he stood with her mother, the tear tracks still apparent on his face. “It worked,” she yelled between kisses, “that spell that we wrote last time we got stuck in the Other Realm, it really worked.” “How the hell did Kyle end up in the Other Realm?” Michael asked her, or tried to as he had to dodge kisses from Maria. “And why the hell were you and Tess the only ones who could pull him out? Why couldn’t I go in there with you?” “Because Michael,” Maria said with a carefree laugh, “you are my home. If you had been in the Other Realm with us, the spell wouldn’t have worked. We wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Tess had to go because Kyle is her soulmate and he doesn’t know enough to get himself out of the situation. He needed her for balance. I had to go because, well…I need Kyle for balance and if Tess had failed on her own I wouldn’t have made it either. If we hadn’t of got him out he would have died…and so would I.” “Why?” Isabel asked as she moved closer to where Kyle and Tess now stood in front of Michael and Maria. “Why would you die if Kyle did? He’s Tess’ soulmate and you’re Michael’s.” “That’s right,” Kyle said firmly. “Tess is my soul MATE…Maria’s my soul TWIN. There is a world of difference in that.” He turned to grin at his newly found sister, the missing link that he’d been searching for. “So she isn’t really your sister?” Tess said in realization. “OK. That explains it better. You guys so confused me when you just called each other brother and sister back there.” “Not exactly,” Maria said with a look at her mother. Amy winced. It wasn’t a pretty look. “To be a soultwin you don’t have to be actual twins, that much is true, but the bond is that much stronger if you are. Michael and Isabel, they’re soultwins as well as real twins…just like Trent and Ryan are. I think you’ll find that Leigha and Jessie are too, that’s why they became attached at the hip as soon as they met. Alex and you are too,” she added specifically to Tess, “but it isn’t as noticeable or as strong a bond as that between the real siblings. Kyle and I are soultwins, but we are more…we are siblings. When I called him my brother I meant it…we share the same blood.” “Huh?” Alex asked in shock. “But how?” “Sins of the father,” Amy said softly. “Sit down all of you. I think it’s time I told you about Maria’s father…about Kyle’s father…about Brian Felini…and about my sister, Ursula Deluca.” TBC

Part 22