AN: Hi everyone! Just wanted to thank you all for your enthusiasm and reviews.

Candylou: Yup. The twins are an enigma wrapped in a mystery. We are now at a turning point in the story.
pen4lew: Definitely uh-oh...

The fic is complete, over 64k and has 24 chapters in total. I'll post more frequently as and when I finish the final editing. Thank you for all your reviews and hope you will continue to enjoy the story.

P.S. AN: Also, this is a bit of a short chapter. I promise to make it up to y'all in the next ones...

Chapter 9 - Discoveries

Constance Saunders led him towards the glass sliding door that separated the room from the back porch. It led to the backyard that was shared between the two dormitory buildings. The boundary wall stood tall and proud at the edge of it, lit up by the powerful beams that bathed the entire garden with a golden glow. Frank noticed that the terrace had been converted into a small herb garden, with just enough space for the two of them to walk towards the railing. Inhaling a deep lungful of the cool night air, he found that the combined scent of sage, lavender and thyme was just as soothing and inviting as the aroma that lingered inside the common room. Constance closed the door behind them, cutting off the music and the chatting of the gathering. The area they were in was quiet and isolated enough, there were no sounds of traffic whatsoever. Instead, there was only the cacophony of crickets punctuated by a random hooting of an owl somewhere far away to keep them company in the quiet night.

Frank moved to the edge of the porch and leaned against the railing. The night sky was clear with a smattering of twinkling stars and a quarter moon mostly hidden behind a lone cloud. He looked up and closed his eyes with a sigh, letting the cool breeze wash against his face.

"It's beautiful out here tonight, isn't it?"

He opened his eyes at the softly whispered words and found the silver-haired twin gazing up at him with an enchanting smile on her lips. He had to swallow thickly to clear his suddenly uncooperating throat.

"It is," he breathed.

"We've been waiting for you to show up, you know," she said, looking up at the stars. "Me and Temperance, we knew we would find you soon."

"What do you mean?"

She turned her gaze back to him and flashed a dazzling smile. "I'm sure you have noticed by now, I and my sister are…different."

Now that's an understatement if there ever was one, he hid that thought behind an answering grin. "There're no two people who are completely alike in the world," he said diplomatically, not wanting to upset her by agreeing…or disagreeing. "It would be a very boring place to live if we were all exactly the same."

Constance let out a peal of laughter at his response. "Indeed, it would, Franklin."

"How did you know about us anyway?"

"We had dreams of you and your brother," she revealed in a soft whisper. "We never saw your faces or knew your names or anything. We just felt your presence," her eyes found his own and he felt as if he was about to drown in those liquid silver depths. "So strong, soothing and… full of wonders."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she huffed another small laugh and broke eye contact. Frank took the opportunity to breathe normally again. Her presence was getting harder and harder to resist in any way with each passing second. "We don't let strangers into our close circle willy-nilly, my dear. We're very picky about our friends. But the two of you, well… you're special."

She slid her palm into his and leaned closer. She let her head rest on his shoulder and extended a hand towards the small shrub of gardenia that was growing out of a clay pot balanced on the balustrade.

"So are you," the words slipped out of him almost on their own accord.

She plucked a tiny bud out of the gardenia bush and held it in her palm. The green sepals around the white bud fell open as he watched, utterly amazed, and the fragrant flower started to spread its petals and bloom before his eyes.

"There's magic all around us," Constance murmured softly as Frank couldn't avert his gaze from the fully bloomed white flower innocently resting on her palm. All coherent thoughts seemed to have fled from his mind at the impossibility he just witnessed. "The planet, mother nature, moon and the stars…The entire universe around us exists in some form of magic," then she turned to him fully and held up her palm before his face. "Every once in a while, there are ones like us who come along, with a bit more access to the abundance of power around us, just a little more than the others…"

Frank stayed silent, staring at the flower, trying to get his jumbled emotions back into some kind of order.

"You don't look so surprised," she observed after a while.

Frank swallowed to clear up his dry throat and looked up. His mind chose that moment to remind him of the inconceivable force of nature he and Joe had to fight off of this world not too long ago.

"I've learned to keep an open mind to the endless possibilities," he murmured, knowing that she could hear the truth in his voice. "This universe around us is vast and we have barely uncovered but a fraction of the knowledge it has to offer."

She smiled again before taking his hand in hers to place the flower in his palm gently. It was soft, and weightless and added its fresh scent to the other herbs around them. There was nothing fake about it, and he knew he had just witnessed something scarily incredible about Constance.

Then, as he watched, still quite shaken, another impossible feat unfolded.

The gardenia flower fluttered on his palm, caught in a soft, invisible breeze. The petals started to fold back and the sepals followed. Within a few seconds, the flower reversed its transformation back to its previous state, leaving the tiny bud in his palm.

He was speechless. He had no idea what just happened. For some troubling reason, the flower's return to its natural state reminded him of those ghostly wounds that inexplicably faded at his touch. He hoped frantically that the Saunders twin wouldn't be offended by his unintentional dissolving of her… magic.

"I, uh…I'm so sorry," he stammered, wide-eyed. "I didn't mean to–"

"It's okay, darling," she said, breaking into a wide grin full of wonder. "That was just another manifestation of a different magical energy after all." Then she closed the very small distance they still had between them and wrapped her long fingers around his neck.

The look in her eyes went from awe to hunger as he watched. "You are so very special…" she let her words out in a whisper and closed her eyes.

Frank's mind flailed around in panic, knowing what was about to happen and trying to find a gentle, non-humiliating way to avoid the kiss about to land on his lips in a fraction of a second. The divine intervention he frantically prayed for hit him in a wave of sudden agony that ran through his forehead like a flash of lightning.

"Argh…" He winced and gasped in pain, his hand going up to rub at the hurting spot just above the bridge of his nose. He squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to push it away, and the moment he did, he knew without a doubt that his brother was in trouble.

"Frank?" Constance's soft call brought him back to the present. Blinking his eyes open, he knew she understood what just happened. "Is it Joseph?"

Frank could only nod, too lost in his own mind even to comprehend the sudden, painful warning or Constance's quick and almost uncanny perception. She took his hand in hers and hurried towards the closed sliding door, intending to take him back inside. Badly shaken from the agony flaring through his skull, he could only hope she would get him to Joe as he let himself be led.