The Gemini Age: Book One

[2-2] Where the Heart Is - Part Two

    Despite standing four storeys tall (six including the attic and cellar), Ashburn House rarely felt large from the inside. It was a narrow structure, each storey tightened to allow room for the token ring of lawn lain around the house. There was also its location, nestled as it was in a compact grid of eighteenth-century townhouses whose outer walls partnered oil porchlights with vine-choked satellite dishes. Each building huddled with its neighbours to share their heat as they prevented all but the faintest glimpses of sunlight from reaching their windows. Cast by design into natural darkness, the houses flickered throughout the day with the glow of unnatural light, a practice that took its toll on the dated construction of the buildings. A stiff breeze drew creaks of complaint from many weathered skeletons in the scrum.

    Skye let the door to the mahogany-floored office close noiselessly behind her, frustrated at her father's excessive pains to make the house as peaceful as possible. Ahead of her, her father saw her enter, but the occupants of the two chairs between them lolled out of their seats to see her. "What's this about?" she asked at the sight of her two older brothers, whose faces alone touched her with resentment. "I didn't know this was going to be a family meeting."

    Taylor averted his gaze, removed his glasses, and covered his mouth, without doubt hiding a snicker about some element or other of Skye's conduct. On her left-hand side, Cole slumped in his seat, his eyes drooping, with his arms splayed on the arms of his chair. Only Byron, glasses resting on the chiselled bridge of his nose and vanishing into his thick, dark hair, met his daughter's gaze with his typical cool steel. "It's not," he cut through the silence. "Samuel won't be joining us, he's still negotiating with the Highland Bens. They're not as cooperative as their peers were."

    Shuffling in his seat, Taylor set his glasses back on his face. "Ah, Sam'll win them over soon enough. Remember the Kent Gavels? Even you weren't sure they'd crack, Father, but Sam swept in and shut them up before the month was out. He's a natural."

    He was right. Sam was little more than a ghost at home these days, a testament to his vital role in keeping the Farron's network of gang operations stable and expanding. He was the eldest of Byron's children by a significant margin, and though his father had immersed him in the family business by the time Skye's Hot soul emerged, he carved out time every week to teach her the fundamentals. He saw a side of her that the rest of the family never thought to search for. The lack of quality time between the house's residents was stark in his absence.

    Byron's stony face, black suit and shirt, and thin red tie eluded his audience's direct gaze by dominating their field of vision. His silence when not speaking let him slip away into the void behind his desk, yet from the moment he parted his lips, he swelled to fill the room with his presence. "He'll call with an update when he's able. As for our present business, we must discuss the Gemini situation. Every day, I hear of more damage to city structures caused by uncontrolled magic. Every time, there's a Gemini at the core of it all. We need to reach them and help them more quickly, for everybody's sake."

    Cole flicked his nails with his thumb, his face still. "Yes, Father, but how will we get the people to do that? We're stretched thin as we are." In his slumped form, Skye spotted his cloth-bound notebook, evidence of the shared preference with his father for analogue over digital notes. "Even if we get the Bens onside, they'd need training to handle a new Gemini. That could take weeks."

    "True, we cannot count on finding new blood to expand our efforts on such short notice," Byron said, relishing every syllable. Skye did not flinch as his eyes landed on her.  "But there are ways we can make our current operations more efficient. The gangs have the local connections, the manpower, and the assets our people need. All we need to do is employ them effectively."