I took a deep breath. These were touchy circumstances. If whisperers caught Marna hooking up with a boy, just for fun and not for the purpose of making him cheat, her father would have her killed. Worse yet, the Dukes would probably make a spectacle of her death as a lesson to the other Neph about the importance of working.

“If I take you to her, will you promise to try and stay calm?”

Ginger gave me a tight smile. “I’ll be calm.”

I so did not believe that, but while I couldn’t tell her how to deal with her sister, I could tell her how to deal with my best friend.

“I can’t have you yelling at Jay. He doesn’t understand.”

“Fine.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

I took us to Jay’s house and texted him from the gravel driveway to let him know we were there. I didn’t want to walk in on anything.

Ginger followed me in, wearing a face of stone.

Jay opened his bedroom door as we came down the hall. He wore jeans and was pulling a shirt over his head. I opened my senses to feel the anxious confusion in his gray aura.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking back and forth between us.

“It’s hard to explain, Jay,” I said.

His guardian angel stood close, protective as ever.

Ginger never stopped moving, so Jay stepped out of her way and we all went into his room. Marna sat on the bed with one of Jay’s pillows on her lap. Something about her seemed . . . off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I searched the room, wondering where the strange vibe was coming from.

Jay walked over and stood next to Marna, who gave her sister a defiant stare as Ginger’s sharp eyes went from Marna to Jay, and back to Marna.

Oh man. She did not look happy. The twins could sense romantic bonds between people—everything from attraction to love and marriage. Was that what was happening to me? I’d never sensed bonds between people before, but I couldn’t place the awareness I was experiencing.

“I’m sorry,” Jay said. “But I don’t see what the big deal is. We’re both adults. We’re just . . . hanging out.”

“Just hanging out?” Ginger asked sweetly. “Not falling in love?”

My heart kicked with surprise. Was that what she saw between them? But . . . he’d just been in a relationship with Veronica! I felt light-headed. This was so like Jay to let his heart be snatched up by another so quickly.

I watched Jay and Marna exchange a tender glance, and sure enough a fluff of pink floated up around Jay. Then he looked at me and his eyes dropped to the floor, a wave of gray guilt covering over the pink.

“It’s time to go,” Ginger said in her don’t-mess-with-me voice.

Marna lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving, Gin. I’ll take the red-eye to New York and be back in time for our flight.”

“Don’t do this,” Ginger warned.

Jay looked at her like she was crazy. Marna flung the pillow aside and stood face-to-face with her sister. I rocked back on my heels and gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. My body reacted—heart pounding, limbs shaking, a chill of disbelief zipping down my spine.

“Anna?” Jay came over and grabbed my arm.

“What?” Marna asked. “What’s wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?”

She brushed a hand down her flat stomach, where my eyes had locked.

God, please. Don’t let this be happening.

The faintest recognition of buttery light pulsed from her abdomen.

I felt like I might hyperventilate as the reality of the situation crashed over me. Marna would be gone within the year. Dead. Because she was pregnant.

“You guys . . . had sex.”

It was a rude comment under any circumstances, and I couldn’t believe it was the first thing to leave my mouth. But I had to know if it was Jay’s. If it wasn’t, he didn’t need to be a part of this.

“Dude.” Jay’s cheeks reddened.

They’d definitely had sex.

Marna and Ginger converged on me, pushing Jay back, searching my face for answers.

“What is it?” Ginger asked.

“Yeah, you’re freaking me out.” Marna crossed her arms, and I forced myself to stop staring. When I looked up, I could feel the wetness of tears on my cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

I was scared to say it. Scared to put the words out there and make it real. A sob rose up in my chest and I covered my mouth again. Sweet Marna.

“Anna.” Jay squeezed in and whispered to me, “Don’t cry. We didn’t plan for this. I know it’s fast, and . . . I know Veronica’s going to be hurt—”

“It’s not that.” I made a spontaneous decision. Jay needed to know what he’d gotten himself into. I gathered all the courage I had in me, trying not to cry harder.

“Marna.” I took her hand. “You’re pregnant.”

The three of them stared at me. Ginger was the first to react. She grabbed my shirt in both fists and shook me, screaming, “Shut up! You shut your bloody mouth!”

Jay tried to pry her off me, and I grabbed her wrists, staring her in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Ginger.”

She shoved me away like I’d burned her, and stumbled back into Jay’s desk, looking rabid. Marna stood still with her eyes wide.

Jay glared at me. “This is not cool. Why would you say that?”

“She can’t be,” Ginger whimpered. “She had the surgery. We both did.”

Jay’s head swung toward her, a look of confusion on his face. I’d worry about him in a minute.

Right now, my mind searched for a possible answer. “We heal fast. Maybe the surgery corrected itself before it had a chance to take? But . . . I wonder why you never got pregnant before this?”

“Anna!” Oh, man. Jay looked appalled, and I couldn’t blame him.

“I usually don’t . . . ,” Marna whispered. Her eyes were glazed when she looked up at me. “I do other things, if I can help it. You know . . . anything but?”

“A half-arsed worker, just like you,” Ginger mumbled.

“What the hell are you guys talking about?” Jay sounded frustrated now.

Ginger ignored him and yelled, “This is stupid! You can’t possibly know she’s pregnant, Anna. She’d be less than a week!”

“I’ve always been able to sense it,” I said. I opened my mouth to explain and became very aware of Jay’s stare. He looked at me as if I were a stranger. “Jay,” I whispered, “I have a lot to tell you.”

“You’re being weird, Anna. You’ve always been weird, but this ain’t right.”

My eyes watered again. His words hurt. I knew what it must sound like to him.

Ginger stepped up to Jay. “I need you to shut up and stay out of this while we figure it out. Then we’ll all leave you alone and you won’t have to see any of us freaks again.”

His face scrunched in bafflement.

“Stop it, Gin!” Marna grabbed Jay’s arm, and he wrapped it around her, glancing at our faces like he’d found himself in another dimension.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jay said. “I just want to know what’s going on.”

“I can sense a warmth,” I said, pushing on despite the overwhelming awkward tension. “It’s like an aura, but different. I can feel the extra life force—”

“It’s a multicellular freaking zygote!” Ginger screamed. “Not a life force! Not a soul!”

“I didn’t say . . . I meant, I just don’t know.” It was so hard to explain. “It’s like . . . an extension of Marna, only a tiny, separate entity.”

Ginger started pacing. “Oh, God. Oh, God. We need one of those morning-after pills.”

Marna’s eyes widened. “I’m not taking any pill!”

“An operation, then!”

Marna shook her head. “It doesn’t work, Gin. You know that! Other Neph have tried it, and it kills them just the same.”

Jay dropped his arm from Marna’s shoulder and stepped back. I’d never seen him so freaked out. The twins kept arguing.

“Those other Neph couldn’t have been as early on as you,” Ginger reasoned. “If there’s no soul in the thing yet, then you’re safe. When do babies get their souls?”

Both sisters looked at me, and I shook my head. “I have no idea.”

I knew souls were created in the heavenly realm, and the Maker knew every detail of our earthly lives and our purposes, starting from conception, but it was never specified at what part of the process the soul was embedded in the flesh.