I’m working on Gabby’s Moments of The Adept Universe short this weekend as a bit of a brain break from the Archivist series in between drafts. [I finished the first draft of Archivist 1 yesterday]. I’m trying to figure out if the age the Talbot twins were adopted is ‘in canon’ or just a note I made for myself (and therefore put in their ‘official’ bios). I’d like them to be older than age seven for the short. If possible.

Gabby’s short details an exceedingly important moment in the twins’ background, feeding into the idea I’m working on for the Misfit 4 storyline. When I outlined the story for Michael, he was a little doubtful I could fit it into a ‘short’ format. So … challenged accepted!

The first scene I found was, of course, the very first time we meet the twins through Jade’s perspective. Lots of great info in the scene – and some fantastic dialogue, if I say so myself – but no mentions of the age they were when adopted!! So now I scour Misfits 1!

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Excerpt from Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7):

“Introduce yourselves,” Kandy said, seriously peeved. “Then let us know why the hell you’re in a storage room with eight mundanes only one door over.”

The amplifier opened her mouth — but then snapped it closed after a look from her sister. They stared at each other for a moment, and a tiny taste of tart jam shifted between them.

“Communicating telepathically,” I said for Kandy’s benefit.

Kandy snorted. “Don’t make me teach you to obey your elders, my pretties.”

“We know.”

“We understand.”

They overlapped each other, nary a pause between one speaking and the other taking over.

“You first, sis,” the telepath said.

“I always go first.”

“You’re the eldest.”

“So they said.”

“Why would they lie?”

“I’m not having this conversation —”

“You!” Kandy jabbed her finger toward the amplifier.

The telepath flinched. “She’s even more growly than Bitsy.”

“She’s older.” The amplifier shrugged, eyeing the pissed-off werewolf at my side.

“I swear to God,” Kandy growled. “I’m going to teach them some manners.”

I quashed a grin, looking pointedly at the amplifier. She squared her shoulders, intoning with exaggeration. “Gabrielle Talbot. Commonly known as Gabby. Amplifier. Sister of Margaret.”

“Talbot?” I asked. “Daughter of Angelica?”

Gabby scowled. “Adopted daughter of the sorcerers Stephan and Angelica Talbot.”

“Margaret Talbot,” the telepath said, picking up practically on top of her sister’s final word. “Known as Peggy. Telepath … truth seeker.”

Gabby shot her a look.

“Well, there’s no point in lying to a dowser, is there?”

I didn’t correct Peggy’s assumption that I could wield my skills to distinguish magical abilities that finely.

Gabby looked from me to Kandy belligerently. “We won’t be used. The Talbots won’t allow it. Never again.”

Kandy cackled. “You think two sorcerers could stand against Jade Godfrey, dowser, alchemist, wielder of the instruments of assassination, if she wanted you?”

“Plus, I’m not interested in using anyone,” I said mildly.

“Not the point,” Kandy said. “It’s the principle. They come into your territory and question your authority.”

Peggy looked stricken. “We certainly weren’t.”

“Henry Calhoun said we’d be safe here,” Gabby said quietly.

That gave Kandy pause. She glanced over at me.

I nodded.

“Henry sent you to Vancouver?” the werewolf asked.

Gabby and Peggy nodded in perfect unison.

Kandy grumbled under her breath, retrieving her phone from her back pocket and opening her texting app. I had a feeling there would be T-shirts for the amplifier and the telepath in the near future. 

Kandy’s self-assigned pack was rapidly expanding. First Rochelle and Beau, then Mory — though the necromancer might have nominally been under the werewolf’s protection first. Then a fledgling vampire, and now an amplifier and a telepath. If Kandy ever needed to invade a small country, she was collecting the army with which to do so. With at least a dozen more years of training, of course. And that wasn’t even including Drake, Warner, and me. 

Either that or the US Marshal, Henry Calhoun, who most assuredly belonged to Kandy by way of her bite and the transfer of magic that had come with it, was about to get an earful.

I gestured toward the green-haired werewolf. “Kandy, enforcer of the West Coast North American Pack.”

Gabby and Peggy exchanged another look. Then, by seemingly mutual decision, Peggy spoke. “The pack has a presence in Vancouver?”

Kandy paused her texting to growl. “Why do you care?”

Neither Gabby or Peggy answered.

“Can you tell us why your magic went … awry?” I asked.

“It didn’t. Not really. It was just intense and out of the blue.”

“And you normally have trouble getting it under control? Or mitigating its effects?”

Another glance passed between the twins.

“No. Not for a long time, I guess.” Peggy twisted a large moonstone ring on her left index finger. Gabby wore the same ring on her right index finger, making me wonder if that indicated the twins had different dominant hands.

They spoke with American accents, completely different from Angelica Talbot’s. Gabby’s intonation was more abrupt, while Peggy had a softer, smoother tone.

“I have a brown spot in my left eye,” Peggy said. “If you’re trying to tell Sis and me apart.”

I smiled. “Your magic tastes different.”

“Yeah,” Kandy said. “You can’t fool anyone who can smell magic, fledglings.”

They glanced at each other, and this time even I could see the look of disappointment that passed between them. Maybe tricking people into thinking you were your twin was a fun game?

“You haven’t been by the bakery yet,” I said.

Gabby shifted uncomfortably. “We were going to come …”

“Mory said we should …” Peggy added.

“But we were waiting until everyone was in town, like officially, so we could all come together. As a family. You know? But Stephan is still transitioning his work.”

“No one is going to hurt you in Vancouver,” I said gently. My odd conversation with Angelica Talbot was suddenly showing itself in a new light.

Peggy nodded. “That’s why we’re here … Because we were bred for our magic …”

“… and whored out.” Gabby twined her fingers through her twin’s, but she kept her steady gaze on me.

“Mother … fecker,” Kandy snarled, modifying her language at the last moment.

Gabby narrowed her sky-blue gaze at the werewolf. “We aren’t seven.”

“Yes.” Peggy nodded helpfully. “We just look young for our age.”

“A bonus for our breeders.”

“You mean it would have been a bonus, Gabby. If the Convocation hadn’t rescued us.”

“Eventually.”

“It was a large prostitution ring, difficult to track and crack.”

“We agree to disagree.”

“Yes, we do. Anyway, we were pretty damaged by then, as you can imagine.”

“So no one wanted us.”

“Except the Talbots.”

“Yeah, except Stephan and Angelica.”

The twins looked at each other for a moment, then turned their expectant gazes on us.

I stared at them, processing this new inundation of information — and catching Kandy doing the same thing in my peripheral vision.

***

In other news, before I quit work for the day I’ll schedule the next audiobook giveaway – Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2) – so check back at 2 pm PST tomorrow to grab a copy!