Chapter 15
Titus was on the other side of the door. Anne sat at the end of the bed, waiting for the moment when he finally knocked, because he would. He’d want to know where she was, what she was doing, who she was with – and there was no doubt he’d assume she was with Dante.
Lives had passed before when they’d had issues, but they’d always worked through them. It would be the same this time, and yet, as Titus stood there, there was this niggling doubt.
“Anne, can we talk?”
“Now?”
“I know I haven’t reacted well, and it’s important we deal with it now.”
“Fine. If you really think this is the best time.”
As Titus stepped through the door he looked at his younger sister. Sadness swirled around her, mixed with anger, and there was no doubt it would be a complicated conversation.
“What happened, Anne?”
“I know what I have to do.”
“I am sorry.”
“Don’t lie to me. You aren’t sorry.”
“From what Cornelius said earlier it’s unlikely Dante will be joining us for the ritual, so you will have a chance in the next life, if he is telling the truth.”
“What happens if he changes his mind?”
“Then I’ll find a way.”
“A way?”
“To protect his soul, for you.”
“Like that’s possible.”
“I’m certain there will be a way, little sister.” Titus didn’t take his eyes off her. “You truly believe he’s your soulmate, don’t you?”
“From the way it feels when I’m around him I’m certain he is.”
“You’ve been in love before.”
“Until you shredded Elias’ soul.” Probably not the best thing to bring up, but Titus needed to know. “What I feel for Dante’s different. I don’t know how to put it into words, and you probably couldn’t understand even if I found a way.”
“Do you really think I’ve never been in love.”
Anne looked at Titus for the first time, and their eyes met. “I’ve never seen you with someone.”
“No, you haven’t, because I thought it was for the best. Especially after Elias.”
“What happened?”
“I chose you, the way I always have.”
Anne stood, and Titus knew he hadn’t used the right words. “You destroyed Elias.”
“Even I can make mistakes sometimes, and I admit I let my emotions get the better of me with Elias. Seeing the two of you together… I knew it couldn’t be, because I hadn’t found the answer.”
“It couldn’t be?”
“Until I’m able to make you, and the people you love, immortal, we have to keep working. It’s the promise I made you.”
“Titus…”
“Promises have power, Anne. We can’t pretend otherwise.”
“Yes, they do, but this… I release you. Walk away from all of this.”
Anne’s words were enough, but it didn’t change anything.
“Why, after all this time?”
“Every life, every transformation, every choice… I feel them, in a way I don’t think you do. Seeing Dante… he shouldn’t be my soulmate. He deserves someone better than me.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.”
“Anne…”
“While I was out I was thinking, going over everything we’ve done… how many people we’ve harmed, one way or another. I can’t be this person.”
“You are who you are. Running from it isn’t going to change it.”
“Maybe not, but…”
“One more life. That’s all we need.”
“Killing the Council to make it possible.” Anne breathed in deeply. “No. I can’t do it again, especially knowing there will be more death in the next lifetime, to give us true immortality. How many more?”
“It might be best not to know.”
“Titus…”
Bringing up Dante, and the power of the Fitzgeralds, wasn’t the right thing to do in the moment. “I don’t know what our next life will look like. Until I do I can’t answer the question.”
Anne raised an eyebrow. “Either way there will be more death.”
“For us to be immortal a sacrifice is necessary. I’m sorry. That’s how it is, and you aren’t walking away from this. Our souls are scarred, for a reason, so you have to stay.”
“Brother, I don’t have to do anything.”
“Please, Anne.”
“Stay here to kill yet more innocents.”
“We’re meant to walk this path together, little sister. This is the future we’ve been working toward since magic first became a part of this world.”
“Magic you brought to it.”
“Ignoring the call was impossible. Had I known what was to come I’d have left Glimmerbrook.”
They were words Anne couldn’t believe. “Don’t lie to me, Titus. I’m as good as you are now.”
“What I truly never wanted was to harm you, or our parents.”
“You’re the one who said they were weak.”
“Bodies incapable of dealing with the change, one way or another.”
“Lifetimes ago I asked you if there was something more to it, and you weren’t truthful with me.”
“This isn’t a conversation we should have now.”
“I need to know who you are, brother. You’re asking me to stay, and in order to do that, to go through this again, I need the truth.”
“Need? An interesting word to use, when this has never bothered you before. Does this have something to do with Dante.”
“Of course it does. When I look at him I know he’s a good person. A better person than I could ever be. He shouldn’t be tied to me for the rest of time.”
“Anne…”
“Tell me the truth, Titus. Did the Lockwoods come here to find magic?”
Silence followed her words, and the longer it went on, the longer he just stared at her, the more obvious it became she was right. The Ember who told her all those lifetimes ago was right.
“Yes, they did, and I was simply the one who got lucky. None of us knew what would happen.”
“Why, Titus?”
“We were meant to have it.” He shrugged. “Father was the one who pushed me to keep looking, because he believed everything Grandfather taught him. He believed I was the one.”
“The one?”
“Even before magic transformed our lives we had a connection to it. Father could See, in a very limited way, and he wanted to have that future. Only it was a mistake, because he’d never get it.”
“No, instead he died, magic taking his sanity, and him in turn.”
“Honestly, Anne, none of this matters. It’s the past. We can’t change it, so all we can do is keep moving forward.”
“Your lies matter. Why didn’t you tell me the truth, Titus? I don’t understand why you hid this from me.”
“At the time it was because you were too young.”
“How do you think I feel? All these years…” She breathed in deeply. “I need you to be fully honest with me, Titus.”
“Then that’s what I’ll be, but this isn’t an easy story to tell. Give me some time. Let me work though the emotions.”
“Lie to me again, and I will leave.”
Her words were full of the truth, and Titus knew there was only one path he could take, but it wouldn’t be easy. Some half truths to help them past the way of the problems, while the rest… it was probably an inevitability. He had to tell the whole story at some point.
“Fine. We can talk tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, Anne. None of this is going to be easy for either of us, and going back… remember why I made the choices I did. We were both young. Father… the choices he made were his own.”
“I know, Titus. Father chose his path.”