Chapter 16
Footsteps came down the stairs. Anne wanting to have the conversation early, because she didn’t trust him. Titus kept his eyes on the books in front of him. Working out the right way to word everything wasn’t an easy task, to keep her where she was meant to be, by his side. If it wasn’t for Dante…
“Are you ready to talk to me?”
“When I said tomorrow I didn’t mean at dawn, little sister.”
“This is important. Every day that passes is one closer to the ritual, and that…” She tapped her thumbs. “Putting it off complicates my decision.”
“You’re truly going to stay, no matter what the truth is?”
Anne studied Titus. There was no doubt he was worried, hence the question. He thought she’d leave no matter what, so there was no reason for him to be open with her, and maybe he was right.
“I don’t know.”
“Before I bare my soul to you I need an answer. This… it’s not an easy thing to talk about.”
“I’m not going to pretend, Titus. You’ve never shared this with me. Not knowing what the truth is makes it hard for me to be able to tell you I’m definitely going to stay, especially with how I was already feeling. Everything I know right now is telling me to leave Glimmerbrook with Dante.”
“Choosing new magic over me, when I’ve been by your side since the beginning.”
“You decisions have led us to where we are, brother. I’m sorry. Being honest with you… I think it’s important for us both to be open with each other. About everything.”
“Even though you never cared before?”
“Don’t confuse not having the courage to bring it up with not caring. I cared. Everything we’ve done to get to where we are… it keeps coming back to those choices, and the reason I walked the path I did.”
“This all comes back to Dante.”
“In a way, yes. Knowing he’s my soulmate…”
“Unless he isn’t.”
“Please don’t.”
“He’s a stranger, Anne, and you’ve made the decision it’s fine to trust him when you have no idea what he might be capable of.”
“I love him, Titus.”
Titus still didn’t turn to her, the tension in his back a sign of how angry he was. Another time she’d have stopped.
“Again, you don’t know him.”
“Maybe not, but I know how I feel. That’s enough.”
“We’re not going to have the same argument again.” Titus breathed in deeply. “You were the one who said last night it could never be.”
“Loving him is the very reason I have to let him go.”
“So that’s it? It’s over?”
“For it to be over it would have needed to have existed in the first place.”
Anne was right, but there was no reason to believe she would walk away. Even though it was what she should do. Leave Dante, accept what needed to be done for them to gain another life, and wait for the right time.
“From what I was able to see it existed.”
“I didn’t come down here to argue about Dante again, Titus. Whatever might have been can’t, so… I need you to tell me about the past. All the lies you told through the years, believing it was the best way to protect me.”
“Not right now, Anne.”
“You were never going to tell me, were you?”
“For this to happen I need to know you’re loyal to me. I’m not going to lose you to Dante, because you can’t handle the truth. Every choice I made was for the right reasons.”
“At least as far as you’re concerned. Not everyone would agree.”
Then Anne was gone, her footsteps taking her upstairs, and Titus listened, to make certain she didn’t go toward the front door. It sounded as though she was heading for the back, to look out at the garden neither of them really cared about. Reuben created it for Elizabeth when she moved in.
Whatever Titus said there was going to be a reason it wasn’t the right time to be honest with her. How could she make a promise to stay? It was enough to know he’d lied. Lifetimes when he’d chosen not to be honest with her, and Anne no longer knew her parents. Was it both of them? Just their father?
Going back to their first life, and the promises he made to their father… Titus stared at the books, the Lockwood journal well hidden. He wasn’t ever meant to show it to Anne. She was to be protected, because she was the daughter their father never thought he’d be able to have.
Leaving was the logical choice. The truth didn’t change anything about who the two of them had become, and Anne could only accept the weight of those terrible decisions. Every time they lived another twelve died, scars covering their souls, because she believed it was possible. Like Titus.
If it wasn’t for Dante Anne wouldn’t even be asking those questions. She’d keep moving forward, the way she always had, because it was how things were meant to be. Becoming immortal took two things – the right ritual, and the power to make it possible. Power Titus hadn’t believed he could find.
Memories of those lifetimes, and all who’d been lost, were always going to be part of her. It didn’t matter if they went through with the ritual. Anne couldn’t run from the truth – and from the certainty Titus would never let her go. Leaving might give her one lifetime, but nothing more.
Until Dante, but if he was Anne’s soulmate… there were ways, most of them complicated, to deal with the problem, something he’d need another life to work into a ritual. One more might become two more, although there should be time when it was over to work through some of the possibilities.
No matter what choice she made Anne knew Titus would move forward with the ritual. Even without her there he’d do whatever he needed to in order to keep her with him in their next life, incapable of letting her live her own life, whatever lies he might tell about it being possible next time.
Anne wanted a husband, and children. She wanted the kind of life she’d dreamed of when she was a child the first time, until magic changed everything, transforming both their lives in ways she never could have imagined. Even then he’d known more than most, Seeing the deaths before they happened.
If Anne wanted to live a life she had to find a way to stop Titus, for good. Grief swept through her, the very idea of losing him… it was normal to feel sad about the thought of potentially killing her brother, even though he was truly evil. There was no doubt, after everything he’d done.
Pushed by their father, Titus did what needed to be done to bring magic into the world, their dreams coming true. It took a few days for it to take those who weren’t capable of wielding it, including their parents. Although it was for the best it hurt a lot of people… except him.
How did she bring it up to Dante? Anne stared out at the garden her mother loved, until her death when they were both children, childbirth taking both her and the sibling Titus didn’t want. Was it something he’d done to make certain it was just the two of them? No, he couldn’t have.
There were those who’d say there was something wrong with him, and they were probably right. From the time he was a child Anne was the only person Titus ever cared about, the sister he loved more than he thought possible, leading them to where they were. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, let her go.