Chapter 34
“What happened?”
Although the conversation they needed to have wasn’t going to be easy Anne breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Natalie’s voice.
“Do you remember anything?”
Silence followed, but Anne didn’t push for an answer. However long it took it would help to know where to start.
“Cornelius… he used dark magic, didn’t he?”
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologise for, Anne.”
Natalie might thing so, but Anne disagreed. “He kissed me.”
“Yes, I know. He told me the night it happened, because he thought I deserved honesty, and I can tell it’s not what you wanted.”
“How can you tell?”
“Rather than being down there, with him, you’re here, talking to me. If you’d wanted it what happened wouldn’t have bothered you. Obviously it did.”
“Natalie, I hate to say this, but it’s more than it seems. Cornelius… I don’t know if he’s there now. There’s another soul.”
“Another soul?”
“Belonging to Julian Ember. He… I haven’t got as much information as I’d like. Whoever he is he knows Titus, and it seems he might be from our first life.” Only that was saying too much, Anne shook her head, because it wasn’t as though Natalie knew anything. “Leonora was right.”
“I had my suspicions.”
“Cornelius came to talk to me about it the night he kissed me. He wanted the truth, to be able to plan for what came next, which, for some reason, led to his decision. I am sorry. Coming between the two of you wasn’t something I ever planned on doing. Now, though…”
Anne moved to the bed, sitting close to Natalie. “How much of any of this has ever been your choice, Anne?”
“Very little.” She breathed in deeply. “That doesn’t mean I don’t feel responsible. When it’s family… I knew I couldn’t stop him. From the beginning Titus was stronger than me.”
“With the dark power Cornelius has now I think he’d be stronger than you, even if he wasn’t sharing his body with another soul.”
“You think it was a choice.”
“He was angry with me. Jonathan leaving… he had good reason to blame me for the decision our son made. I couldn’t love him.”
“The lack of power?”
“I felt like I’d failed. He was my son, and he was born without magic. Every time I looked at him… it was never Jonathan’s fault. More than anything I wanted to love him, only I couldn’t. Then we had the girls. Unfortunately they copied me. At least he had you, Anne.”
“Everyone seems to have known.”
“When he talked about you he lit up in a way he wouldn’t have done if there weren’t feelings there. I wish it was enough for him to stay.”
“You weren’t the only reason he left. He felt like an outsider. Fortunately not having magic made it easy for him to leave.”
“If he couldn’t…”
“Had Jonathan asked me for help I’d have given it.”
The way Natalie looked at Anne made it seem as though she was angry for being honest. “You’re a better person than me, and I thank you for doing what you could for him. Only… if he was still here would it still be Cornelius?”
Angry at the situation, not an anyone specific. Understandable. “I couldn’t tell you. Possibly, but there’s a chance Jonathan staying would have caused this for a different reason.”
“You.”
“Natalie…”
“Even though you’re barely older than our daughters he’s attracted to you.”
“I’m not that person.”
“No, I know. This isn’t your fault, Anne. I don’t blame you, or him, for his feelings. Only that doesn’t change the way I feel right now either. Being around you…”
“When I convinced Julian to let me get you up here I promised I wouldn’t leave, but I could go downstairs. Give you some peace.”
“Tell me about Julian.”
“Honestly, there’s not much I can tell. I wish there was. From the way he spoke it’s what Titus wanted. He never wanted anyone to know about Julian, and I think it’s because he was an Ember with soul magic. To keep me from ever learning about the soulbond I had with Titus.”
“Soulbonds are complicated magic.”
“Complicated, and dangerous, from what I know of them. I’ve had some help from the Embers to try to understand what was done. Julian was against keeping it from me.”
“At least there’s some good.”
“Well, there was. Now he’s been transformed by the darkness.”
Natalie leant against Anne, who wrapped her arms around the older woman. “What do we do next?”
“Unless you want to go back down to the basement the best thing we can do is wait. Titus might be able to help Cornelius free himself.”
“If Cornelius chose this path he won’t want help, from anyone.”
They turned, moving to the edge of the bed, Anne sitting next to Natalie in a way that had never been normal. Before their worlds were turned upside down they’d never had a conversation.
“Cornelius will accept the help if he thinks Julian will lose, to show he never went against Titus.”
“Making the logical decision, that might get him closer to you.”
“Even if it would have he knows Leonora was right. About everything.”
“He’s going to die in a week.” Natalie breathed in deeply. “As far as he’s concerned it’s how things need to be, to force change on Glimmerbrook.”
“Although I understand his hope I think he’s wrong. Nothing will really change.” Anne studied Natalie. “I can’t save him.”
“Do you want to?”
“Yes, for your family, but it wouldn’t make things better between the two of you. He’d see it as a chance to connect with me, which isn’t what I want.”
“Could you ever have loved him?”
Anne sighed. “Emotions are hard to talk about at the best of times. I wish I did, so I’d reacted differently, because then maybe he wouldn’t have chosen this path. The future… I have a soulmate, and I feel like I should love him, but the bond makes it weird.”
“When I married Cornelius it was because my father thought it was the right thing for me to do. Regrets are something I believe we both have. Other arranged marriages have led to love. Neither of us found ourselves there, and I wish we had. For the same reasons.”
“He might come back to us.”
“There’s a chance he won’t, and Julian will find a way to stop Titus.”
“Unfortunately the bond complicates everything. Killing Titus means killing me, something I don’t think he wants to do, from how he was acting before, although that might have been Cornelius. It’s hard to be certain.”
“I suppose it depends on what he wants. You said Julian was affected by the darkness.”
“Much more than any I’ve seen before.”
“Then it’s impossible for us to work out what path he might take. He’s something neither of us have seen before. All we can do is see what happens next, together.”
“Do you honestly want me here, after everything?”
“I meant it when I said I didn’t blame you, Anne. Cornelius made a choice. Two choices, assuming he made the decision to accept help from Julian, in the belief it might save his life.”
“Had I been able to stop Titus years ago we wouldn’t be here.”
Natalie took Anne’s hand. “Don’t do that to yourself. I understand how complicated it must have been, especially with the bond there. That’s had an effect on every decision you’ve made. Although he might not have used it Titus had control over you.”
“How do you know so much?”
“Nora’s a friend.”