Chapter 8
It was early, a time when Natalie should still be sleeping, although Cornelius couldn’t be certain. They hadn’t shared a bed since Jonathan left. Leonora looked at him.
“Has anything changed?”
“Unfortunately not, but then I don’t believe either of us thought it would. All the Council members I spoke to made the same decision – to protect their families.”
It was always the most likely scenario. Hope wasn’t the same as truly thinking something would change. Cornelius was their best chance, as he’d been Titus’s ally, until Julian helped him see the truth.
“Who did you talk to?”
“Beatrice, Wolfgang, and Marion.”
None of the three were likely to change their minds, and yet it was still worth an attempt. If they had accepted the truth it might have stopped the ritual. Titus, unfortunately, was too dangerous for them to make that choice.
“At least they know.”
“There was too much I couldn’t tell them.”
“You mean you didn’t want to bring up Julian?” Cornelius looked down at the floor. “I understand, Cornelius. Where do you start?”
“No one knew he existed. Even you had no idea until you came after the fight between him and Titus, when there was proof someone else had been here, but if I’d told Beatrice… there’s a reason I chose to work with Titus.”
“Having different generations on the Council was always going to be complicated.” Leonora dealt with it herself, because she was young, and the older members viewed themselves as more important. “Even if Titus did care his power means they see him differently.”
“They also worked out the reason I chose to work with Titus originally. Knowing I had no problem with them dying meant they had no reason to trust me.”
“You’re surprised by that?”
“Not surprised, Nora, but I hoped they might be able to understand. Only to them Jonathan meant nothing.”
“Unfortunately that’s the way things have been since the first was born without magic, and I agree it needs to change, but it’s not something you can force on Glimmerbrook with the death of the Council.”
“I promise I will if I succeed. Seeing the way they looked at me only made me more certain of my choice.”
“Cornelius…”
“Titus never cared enough, even though he never wanted any of those without magic to leave Glimmerbrook. He believes they’re the reason there is any magic elsewhere.”
“Oh, he’s right about that.” Leonora sighed. “I wish he was wrong, but that’s the only reason there could be, due to the wards. Jonathan may have children, or grandchildren, with magic, who have no one to teach them.”
“I’ve thought about going to find him if I stop Titus, but that… he’s not going to agree with the choices I’ve made, especially when it comes to Anne.”
“He was in love with her.”
“So am I.”
“Cornelius…”
“We aren’t going to argue about this, Nora. The best thing we can do is focus on what our next steps are going to be, if you are going to help me stop Titus.”
An empath would know for certain if Cornelius actually had feelings for Anne. Leonora didn’t have that skill, and maybe it was for the best. He believed he loved her, even though she’d once been in a relationship with his son, something Leonora almost understood, her own feelings for Emory almost as complicated. Love wasn’t a choice. It simply happened. Only when it came to Anne it might have been due to her power rather than anything else.
“Yes, I’m going to help, if you truly believe it’s the best way for us to put an end to the ritual.”
“Good.” Cornelius’s eyes met with Leonora’s again, seeing her uncertainty. “Julian was family, even though he had been changed by what he’d been through, so I hope you can trust him however you might feel about my reasons for this.”
“Family I know nothing about.”
“Julian would say he didn’t truly know himself either, because he never had a chance to grow into who he was going to become. He was fourteen when Titus pushed him into the fire.”
“Phoebe never mentioned him, and I’ve been thinking about others who might have done, because there were cousins. Not that Phoebe was close to them.”
“He said she chose Titus over everyone else. The decision she made was one he couldn’t understand.”
“She was in love with Titus. At least that’s what Celeste thinks, and the way she wrote about him makes it seem more likely that anything else, especially as she had his child – Sybil was his daughter.”
“People believed she was Wolfgang’s.”
“Of course they did. The only reason she chose to marry was the baby, to keep from being judged. It made sense at the time. Even now she might make the same choice.”
“When Julian talked about Phoebe he didn’t truly believe she was in love with Titus. I don’t know if that was his own dislike getting in the way, because that is entirely possible, but he thought she cared more about power. Titus was her best chance of having a child with strong magic.”
“Choosing Wolfgang as her husband says otherwise.”
“He was still a Munch. There’s a reason Wolfgang is on the Council now.”
“Anything is possible. Julian did know Phoebe better than we could. We only have the words she wrote, and she hid much from from us. Sybil was more honest. From the beginning she didn’t like Titus, but Anne she saw differently.”
“You didn’t.”
“Until I learnt about the bond I didn’t understand. I know Anne has the power to leave Glimmerbrook. The wards can’t stop her.”
“Julian explained her power is the reason for the bond. It would do worse than kill her if she couldn’t control it. Thaddeus Saw what was to come if they weren’t able to protect her.”
“Bonding her to her own brother.”
“At the time they weren’t blood related. Titus wasn’t a Lockwood – he was a Blackthorne.”
“From Ravenwood?”
“Left to die in the forest between the two, from what Thaddeus said. No one knew why.”
“No one?”
Cornelius shrugged. “Julian learnt more later on. Titus had a twin in Ravenwood, Lucian, and it seems there was a belief in the family twins were bad luck. As their father was able to slip out with Titus before any learnt of him he thought he’d protected them from any problems. Instead Thaddeus found him, viewing him as the opposite – he hadn’t been able to have children, so it was good luck he’d come across the baby.”
“For Anne it was bad luck.”
“Here, yes, but the other worlds…”
“Cornelius…”
“Julian believed they were real. Thaddeus Saw them. It’s even possible there’s a Glimmerbrook where they failed to protect Anne, although he thought it was unlikely, because that would probably affect all the worlds.”
“What we need to do is focus on this world, and this Anne.”
“You’re right. For us to stop Titus we need to find the birthplace of magic, and that’s not likely to be easy. There was a long period when it was hidden from everyone. Julian couldn’t be certain who first learnt of it, but once they did there were those who went looking for it. Everyone failed.”
“By failed you mean they didn’t find it? They died when they reached it? It is possible we could destroy Glimmerbrook.”
“Unless that’s a lie to keep anyone from trying to find it.”
“Possible, considering we are talking about Titus.” Leonora sighed. “However we can’t assume anything at this point.”
“Before we can put that to the test we need to find it, and Julian had a theory, based on how powerful Anne is.”
“He thinks she wouldn’t be as powerful if she hadn’t been born above the birthplace of magic.”
“Exactly.”
“So, before we can even start looking, we need to get past Titus’s wards, Cornelius. Do you honestly believe that’s possible, especially without him noticing?”
“Oh, I know it is. Julian gave me the power I need to make that possible. He knew if something happened to him I was the best chance of being able to stop Titus. We can get through the wards, Nora.”
Those weren’t the words she truly wanted to hear, but Leonora wasn’t going to let Cornelius look for it alone. Once they were friends. When Titus became the leader of the Council everything changed, but that didn’t mean she stopped caring, especially as he wasn’t the only friend she had in the house.
“Where do we go from there?”
“A more complicated question, but the likelihood is it’s going to be somewhere underground. If we enter from the back of the house, late at night, we’ll hopefully be safe from Titus, or Anne, seeing us. Julian suggested we dig without magic, although I don’t know how easy that would be, to keep from drawing attention.”
“Digging without magic is likely to take us too long. We need to move fast if this is going to be possible.”
“Maybe. We’ll see when we get there.”