“Um… the dating game is different in this world and –” I started.
“Dating game?”
“Uh… wooing,” I explained, “you know, courting.”
He shook his head and stated, “Rubbish.”
I tipped my head to the side and replied, “No, honey, it’s true.”
His eyes held mine. Then he leaned in, reached across the table between us and again took my hand. I studied the look on his face and twisted my body to face him, leaning in too, giving him my full attention.
When he had it, he spoke. “Cora, I have been thinking about this, noting your men’s response to you, your people’s response to us, and it occurs to me that there may be other powers at work here.”
Great. Other powers at work. Fantastic. Just what we needed.
“What do you mean?” I whispered.
“You are not claimed in this world. This is unnatural. With your beauty, your character –”
“Tor, honestly, it’s different here. It’s totally natural. Good women constantly –”
He shook his head and squeezed my hand. “It is unnatural.”
“Tor –”
“I’m a man, in your world or mine. Believe me, my love, this is unnatural,” he stated firmly.
Okay, I couldn’t argue with him being a man. He was definitely that.
I leaned in further and asked, “What are you thinking?”
“People observe us,” he remarked, I pulled in my lips and bit them because I’d noticed this too. “It is strange. I could understand men gazing at you; you’re beautiful, this happens in my world too. But the way their eyes are drawn to us, not only men but women –”
“I’ve noticed that too,” I told him.
“Something is not right about this,” he told me he was feeling the same thing I was feeling.
“Why do you think that?” I asked.
“I don’t think it, sweets, I feel it.”
Oh boy.
Yeah, he was feeling the same thing I was feeling.
“And what do you feel?” I asked hesitantly.
“You do not have destinies written in the sky in your world, do you?” Tor enquired and I shook my head. “And therefore, souls are not split in this world.” I shook my head again and Tor studied me. Then he said softly, “Cora, I think you hold the other half of my soul.”
I sat back swiftly, my heart clenching then beating madly and I stared at him then I said in a high-pitched voice, “What?”
His hand tugged mine and I leaned back in. “Minerva’s magic is blue.”
I shook my head but kept my eyes on his. “I don’t get it.”
“The vickrants aren’t born, they are made. Same with the toilroys. And the hewcrows. Minerva creates them. That is why, when struck, they bleed blue magic. That is why I was offended when you suggested I bled blue.”
“That’s a saying in my world, Tor, about royalty –”
He squeezed my hand and I quieted. “I know, love. But this mist that took us, it is also blue.”
Oh shit! I hadn’t thought of that.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“And Minerva, she is impatient. She’s been thwarted generation after generation. And I’m thinking that she knows of this world and knew of your existence. And therefore, to feed her need for evil, she split my soul but the other half she did not put in the Cora of my world, she put it in you.”
I wanted this to be true. I really did. But I didn’t think it was true.
“Tor,” I reminded him gently, “you fell in love with her on sight when you met her.”
“I didn’t know another her existed and I had grown up from the time I could comprehend to the time I laid eyes on her being told she was my one true love, my only, my destiny, the being that held half my soul. It would stand to reason having this ingrained since I could remember that my mind would conjure a love that was not actually there.”
“She hurt you,” I said softly. “You can’t hurt someone if –”
“She is beautiful and I wanted the magic that was supposed to be mine but never, until I met you, did she vex me so thoroughly, unless it was shaded with disappointment as to a lost dream. Never did my blood heat with her every move, word and smile. She never wept in my presence but every tear I saw you shed scored my soul and I cannot believe if I saw her weep I would experience that same feeling.”
“Tor,” I whispered, my hand tensing in his just as his words scored at my soul but I couldn’t say it wasn’t a beautiful pain.
“I do not wish to remember this or remind you of it, my love, but when you came into my study carrying your birthday gift, the look on your face…” He shook his head. “I felt your hurt and I felt it so deeply, I must have felt it just as keenly as you did.”
My hand tensed harder and I felt tears sting my nose. “Honey.”
“You are my other half, Cora.”
I felt the tears fill my eyes. “Oh, baby,” I whispered.
“These people, your people,” he tipped his head to the side to indicate the patrons of the coffee house, “they see this or sense it. This magic we have. This connection of souls. They do not understand it but they sense it.”
I felt my brows rise. “Do you think?”
“Yes, I do.”
“But… what would Minerva get out of that?”
“What she has got for the last five years since I met the other you. The opportunity to feed on my frustration, my heartbreak. It isn’t an entire kingdom filled with despair but it’s something. And if she did this, she would have my lifetime of frustration for I would never have you.”
“But if the blue mist –”
“She toys,” Tor interrupted me. “What, my sweet, is worse than not having the love you always knew you would have?” He didn’t wait for my answer but answered himself. “What is worse is having it for a time and then having it taken away. My father taught me that with nearly every day he existed without one of his wives.”
Oh God. He was right.
“So, you don’t think Cora is behind this?” I asked.
“I am uncertain. What I think is that Cora is as lazy as she is unkind as she is greedy. What I think is that Cora does care… too much… for my brother which would provide added evidence that she is not the other half to my soul for she would not feel this way about Dash if she was. I have always found this strange for I, until I met you, have never held feelings for any other than her and until we came to your world, I thought you were her. This,” he squeezed my hand, “would explain her feelings for my brother.”
This was true.
Tor continued, “What I also think is that Cora may have colluded with Minerva for some gain or so she herself would not have a lifetime of watching her sister and her love be wildly happy together. What I think is that she may be sly but she has nowhere near the sharp wit you have. What I think is that Minerva chose that Cora carefully, and in doing so chose you carefully, knowing all this would happen. What I think is that Cora would convince herself she could play Minerva but Minerva is manipulating Cora and feeding off her unrequited love or her greed or her malice or all three.”
“But that would mean you think Cora would bring down the curse,” I remarked.
He shook his head. “I couldn’t imagine even Cora would do that. She knows how the curse works. She knows me. I did not consent to meet her until after I re-secured my birthright. She knew the warrior I was. She would know I would do everything in my power to stop the curse. It is my conjecture that Cora agreed to leave that world so as not to have to watch my brother with her sister and she would assume I would stop the curse. Either way, her being here would mean she wouldn’t be in Minerva’s clutches therefore the curse would never fully culminate.”
“Maybe she didn’t do any of that, Tor. Wouldn’t Minerva just do as she wished to toy with whoever she
