Chapter 3
“What’s Cornelius doing, Nora?”
“Natalie…”
“Don’t, please. For me to be able to protect the girls from whatever terrible plan it is he has I need to actually know what it is.”
“It’s really not that simple.” Leonora sighed. “All of this…”
“You were the one who told me about Titus, and what was going to happen to Cornelius during the ritual.”
“Being prepared for the ritual was much less complicated.”
“Stop avoiding the subject. I know this is about Anne. Cornelius told me he has a very different plan for our future than I do, which… I get it. He’s never loved me. What happened with Jonathan made it much worse. My bad choices… they led us here. At least partly.”
“Natalie, you can’t blame yourself for the choices Cornelius has been making.”
“Oh, I can, because I know this all started with Jonathan. The son we both wanted, only to find he whatever power he might have had within him was trapped. It changed everything, in ways I don’t know how to put into words, Nora.”
“Cornelius knows there was something between Anne and Jonathan, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but it’s obvious he doesn’t care about that, because Jonathan isn’t here. The only person who can save Anne, in Cornelius’s mind, is Cornelius, which… he might be right.”
“Might be? Nora, I need you to be honest with me. Right now you’re the only one I trust will be.”
Leonora was silent, and Natalie studied her. Technically Leonora was closer to Cornelius, due to the time they spent together on the Council, at least until Titus took over from Reuben, because that changed everything. Now things were changing again.
“I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“Nothing about this has been simple, for any of us.”
“About what, Nora?”
“Titus, to begin with, but the rest… it only gets more complicated from there, Natalie.” Leonora’s hands rested on her hips. “I don’t know how much you’ve already been told.”
“What I’ve already been told doesn’t matter. Start at the beginning.”
“Do you know when the beginning was?”
“I get the feeling that’s not an easy question to answer.”
“Honestly, that’s the easiest part of all this. It started when magic came to Glimmerbrook. Titus, and Anne, have lived multiple lives, keeping their memories using the ritual, something he believes is necessary.”
“Anne doesn’t.”
“From what Anne’s said she wants a normal life, but that’s more complicated than it seems, because of Titus.”
“Which is why Cornelius wants to save her?”
“Yes, it is, and he knows more than most. Memories were shared by the soul Cornelius shared his body with, someone who also loved Anne. He wanted Cornelius to do whatever he believed was necessary to get Anne away from Titus, which is not going to be safe, for multiple reasons.”
“Titus being one of them.” Natalie breathed in deeply. “He’s already been by recently, and Cornelius wasn’t happy after their conversation, which wasn’t entirely unexpected. After what happened… do I need to prepare the girls for their father’s death?”
“Maybe. I don’t know, but I will do what I can to protect him from that fate, the way I tried to before.”
“That won’t be enough.”
“It probably won’t be, Natalie, but I’ll do my best. Unfortunately that’s all I can promise, because everything else… it’s mostly out of my hands now.”
“Which is more than I could ask you for. Nora… I don’t know what the right next steps are. How to make the best choices, because I haven’t been for a long time.”
“None of us do, Natalie, and it’s not going to get easier. At least not for a while. What happens after this is something even I can’t predict. I wish I could, because then I’d know what my future would be like, but I don’t. Titus hates me, which complicates everything.”
“Titus doesn’t like Cornelius much right now, either.”
“He doesn’t, but what Cornelius did… it can be forgive. At least I think it can. The Embers, on the other hand… it’s not just me who caused this. It started with Sybil.”
“Did Sybil know?”
“No, she didn’t. She was the first Titus’s daughter though, which… maybe that’s why it hurt so much.”
“Phoebe said Sybil was Wolfgang’s daughter.”
“There were a lot of lies Phoebe told. She was similar to Titus when it came to the truth, but I think Sybil suspected. It’s one of the reasons she didn’t like him, although she also suspected he was the reason for Wolfgang’s death.”
“Which he was.”
“Yes, from what we can put together Wolfgang was involved in the first ritual, and she never forgave Titus.”
“Neither would I, if I was in her position.”
“Sybil made the decision that led the Embers to where we are now. Titus… I could have made different choices, but I’ve never liked him. Even when he was little I could see the scars on his soul, which told me everything I thought I needed to know about him, and it was the same with Anne.”
“Anne was different.”
“Yes, she was, and I couldn’t see it, even though my daughter was one of Anne’s closest friends. Celeste stayed friends with Anne until her soul magic developed, which was when Anne started to push her away.”
“Jonathan was a safe option. He wasn’t going to see what she didn’t want him to, the way Celeste would.”
“Only it was more than that. Anne’s been through more than any of us can imagine. She’s the most normal of the two siblings, which might actually be thanks to Titus, and I don’t see her letting people in unless they truly mean something to her.”
“Cornelius became a friend, because he was one of Titus’s allies.”
“Yes, and because of that Cornelius was going to go through with the ritual, in the mistaken belief he’d be alive at the end of it. He thought he’d have a chance of making Anne fall in love with him.”
“Only she won’t.”
“No, she won’t, because she loved Jonathan. She might still love him, even though he left Glimmerbrook.”
“Is there anyone else who can help Anne?”
Leonora was silent for a moment. “Technically yes, but that won’t stop Cornelius, because he doesn’t think for a moment that the person in question will be able to help.”
“Why?”
“He’s new magic, Natalie, with no knowledge of how to use his power. Although he‘s strong he’s not as skilled as he technically would need to be.”
“You could teach him.”
“That’s what I plan on doing, but we don’t have a lot of time, and Cornelius…”
“Isn’t going to listen, because he believes what he believes, so nothing anyone said is going to change his mind. You couldn’t change his mind about the ritual.”
“No, I couldn’t, so he’s going to walk this path no matter what.”
“More than before I find myself asking why I married Cornelius. I knew then he wasn’t in love with me, and it was likely he wasn’t going to fall in love with me.”
“You married him for the same reason I married Samuel – our parents believed it was the right thing for us to do.”
“At least he respects you, Nora. That’s more than I have now, which I know is my fault, but I keep thinking maybe I should have waited.”
“For what? A spark with someone? If it hadn’t happened it was never going to. We knew everyone in Glimmerbrook, Natalie, and we had limited options when it came to who we were going to marry.”
“You have a spark.”
“Natalie…”
“Of course you don’t want to talk about it, but people have seen it, Nora. Probably even Samuel has.”
“Maybe he has, but Samuel knows I will never leave him.”
“Until recently I didn’t think Cornelius was ever going to leave me. Now everything is different. He apparently loves Anne, and believes he has a future with her, one he’s going to create.”
“I wouldn’t make the same choices. Samuel is the father of my children. That matters more than anything else.”
“Only Cornelius doesn’t feel the same way.”
“Maybe not, but that isn’t my fault. Like I said I will do what I can to keep him from walking this path.”
“I know, but I wish he’d make the decision for us, Nora. For his family.”
“So do I. Unfortunately that’s not who he is now. The man he’s become isn’t the man he was.”
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