“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 wanted?”
“The gods are all-powerful, my love. The she-god, whose power is immense but it comes from her own conjured magic, is not. Regardless, all the gods grant us free will and we use it as we see fit, for right or for wrong. Minerva, however, capitalizes on the wrong. She insinuates herself and manipulates. She needs a being to make the wrong choices, or she uses malicious means to guide the weak to make wrong choices so that she can exploit those choices. And the other Cora, as I think you know, sweets, is very good at making the wrong choices.”
Something hit me. “Do you think she had something to do with Rosa being at her house the day of the wedding?”
“Yes,” Tor answered promptly. “It could be payment for Minerva agreeing to take her to your world.”
“But that would start the curse! She’d have to know that,” I cried.
“This would be a hideous thing to do, even for Cora, sending her delicate sister into the clutches of Minerva but I think you have learned that Cora is not above doing something hideous, even to her own sister. That said, she would also know that I would see to it that Rosa was rescued, which I did.”
The entirety of my body froze except my eyes. They blinked.
Then I whispered, “What?”
Tor studied me and as he did so I could actually feel the blood rushing to my face as the mounting anger rushed hot through my veins.