AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Twelve
I sat on Roarke’s couch, reveling in the sweet taste of peppermint against my tongue. I’d almost done the most mortifying thing and still wondered if I’d regret it if I had followed my heart instead of my head.
Roarke poured himself a cup of tea and sat down beside me. “Tell me your concerns, Milly, and I’ll try to answer them the best I can.”
I swallowed a mouthful of the hot liquid, accepting the burn all the way down my throat. I wasn’t sure how to express my concerns or really what they even were… I just knew I still had doubts. Doubts if I could do this. Doubts about what it was we were doing at all. Doubts about his feelings for me.
“I’m not sure how to explain it. I just still don’t understand how all this works.”
Roarke set his cup on the glass coffee table and took both of my hands in his. “I’ll try to lay it out chronologically and see if that helps.” He smiled kindly. “When I turned twenty-three in my original life, the Weaver magic sparked inside me. My family comes from a long line of Weavers, and it was either me or my brother who was next in line, and it just happened to be me.”
“Wait. What do you mean your original life?”
“Once you accept the position of Weaver, your lifespan changes. Slowing and stretching across all of time and space. I accepted the title over one hundred and seventy-five years ago.”
I stared into his sparkling eyes, awestruck as I tried to imagine all he’d seen and lost.
“Since then I’ve served as the Weaver alone, always searching for my queen.” He reached out, brushing a finger down my cheek.
“I thought you said your queen brings you the balance you need. So what did you do without me for the last hundred and seventy-five years?” I hated referring to myself like that. Like I was somehow important in the grand scheme of things.
“Yes, that’s right. And if you haven’t noticed, the world hasn’t exactly been going great for a really long time.”
My eyes widened. “You mean to say that if you’d found me earlier, the world itself would be in a better place?”
Roarke’s lips tipped into a grin. “Yes, Milly, that’s what I’m trying to say. The world at large… and my world too.”
I pulled my hands from his. “See, this is part of what I don’t understand!” I stood, needing to move while I worked through all the thoughts pounding in my head. “Every night I wake in the dreamscape where you and I basically take a magical vacation, ignoring anything and everything happening around us. And that’s somehow supposed to help the real world?” I tossed my hands in the air. “I just don’t get it!”
Roarke sighed. “Let me try to put it in witch’s terms. You’re familiar with the rule of three, yes?”
I nodded.
“Then think of it like that but times a billion. Every thought, promise, hope, and dream of all of the people in the world is cast into the dreamscape every night, and whatever they put out can be accessed by us. Then my magic—the Weaver’s magic—without any effort from me, takes those hopes and dreams and molds them into something that can help that person. Like with the sphinx and the pharaoh, the Weaver of that time guided him to make a discovery that would change his life and the world. Like the rule of three, whatever energy a person casts into the dreamscape, be it positive or negative, can be returned a billionfold. It’s up to us and our magic to bring balance to that.”
His words sank like a stone in my gut, only to rise again on the back of my hopes and dreams. The Weaver magic was what affected the world, and we were simply its vessels. I was beginning to understand.
Though more questions lingered in the back of my mind—small questions that rose and popped, coming and going in the span of a heartbeat, then floating away like a bubble on the wind—I finally felt as though I might actually belong. My hereditary magic was what got me here, but if I chose to become the Weaver’s queen, I’d be strong enough to effect real change in the world.
I sat back down with tears in my eyes. “Thank you for choosing me.”
Roarke cupped my face, his thumb rubbing tiny circles across my cheek. “Milly, it’s I who should be thanking you. I’ve been alone for so long, and, so excited to show you my world, I never considered it would be hard for you to accept. So thank you for your patience and for allowing me to explain.”
Heat blossomed beneath my skin, starting under his thumb and spreading to every cell in my body. He was exactly like me. Alone for most of his life and putting on a brave face. Fighting past his shyness while still unsure. Forever hiding beneath that damn cloak, all the while waiting for me.
“I want to try something.” I leaned forward, placing my forehead to his, our third eyes pressed together. “Will you allow me in? Will you allow me to see?” I guided my magic up to the point where our skin touched, hoping he’d say yes.
Roarke tensed but shifted his body closer, then closed his eyes. “Of course.”
There was no need to speak my spell aloud, so with my eyes closed, I cast my desire into the ether without saying another word. Images flashed within my mind’s eye. Pictures of a young Roarke and another boy running through a field—his brother. Their family gathered around a wooden table, laughing and breaking bread, happy and fulfilled. Starry skies, the likes of which I’d never seen, painting a map of all the different worlds available to his father, the Weaver before him. Then Roarke with his arms splayed wide, his chest bursting with cosmic magic as he was deemed the next in line.
Images morphed into emotions, and I began to feel what he’d endured over the last century. The void left by losing his family. The utter isolation of always being alone. The constant nagging that something was missing from his life. And the never-ending search for the one who would make him whole.
I pulled back, breaking our connection. He’d been laid bare before me and knew what I saw. The vulnerable expression on his face confirmed as much, and it broke my heart.
Emotions still raw, I simply asked, “Can you give me until tomorrow night?”
Roarke wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded slowly. “I’ll be waiting.”
