AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You mean stuck. In love with you and then you drop this weight on my shoulders.”
He hesitated.“Yes, but I truly was seeking to make it as painless as possible.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make! You had a responsibility to inform me of what was really going on instead of treating me like a child.”
He dipped his head. “I see that now.”
“Do you? Or are you just telling what I want to hear?”
He didn’t say anything. Wise choice. He wasn’t completely stupid after all.
“Okay, tell me about the fading magic. It’s apparently so important as to make you lie to me about nearly everything.”
“Not everything,” he protested weakly.
She glared at him. “Really, you want to challenge me over semantics now?”
He sighed. “Our two realities are interconnected. One cannot be without the other, for they both sprang from the same reality.”
She wrestled her mind back into some semblance of order so she could actually think. “Basically, our worlds exist in symbiosis because they used to be one and the same?”
“Yes.”
She slowly drew out her words. “So the veil is trying to save itself and your world’s magic?”
“Not just those but our very worlds themselves.”
She shot out of her seat. “What!” He’d said the loss of magic impacted their worlds, not that it would lead to total annihilation. Big difference.
“In the end, it will threaten both our worlds if we can’t resolve the issue. The balance between our worlds has been upset. We believe the veil is seeking an equalizing influence before either can be irreparably damaged.”
“What’s causing the imbalance?”
He shrugged. “We don’t know.”
She gave him an owlish look. “That’s comforting. So what’s the effect of this instability?”
“Your world moving at an ever-increasing pace and your people forgetting about magic and nature, leaving humanity to burn itself out. Our world stagnates, leaving us incapable of sustaining growth, of sustaining magic. Magic is what binds us so closely with nature, makes us who and what we are. Already, our magic is a pale imitation of what it used to be. In essence, both our worlds are leading to the same end through different routes.”
She blanched. “That’s not good.”
His face set in somber lines. “It’s not.”
“But what does all this have to do with you and me?”
“Since the veil brought you here, it’s believed you are needed here for some reason.” Seeing her prodding motion, he shook his head. “You’re not going to like this.”
A humorless smile touched her lips. “I don’t expect to. Nothing I’ve learned has been any different up to this point, so try me. I promise to not fall into hysterics.”
“A solution. You’re seen as part of the solution or a missing piece of the puzzle. We both are. Unfortunately, no one knows where to find the rest of the puzzle.”
She swallowed, her mouth dry. He was right about not liking the news. How could she be a missing piece to anything? She was normal, not a woman with even one extraordinary power. To have that much pressure thrust upon her... How could she bond with him after all his deceptions?
How could she not if their worlds were truly in danger? She was well and truly trapped in a way she hadn’t been before.
“So you wanted me to fall in love with you because you felt compelled to do your duty? That it would make it easier for you to do what you must?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds so cold-blooded. I meant to make the experience more palatable for you. I did mean to keep you here until you bonded with me willingly. But none of that is working out the way I’d envisioned,” he finished lamely.
