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“Why?” I ask as I sit down. “Why does it matter, I mean.”
She crosses her hands over her cards. “Professional curiosity…and I’m just nosey. Ah, well. I can dig it up later. I have all the charts I read filed away somewhere. So, if not a reading, what brought you two here today?”
I bite my lip. Roman and I didn’t really plan out this meeting ahead of time like we did with councilman Lawrence, but I’m still a bad liar. Granted, Roman probably wouldn’t be much better right now with how uncomfortable he clearly is. I wonder why he doesn’t like it here.
“Actually,” I begin, trying to stick to the truth as much as possible. “We were hoping you could come to our wedding.”
The words hang in the air between us, charged with emotion. I’m shocked that Aunt Angelica doesn’t immediately demand to know what’s going on. To know how and why I’m marrying a Montague. Instead, she just stares at me for a moment before slowly letting out a long breath. “No,” she says quietly. Her voice is soft, but firm. “I can’t do that.”
“But,” I say, taken aback. “Sorry, I should have started withwhy. See, we actually need a witness. It’s really more for my pledging than for the wedding itself, see—”
She cuts me off firmly, none of her former manic energy left in her voice. “I’m sorry Etta. The answer is going to be no. I won’t go into that temple again.”
My chest tightens and I can feel my heart drumming in my ears. The tension rises in my stomach as tears well in my eyes.
It hurts more than it should, and I know immediately why that is—why it feels like my aunt has just shattered everything for me in a single word. I hadn’t planned for a refusal, but there’s really nothing else to say. Nothing to do, when all my wild plans are crashing around my ears.
* * *
“We need to leave.”
My words come out in a gasp as I sprint out of the shop. Roman looks up at me from where he’s leaning against the window, legs crossed at the ankles, a bored smirk on his lips. “You okay, good girl?”
“Yeah,” I say bitterly. “Great.”
His smirk slips as he takes me in. My shaking hands, wide eyes, my manic, not even remotely normal smile. “What happened?”
I pause, licking my lips. Maybe I should wait and not tell him here? We could talk in the car.
His eyes flash with frustration, like he knows exactly what I’m thinking, and he adds: “Right fucking now, Etta.”
“She said no. She hates the Order and she won’t go.”
“You’re not serious.” Roman looks from me to the shop, a mixture of emotions playing out on his face. “There has to be something else we can do.”
I shake my head in frustration. “Like what? I don’t know why I didn’t realize this was a possibility. I mean, she was disowned and kicked out of the Order. It makes sense she would hate them.”
Roman’s face is torn with indecision as he glances back at the door. “I still think we can convince her. I’ll just—”
“No! I don’t want you to.”
I shake my head in defeat. Part of me wants to keep trying but the other part is just too drained to even contemplate another attempt.
Roman’s expression goes from concern to anger in record time. “So, you’re giving up.”
I take off in the direction of the car, leaving Roman no choice but to chase after me.“Yes,” I snap. “Because I don’t want to force her to do something that would hurt her, even if it helped us.”
“Okay, fine,” he says after a minute. “So she won’t come. We’ll find someone else.”
My feet stomp against the cobblestones he hates so much.“There is no one else. That was the whole point of making an exception for Angelica.”
“So, you’re just done?” he demands angrily. “No more plan?”
“No. I’m not done with the plan. The plan is done with me.”
He grabs my arm and yanks me towards him, the force of the spin taking me off-guard. His voice is low, his grip gentle on my arms. “Etta, stop.”
I meet his gaze, the intensity of his eyes piercing into mine. “Why? Can I just have a moment?”
