“Calm,” he said quietly.
Yeah, right. Calm.
We were waiting for Brianna and her friend to show at the same time we were waiting for Phoebe, who was hanging at my place, having volunteered to hand Noc his packed suitcase personally and see if she could pump him for information.
I wasn’t all fired up about this controlling blue mist magic business and I wasn’t because anything could go wrong. What if the world this Circe had been to wasn’t the Korwahk on Tor’s world? What if there were a bunch of worlds and Tor and/or me were sent to one of those – where there were savages and mighty kings with the strength of ten men?
Not to mention, what if Phoebe did something to alert Noc to the fact that all was not right with the Cora he knew and set him to doing something that would not bode well for Tor and me? And, I should mention, I wasn’t hip on Phoebe being involved in any of this, especially not Noc investigating the other Cora. My friend wasn’t exactly a super-sleuth. She was an administrative assistant, like me. And she couldn’t be swept away to a safe fairytale land, like me. She would be stuck behind, maybe considered an accomplice in whatever Cora was up to… or something.
But Phoebe had no qualms about wading in and actually seemed excited to be in on it all.
Then again, as I had mentioned before, Phoebe was more than a little nuts.
But too much could go wrong. I wasn’t all fired up to be at the mercy of blue mist magic or whatever Noc was doing with Cora but I was equally not fired up about sticking my nose in where it might not belong. And, it had to be said, I had no interest at all in melting.
“Tor –” I started, his eyes slid to the side and his jaw went scary hard.
I looked to where he was looking to see a man holding a paper cup with a cardboard sleeve staring at my crossed legs as he passed by. Tor moved, the man’s eyes moved to Tor, his face blanched and he hurried away.
I looked at Tor to see him turning in his seat in order to continue scowling frighteningly at the man’s back and I twisted my hand so I could squeeze his fingers.
“Honey,” I called softly and his gaze sliced to me.
“Although your garments are becoming, Cora, I do not like the amount of skin they expose,” he growled.
“Tor –”
He cut me off with, “You have lovely legs.”
Wow. That was nice.
I smiled at him. “Thanks, baby.”
His face went as hard as his jaw. “Too lovely,” he went on. “And they are mine and I do not like that other men gaze at them.”
Oh boy.
“Tor, this is how we dress in my world,” I told him something he had to know for I was wearing another little dress with a light cardigan and high heels but there were other women around us in Capri pants, mini-skirts, skintight tees or tops with huge-ass cleavage. It wasn’t like he was blind.
“I am aware of that, Cora, but that does not mean I have to like how you dress in this world.”
I held my breath, waiting for him to say something Tor-like to piss me off, like I had to go home and change into something he preferred, say, a floor length granny ball gown that covered me from neck to wrist to ankle. But, surprisingly, he did not say this. He let my hand go and his eyes slid around the room. Then the anger faded from his face and it grew pensive.
“Tor?” I called and his eyes moved back to me. Before I could ask what was on his mind, he told me.
“Why are you not taken in this world?”
“Sorry?” I asked.
“You are very beautiful,” he stated as if this was fact and my belly melted and continued to melt as he carried on. “Far more beautiful than any woman I have seen not only in my own world but especially in this one. There is no compare.”
“Tor,” I whispered, my heart growing light.
“This does not make sense to me. If the Cora of my world had not been destined for me, men would fight battles for her. They did write songs and poems to her beauty. She might not be likable but that didn’t mean her beauty was not desirous and greatly admired. You hold not only her beauty but a kind heart and a sharp wit. It is…” he paused, “strange that no man has claimed you.”
Jeez, I loved this guy.
“Um… the dating game is different in this world and –” I started.
“Dating game?”
“Uh… wooing,” I explained, “you know, courting.”
He shook his head and stated, “Rubbish.”
I tipped my head to the side and replied, “No, honey, it’s true.”
His eyes held mine. Then he leaned in, reached across the table between us and again took my hand. I studied the look on his face and twisted my body to face him, leaning in too, giving him my full attention.
When he had it, he spoke. “Cora, I have been thinking about this, noting your men’s response to you, your people’s response to us, and it occurs to me that there may be other powers at work here.”
Great. Other powers at work. Fantastic. Just what we needed.
“What do you mean?” I whispered.
“You are not claimed in this world. This is unnatural. With your beauty, your character –”
“Tor, honestly, it’s different here. It’s totally natural. Good women constantly –”
He shook his head and squeezed my hand. “It is unnatural.”
“Tor –”
“I’m a man, in your world or mine. Believe me, my love, this is unnatural,” he stated firmly.
Okay, I couldn’t argue with him being a man. He was definitely that.
I leaned in further and asked, “What are you thinking?”
“People observe us,” he remarked, I pulled in my lips and bit them because I’d noticed this too. “It is strange. I could understand men gazing at you; you’re beautiful, this happens in my world too. But the way their eyes are drawn to us, not only men but women –”
“I’ve noticed that too,” I told him.
“Something is not right about this,” he told me he was feeling the same thing I was feeling.
“Why do you think that?” I asked.
“I don’t think it, sweets, I feel it.”
Oh boy.
Yeah, he was feeling the same thing I was feeling.
“And what do you feel?” I asked hesitantly.
“You do not have destinies written in the sky in your world, do you?” Tor enquired and I shook my head. “And therefore, souls are not split in this world.” I shook my head again and Tor studied me. Then he said softly, “Cora, I think you hold the other half of my soul.”
I sat back swiftly, my heart clenching then beating madly and I stared at him then I said in a high-pitched voice, “What?”
His hand tugged mine and I leaned back in. “Minerva’s magic is blue.”
I shook my head but kept my eyes on his. “I don’t get it.”
“The vickrants aren’t born, they are made. Same with the toilroys. And the hewcrows. Minerva creates them. That is why, when struck, they bleed blue magic. That is why I was offended when you suggested I bled blue.”
“That’s a saying in my world, Tor, about royalty –”
He squeezed my hand and I quieted. “I know, love. But this mist that took us, it is also blue.”
Oh shit! I hadn’t thought of that.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“And Minerva, she is impatient. She’s been thwarted generation after generation. And I’m thinking that she knows of this world and knew of your existence. And therefore, to feed her need for evil, she split my soul but the other half she did not put in the Cora of my world, she put it in you.”
I wanted this to be true. I really did. But I didn’t think it was true.
“Tor,” I reminded him gently, “you fell in love with her on sight when you met her.”
“I didn’t know another her existed and I had grown up from the time I could comprehend to the time I laid eyes on her being told she was my one true love, my only, my destiny, the being that held half my soul. It would stand to reason having this ingrained since I could remember that my mind would conjure a love that was not actually there.”