How The Truth Changes Things

Dante stared at his hand. I hoped he believed me, but my decision would affect the relationships I had with every member of my family. Even though I’d known it from the beginning I’d held on to the hope, as foolish as it turned out to be, my sons wouldn’t have magic. With Victor being magicless it was the more likely scenario, especially after I’d blocked my own power, only for my eldest to be a strong Seer, and the twins… they needed Marren Vale. Only Dante’s nightmare… I ran my tongue over my bottom lip.

Victor wasn’t going to change his mind for any reason. He didn’t understand magic, so he wanted to take the twins to somewhere they’d be able to learn from someone who did, and it wasn’t as though he trusted me to be their teacher after hiding my own from him for years. Now it seemed I’d lost Dante’s trust too, making a gesture I’d believed he’d appreciate into something that made him uncomfortable. Gently, seeming uncertain, he ran his fingers over his palm, before looking back at me.

“Thank you.”

“I should have asked.” Sighing, I looked out the window, at the garden I’d have to leave behind. “Mama helped me break the block I put on my magic when Victor made it clear Marren Vale was the only option. Having it back… it’s complicated, but necessary.”

“You blocked it?”

“With Marion’s help.” At least seeing my old friend might make the transition easier, although she wasn’t the only person I’d be reconnecting with. “She had the strength to do it, and I wasn’t going to ask Mama, because I knew what she’d say. I wanted children, without the fear of having to return to Marren Vale. Clearly I failed, in part due to your father, which he’s not willing to accept either.”

“Both of us chose to keep our magic from him, and I’m not certain he’s willing to forgive us. The problem is I think the twins do need someone who can teach them, so he’s not wrong to want to go, whatever our fate might end up being.”

“Honestly, Dante, that’s the worst part. It would be possible for me to teach them, if both had magic from my bloodline. The problem is I don’t know who your father’s related to. Before the death of the last Titus it was rare for people to leave Marren Vale, but now there’s freedom of movement, so it complicates that even more than it would have been, because then I could have just gone through the old records. Clearly he doesn’t have any idea, as he didn’t even believe me when I said he must have magic in his bloodline.”

“Are the twins Seers?”

“From the signs I’ve seen up to this point I’d say no. You’re the only Seer in the family. That doesn’t mean they haven’t inherited my magic, but when it’s two families anything is possible. Even now the bloodlines are carefully tracked, although… the first Titus Lockwood was a Seer. He had no known children, yet it was passed on, we believe through the Riordan line.”

Closing his eyes, Dante breathed in deeply. “You can trace your bloodline all the way back to the first mages of Marren Vale?”

“Every one of the families can, whether they’re Greater or Lesser.” I studied him. “Before I married I was a Saint John. Your father gave me the Fitzgerald name, but it’s not one I know, so my assumption is it was either changed via marriage or whoever left Marren Vale made the decision to change it.”

Slowly, Dante nodded. I gave him time, recognising a state my brother occasionally slipped into, a word or phrase helping connect him to something. He could only See the future, but there were others who Saw more. Dante might be one of them. Finally, eyes opening, he ran his tongue over his bottom lip, a reminder of Victor. Even though their relationship was more complicated than it had been before he was much more like his father than he was me, while the twins took after me.

“Do you know the Diaz name?”

“You’re certain?”

“Mostly.” He looked down at our hands, neither of us seeming willing to let go of the other. “It’s fuzzy. There’s… I think I lived in Marren Vale in a past life, and what you did… it broke a block, that I didn’t choose, but existed because that’s just how life is. Most don’t remember the lives they lived before. She’s the reason I do – Marion’s daughter, Anne.”

Nearly two decades had passed since I used magic. I hadn’t forgotten how, but I was rusty, and I looked more deeply at Dante, something I couldn’t have done before. Mama’s family was related to the Riordans, which gifted me with certain dangerous magics she made me promise not to tell anyone about. Only I needed to see who my son was, because that… Father was insistent I knew our history. He took me all the way back to the beginning, so I saw certain patterns, coming to a conclusion I now worried far more about. A copy of Sybil Riordan’s journal had found it’s way to me too.

All souls had bonds. Some were more permanent than others. Dante, like Marcel and Anton, was connected with me, because I was their mother. They had a similar bond to their father. Weaker bonds linked them to their grandparents, including my father, along with uncles, aunts, and cousins. I had a bond with Victor, due to our marriage. Unfortunately I’d never been able to see my own soul, not even in the mirror, but I believed I’d have bonds with both Isaac and Marion, for different reasons.

When I looked at Dante there was another bond, a far more complicated one. I believed, from what I’d read, it was a soulmate bond, linking him to someone far away. He said it was Anne Lockwood. Due to that I had a decision to make, a complicated one. Being honest, telling him everything, would build trust between us, but there was also a chance it would affect the future. There was a chance it would be a good thing. As he’d shared his nightmare with me I had a chance of being able to keep that from happening. Only I couldn’t change the past.

“How much of what I know do you want me to share with you?”

For a long time all Dante did was stare at me, a silence I took as him doing his best to work out what he wanted, because it wasn’t a question he’d been expecting. He didn’t know about my past. Learning I’d called Marren Vale home changed everything for him, as I did have far more information than he thought I would. I knew Marion, a woman I might end up dying beside, and that… it made a strange kind of sense. The two of us went through a lot as teenagers, both of us dealing with complicated fathers. Gregor was the kind of father I wouldn’t have wished on my worst enemy, let alone my best friend, so we’d often try to avoid our respective homes for as long as possible.

“I don’t know, Mama. There’s part of me which thinks I need to know everything, because otherwise I can’t make an informed decision, but then there’s the other side, which says if I know everything it will change the future. Even knowing what I do has already done that. You’ll go with Father, and that…”

“Please don’t worry. I know about the house.” His eyes met with mine. “The Tyrells gained a reputation for using dark magics, and Marion taught me ways I’d be able to protect myself, when it became more of a necessity. Isaac was mostly untouched, he was naturally too light for the house to change him, while Marion… that was more complicated. She was the one who’d inherited the Tyrell power, so Gregor chose her as his heir. Hence the family living in the Tyrell house. Marion, or Thaddeus, would have inherited it from Gregor if he died, something I can only assume did happen from what you’ve said.”

“Titus and Anne?”

“Much more complicated.” I squeezed his hands. “This is where I need your decision. You may learn it naturally, because you are a Seer, but I can share it with you now.”

“What would you do, Mama?”

“How do you feel about going to Marren Vale?” A violent shiver went down his spine he couldn’t stop. “Even knowing you have a connection with Anne?”

“She chose Anton.” There was a jealousy in his voice I wasn’t certain he heard himself. “I was there, in the circle, standing opposite Titus, but she took Anton somewhere safe.”

“Can you tell me why you think she did that?”

Blinking, the emotion fading a little, Dante closed his eyes. “I don’t know. She chose me before. We left Marren Vale together, and then he took her from me. Titus hated me from the moment we met. Anne… I loved her, Mama. Even now I still love her. How can she do that to me?”

“Let go of the emotion for a moment, Dante.” I tightened my grip on his hands. “What you need to do isn’t easy, but it’s the only way you’re going to be able to answer the question. Anne helped Anton. You see it as her choosing your brother, which is understandable. However there could be a different reason for her decision.”

Until he opened his eyes, a realisation within them, I worried I might not have done enough. “She knows.” I raised an eyebrow. “Of the three of us I’m the strongest, and she couldn’t have left with both the twins, due to the number necessary for the ritual.” Dante knew far more than I did about that, probably due to his past life. “Leaving me means I have a chance of being able to stop that future from happening, but every time I failed.”

“Like I said before, I think you were trapped in a loop. You could only See the time you failed. Now, though, you have a chance of Seeing the other possibilities. With time, and someone to teach you, I think you’d also be able to control what you See, so it’s not just the dreams.” Even though I didn’t believe it was possible Dante’s skin paled. “Do you not want to be taught?”

“Titus is a Seer.”

“How can you see him?”

“The bond.” I shook my head. “Anne’s soulbond.”

“Soulbonds between siblings are very rare.”

“Not that kind of soulbond, Mama, but a created one. She didn’t understand why it existed, and he wouldn’t tell her. I think it means I can See Titus through Anne.”

I thought back to Sybil’s journal. She saw the scars, which she believed were linked to a ‘ritual gone wrong’, but there was no mention of the soulbond, probably due to her not actually being able to see it. Every mage was slightly different, and no one with soul magic was born for a very long time after her, because the Riordan power faded. The time came when it returned, just before they’d have lost their seat on the Council entirely. At least that was what the Saint Johns believed.

We had a seat on the Council until it no longer existed, which was another reason Father tried to ingratiate himself with Gregor Tyrell, because he said he believed the day would come when the Council existed once again. There was something more to it. Marion spoke of her father being power hungry, and there were rumours, that she never said weren’t true. I knew Father was the same, so I never judged her for Gregor’s decisions. Only being in the house… the hardest part was how much I actually came to like Gregor. From the very first time I met him he was kind to me in a way Father never was. He even explained the situation to me before he went to Father when Isaac fell in love with Petra, telling me he’d be able to find a fitting husband for a Saint John daughter without any difficulty. Had Father not done what he did… well, my life would have been very different.

“Before I share what I know about the Lockwoods why don’t you tell me what you remember.”

“Do you believe me?”

“Yes, darling, I do.”

He breathed in deeply. “I don’t want to believe me.”

“Nothing about this is simple.” I drew him closer, leaning forward at the same time, kissing his forehead. “We can leave this conversation for another time. Your brothers are probably going to be up soon, and we’ve got a couple of days, so it’ll give you a chance to think things through.”

“Mama, could I stay here? With Grandma, or Uncle Harald?”

“Is that truly what you want to do?”

A single tear rolled down his cheek. “I don’t know.” He bit down on his bottom lip. “When the ritual ends I’m alone, and I’m transformed, into something else entirely.”

That didn’t sound like the ritual I’d heard of, but maybe it was different. Only Titus… it was complicated. Sybil never liked him, due to what happened to her father, but he did so much for Marren Vale. If the Riordans were right it was the same every time. He’d worked hard against the belief those born without magic were inferior, even though it was deeply engrained by his second life. Most trusted him. A few believed the rumours, there were mentions of their choices in every family’s journals, and yet he never gave up on Marren Vale. Even the last ritual, when he died, no one was quite willing to believe he’d caused the deaths of the entire Council for no reason.

Dante did return, with news of Anne’s death. He truly believed Titus caused it, and the deaths of all those on the Council, but the unwillingness of those within Marren Vale to agree with him led to his decision to leave, for good. I didn’t read any more mentions of him after that. Obviously he’d gone on to live his life somewhere else, which might have led to Victor’s birth, something I’d never have known if my own son hadn’t told me he believed he lived in Marren Vale before. No one in the family knew Dante’s family name, or even where he’d come from. The Riordan journals from that time disappeared entirely, although I read about Celeste, because she did have a position on the new Council, created by Emory Lockwood. She seemed to be the only one who knew of his existence before then.

“Give yourself today. We can talk again tomorrow, and you can see how you feel then. This isn’t a decision you should make with your emotions. Although I understand why you’d make that choice it’s possible what happens isn’t planned.” Dante stared at me, anger blossoming in his eyes. “Every decision you’re making is coloured by how you already feel about Titus. People are more complicated than they seem. No one is perfect, and it’s possible he makes a mistake, that leads to what happens in your nightmare.”

Even though I expected the opposite Dante’s anger faded. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply, and I stayed silent, the way I had before. Clearly he needed time to work through everything, so I just kept hold of his hands, being his support. What he Saw was a mystery. I’d learnt from my brother I didn’t want to be a Seer, but if it hadn’t been for him I’d have died. Mama was there when I needed her thanks to him, even though he knew it meant we’d probably leave, while they’d stay with Father, to be the Saint Johns he needed them to be. The last hug he gave me he apologised, said it wasn’t because he cared more about Father. Maybe he knew I’d return at some point.

“Mama, I wanted to hate him, the way I did before.” Dante didn’t open his eyes as he spoke. “It would have been so much easier, but this… I’m certain it’s the bond. Being Anne’s soulmate makes it possible for me to See so much more than I think even Titus can. Although maybe he hasn’t tried. He’s limited by his belief he can’t See what happens the night of the ritual because I’m there.”

“Anne explained it to you.”

“Once, a very long time ago. She was the one who taught me how to See.” He breathed in deeply. “Little by little I learnt more about my family, and the reason my magic was so strong. My father was a Diaz, who knew nothing about his power until a block failed.” I didn’t need him to say anything else for me to understand what the most likely scenario was after that. “Then my mother was a Redfern.”

“She can’t have been.”

“Jacob lived. I even met him, although I didn’t know anything about who he actually was until the conversation I had with Anne. We theorised it was due to him getting flooded with magic twice, because he’d made the journey to the past successfully, but hadn’t been able to return. She thought it was likely he wouldn’t have known he was immortal until it was too late. By then he’d already had children.”

Leading to Dante, who had three different Seer bloodlines, if he was right about Victor. “Can you See anything more about your father?”

“Not yet. I think I will, but it might not be until we reach Marren Vale.” He opened his eyes. “There’s no other option. For me to have a chance of stopping what’s to come I need to be there the night of the ritual. Your relationship with Marion might even open doors for me, Mama, because if I can talk to Titus before… he probably won’t believe me.”

“He’s probably already Seen what’s to come, Dante. Even if he doesn’t know what happens the night of the ritual he’ll be able to See what comes after, and if he has then he’ll be willing to work with you to keep that from happening, for Anne.”

“More to undo the damage he caused when he killed her.” Dante sighed. “I’m not going to pretend I like him, but you are right – what happens the night of the ritual isn’t his fault. That I can only blame on the Tyrells.” He squeezed my hands. “Not Marion. From what I could tell she’s a good person, and she’s only there that night to save her family.”

“Yes, that sounds like Marion.” I couldn’t help smiling. “What I need you to do is talk to your father.”

“Do you honestly believe it will be different to last time?”

“It will if you tell him you’ve changed your mind. You need to rebuild your relationship with him. Explain you were scared of what it meant to have magic, so you weren’t ready to tell anyone. He wasn’t the problem in any way, no matter what he might think, but you’ve worked through that fear, and you’re ready to make the journey to Marren Vale.”

“Are you going to do the same?”

“The fractures in our relationship are much deeper. I’ll try to undo some of the damage, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to.”