After nearly an hour of driving, Will calls his dad and tells him not to go home, because there’s a problem at the house that needs to be fixed—if by problem, he means part of the house being destroyed and all. I’ll repair the damage if I make it through the next several hours, and then most likely pack Cameron and Will up in their trucks and insist they get as far away from me and Anchorage as possible.
“So. These things.” Will cups the back of his neck and angles his head toward me. “What’s the game plan?”
Yes, Chloe. What IS the game plan? I’ve spent much of the hour wondering that exact thing myself. “I guess imprisonment. I’ve done it before.” I shift; my butt has gone numb. I’ve never been one for road trips, even tiny ones that barely constitute the label.
“When you say it’s immortal, do you really mean it?”
I twist my neck until it cracks. “I’m pretty sure that immortal means immortal, Will.”
He’s frustrated with my responses. “I’m just saying, how can we fight it?”
“We can’t fight it at all. I will fight it.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. And then—“Is that bloke you were engaged to like you?”
“Yeah.” I want to lean my head back, but I won’t have a good view of the side mirror anymore. I haven’t seen the Elder in a long time, but I know better. They always come back. “I mean, not exactly like me—but he’s a Magical.”
“You said you’re a Creator. I’m assuming it means you can create stuff.”
I exhale a breathy laugh. “That’s the gist of it.”
“What does he do?”
I twist my hair up in a faux bun and then let it drop back down. “He’s an Emotional. He can . . .” It hurts to just think about Jonah, let alone speak about him. “He can make anybody feel whatever he wants them to feel.”
Both of Will’s eyebrows shoot up. “That’s . . . incredibly fucked up, Chloe.”
Now that I’ve opened the floodgates, worry and love and concern come crashing through. What is Jonah doing right now? Is he in Annar? Here on the Human plane?
“And the brother?”
Another pang, right against the tender valves that hold my heart in my chest as I snap my attention back to Will. “The same.”
He pauses before he asks, “They make you fall in love with them?”
A glance out the window shows trees and snow all around us. I give in and let my head fall back, staring up at the cab’s roof. “No. I mean—not like you’re thinking.” My finger touches the spot where my ring used to lay. I twist my head until I’m facing Will. “They rarely ever used their crafts on me, and when they did, it was usually with my full knowledge.”
One of his long arms drapes across the steering wheel. “I sense a but.”
By now, I have little left to lose. Will knows what I am. I’ve dug our graves. So I give him the Cliff’s Notes version of Connections, about how I have two, and how it’s torn me in two. About how I met Jonah. How I met Kellan. How I planned on marrying Jonah. Cheated on him with Kellan.
When I’m done, he’s quiet. I pick at a popped stitch in the leather below me. “True love isn’t so shiny and desirable now, is it?”
He smacks my hand away from destroying his seat any further. “Let me get this right. You are incapable of falling in love with anyone else?”
I nod and resume my watch for Elders. “Well, I mean—I can love people. I love you and your dad, for example. I just can’t romantically fall in love with anyone else.”
“What made you decide to pick one over the other?”
I look away from the side mirror. “Huh?”
“Despite how you felt about both guys—you picked one. You told Jonah you’d marry him. If I’m not mistaken, you were actually willing to elope. Why did you decide on him instead of Kellan?”
I groan, rubbing the spot in between my eyes. “Ask the easy questions, why don’t you?”
“Were you with him because of a sense of obligation?” Will asks. Both hands are back on the wheel.
I shift to fully face him. “Whaaaat?”
“You said you thought Fate or whatever meant you two to have a Connection. You guys met in your dreams. Grew up together. Did you decide to stick with him because you thought you should? Because it was expected of you?”
I can actually feel my eyes grow so wide I fear my eyeballs are going to pop straight out. Pop right out and smack him straight in the face. If they do, I hope they explode and ooze gross eye juice all over him. It would serve him right.
“No!” My voice rings in the cab.
“He shows up at your school, and you had the perfect chance to reconnect with him. What do you do? You ignore him and fall in love with his brother. You hooked up with this other bloke multiple times. Pined for him. That’s very telling, Chloe.”