Demi tilted her head. “Then why marry her?”
Why, indeed.
Did I really admit to Demi that I’d felt a void? That I’d been living out some Roman tragedy, even as my life looked nearly perfect? Especially when, for so many years, I’d convinced myselfshewas part of the reason. Of course, I knew better now. It had been me. My choices.
“I feel like I’ve spent half my life searching for something—or someone—to make me feel complete,” I said. “I guess I got tired of waiting. And I did love Carmen. Still do, just . . . not romantically.”
“Yeah,” Demi murmured, more to herself than to me. “I understand that. Wanting to feel whole. Like yourself.”
“That’s a good way to put it.” I glanced at her. “As good as my life is, and as much as I appreciate it, I’ve always felt like something’s missing.”
“Is your heart locked too?” she teased.
“Is that what it feels like for you? Like a piece of you is missing?”
She nodded. “A big piece. But I only have myself to blame. I messed with magic I shouldn’t have.”
“We’re going to find your true love and fix it.”
And not just because her father had promised me that helping Demi would lead me to what I’d been searching for. I wanted her to be happy. Truly.
“Which means I need to know everything about you. Including who you were in love with.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, wide-eyed.
“Why do you keep bringing that up?” Her voice was tight. “I thought I made it clear last night—it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk about him.”
I halted beside her and—foolishly—took her hand. It felt natural. Too natural. But I shouldn’t have touched her. It only made me want more. Want her.
She didn’t pull away. She gripped my hand like she needed the connection too.
“I spoke to my father,” I said, trying to ignore how good her touch felt. “He told me there are two kinds of true love.The first is the most common—when a love match becomes its purest form, when two people’s devotion makes them one. The second is rare. A soulmate. One soul, split in two, searching for itself.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “So what does that have to do with who I fell in love with? Obviously, he was neither.”
“Maybe,” I said, hesitating.
“Maybe?” she questioned. Clearly skeptical.
“My dad said soulmates are naturally drawn to each other. Hardly any force on earth can keep them apart. But if something—or someone—wrongfully forced their paths to deviate, it might confuse their souls. They could be in each other’s presence and not even know.”
She blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Trying to comprehend.
“Maybe locking your heart made your soul’s path deviate,” I added, thinking I was clever.
“What if it was something else?” she asked quickly.
“Like what?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But regardless, how would my true love’s soul come to recognize mine if we were wrongly or unnaturally torn apart?”
