Page 73 of Bad Moon Rising
Flynn lifted Roman’s upper lip and then peeked under his T-shirt. “You’re bruising everywhere. It means this is going on inside, too. I know how to counteract a lot of magical insanity, but not this. I don’t know if the curse will actually kill us, but sure looks like it might if we disobey.”
Flynn dialed on a cell phone. Speaking into the phone but not moving away Roman heard him say, “It’s an emergency.” Pause. “Don’t give me attitude, not when you and my mother…yeah, that’s what I thought. It sure as shit gives me leverage. Want me to talk to her about it? You don’t want to be on her bad side.” Flynn darted a glance Roman’s way. “The problem is none of us has ever fought an order from the Crown for this long, especially not Roman. After three days, it’s making him bleed internally. The order? To kill Nova.” More pausing on Flynn’s part. “I know we can’t do it and that she’s part of something bigger, but we might have to.” Flynn’s breath caught. He cradled the phone between his ear and neck to use his hand to massage his opposite wrist over the blood curse mark. The curse was punishing him, too. “I’m calling you for options on what the hell do we do? Roman’s probably within a half hour of dying from internal bleeding. I might not be far behind him.” Silence for at least thirty seconds from Flynn’s end. He grunted once. “That’ll work? Okay, I get it. I know it’s a shot in the dark.” He hung up.
Roman slumped further down the wall, unable to sit upright.
“You hang on, Roman,” Flynn ordered before he walked out. What seemed a long while later, but was probably no more than a minute, he returned with Nova.
Flynn said, “You two should sit side by side and look at each other. Roman, you tell her you’re going to kill her. Nova, you tell him it’s okay.”
“It won’t work,” Nova said. “It’s not like you can lie to it, and it’ll believe him. Because if we both meant it, he’d already have done it. Isthatwhat Dom suggested?”
“No, he suggested some crazy stuff about you doing what you know you have to do, whatever that means. You have to do it big, he said. I assume it means magic. Honestly, I’m not into it. Magic is too unpredictable. I figure if we can convince the curse that we’re all on the same page—”
“How long does he think that’ll buy us this time?” Nova interrupted. Her attitude was no-nonsense. Somehow, it eased Roman. Flynn might be tough. His brother excelled at fighting and technology. He could finish a job, but he wasn’t great at making life-or-death spontaneous decisions.
“A day. Maybe two. He didn’t know,” Flynn said. “In so many words, he said we’re fucked and will either have to die or do what we’ve been ordered. It’s how this curse works. We can’t simply decide to say no. We’re not in charge of our own choices.”
Nova put her hands on her hips. “I’m not bound by it. Curses are powerful, but the witch casting is limited in how wide a scope the curse can take on the victim, particularly if she didn’t get the victim to agree to the conditions.” Her breath caught as she realized what she’d just said. “I remembered something. Holy freaking shit. I remembered. That was amazing. How can I remember this random magic stuff but nothing about myself?”
Flynn asked, “Does that—”
She held up a hand to stop Flynn. “Let me try to remember more. It’s in my head somewhere, but I can’t get to it. Damn it.” She slammed her hand against the wall in frustration but yanked it back to massage one hand with the other. “Ouch. That hurt. Did you or any of your brothers agree to the curse? Did anyone utter a single word of consent?”
“No.” Flynn fiddled with the line of rings up the side of his left ear. “Can you do something soon? He looks worse than he did a few minutes ago.”
Nova grabbed more paper towels and wiped off Roman’s nose. Her warm fingers traced his face lightly.
They stared at each other for the longest time. Somehow, he understood her thoughts. Maybe it was the vulnerable look in her eyes. There was but one notable topic: One of them was going to have to die. Which one?
He wanted to touch her face. To reassure her he was okay with him dying so long as she got to live. But he was too weak to lift his hand.
“S’okay,” he managed to get out.
Her sad smile was so full of compassion. “It’s not okay. It’s truly not. You dying doesn’t resolve anything. Then it’ll be Flynn next, if he doesn’t try to kill me, and then your other brother will die.” She gripped his chin tight between her fingers and squeezed until it hurt. “I need you to be the stubborn, infuriating, sexy-as-fuck asshole I met in Berlin. Tell the curse it can’t have you. You belong to me.”
He belonged to her? She thought him sexy? Damn if everything inside didn’t fill with warmth. He may be misinterpreting this floaty, tingly sensation when it was actually him on the path to death. So be it.
She rose.
No, don’t leave. I don’t want to die alone.
She scanned the Spartan room, muttering, “So little to work with.”
After saturating a wad of paper towels with water, she straddled his legs to sit on his lap. As she squeezed out droplets of water onto his face, she intoned,“Troubles be gone. Washed away. Leave Roman free of punishment for several days.”
She repeated it four times. With each iteration, she splashed more droplets of water on him. Upon completion of the fourth recitation, she used the wet paper to clean his face.
He still felt weak, but he tensed to move in order to see if he was better. She put a restraining hand on his chest. “We’re not done.”
She lifted his wrist and wiped the blood-soaked, wet paper towels around the curse tattoo.“You’ve sent Roman strife and caused him years of pain. I reflect it back on you to feel every moment of its stain.”
Wind whipped through the room, around them, and tunneled outside.
A wicked smile lit her face. “Take that, bitch.”
Eyes wide, in a hushed tone Flynn asked, “What did you do?”
She collapsed with her back against the cold wall beside him.“I put a stay on his punishment for now to buy us a bit more time. It won’t be much. Hopefully, it’ll be long enough to get to the bottom of this and maybe find your brother.”
