Page 100 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"It’s over." Roman squeezed his forearm. "You’re okay. It’s going to be okay."
Over?
No more curse. No more demon. No more Madeline. He should be happy to be free, but why did he feel as if he was dying? It felt like a betrayal to have his life in exchange for theirs. The vastness of an uncertain future, of years without his mate, stretched vacantly and terrifyingly in front of him. Was he supposed to continue to police the world of nonhumans?
He sensed Ky and Flynn as they also moved next to him. The smell of Flynn’s cherry lollypop assaulted him. His stomach growled in hunger.
Flynn pulled a pop out of his pants and held it out to him. "Want one?"
Shane shook his head. He rolled his wrist to stare at the smooth skin. No curse tattoo. This really happened. He managed to rasp out, "She did it? We’re free? All of us?"
"Yes," Roman said. "No more answering to the monarch."
He grabbed for Ky’s wrist where he stood next to him to examine it. No mark. A repeat found Flynn’s wrist equally ink free. He swallowed hard and looked up, not sure what to find in Roman’s gaze. "Are we free? Did the angel tattoos go away?"
"We’re free of the monarch," Flynn said with a shaky smile. "Roman made the king forget about us. But the angels are still there. At least—" He leaned forward to peek down Shane’s back. "Yep. Sorry to say that scary angel is still on you. Did you know he glows green?"
He dropped his head again."Baku, you sure you’re not there?"
No answer.
"You still with us, Shane?" Roman asked.
Shane blinked as he looked up again.
"You sure you’re all right? Head hurting? Anything else bothering you?" Roman asked. "You slept for five days. There was some super weird shit with the demon before you began seizing and passed out."
"Head hurts. Kind of wish I wasn’t awake yet." He groaned and rubbed his temples. He had to ask about her. He needed the details of her death, even if the concept of her being dead felt as if someone squeezed the sides of his ribcage. "Madeline. What happened to her?"
"She’s here."
"As in her grave is here?"
Roman frowned. Then his face scrunched up. "You two talked earlier today. She’s around somewhere. Probably in her room."
"I spoke with her ghost or something?"
"She didn’t die. She’s alive. The demon inside you offered itself as the ultimate sacrifice in exchange for her life. Your demon saved her."
"Baku gave himself up?" Warmth spread through him. "She’s alive? For real?" His head swirled when he stood too fast with clear plans to find her. The vertigo assault caused him to stumble backward and he ended up sitting on the edge of the bed holding his head again.
In a minute. He’d find her when his head cleared.
He tried to recall what happened when Baku separated from him. There’d been so much pain and then nothing. He must’ve passed out. "What happened that night? I can’t remember."
"She reversed the curse but the demon gave himself to free both of you. You started having seizures. Then Madeline had some sort of communication with your angel to help you live. The angel appeared all glowing green until you stopped seizing."
"Jeremiel showed up?"
Roman said, "I won’t sugarcoat it. He’s a scary motherfucker who looks kind of like Blackbeard without the beard on fire. For a second, I thought he didn’t approve of Madeline, but she came out on the good side after their little chat."
"I was out for days?" He checked the date on his watch.
"More like you were in a coma," Ky said. "Suspect you said or did something stupid to Madeline that you’ll regret given how fast she hightailed it out of here. That’s weird for you to be the one to mess up like that."
The seesawing between grief over the loss of Baku and elation that Madeline didn’t have to lose her life left him in a place adrift between two emotional extremes. He had to fix whatever he said to her earlier, despite having no memory of what that was.
As he stood, somewhat unsteady, he retained that weird sixth sense that had been permanent since the demon had taken up residence. It was a hyper awareness of everything as if he could see three-sixty degrees around him and know what was coming moments before it happened. He wondered if he had kept some of the demon’s abilities.
