Page 31 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"I doubt they want to incite an international terror incident over us. Have you been bombed before?" His penetrating gaze made her squirm.
She swallowed, remembering the bus station in Karachi. The initial boom wasn’t memorable, but she’d never forget the whooshing that came after the bomb detonated. Glass had shattered. Chairs and people lay on the road near her outside the station. She’d smelled and tasted the burnt metal and flesh. Nothing more than superficial cuts affected her, which was a miracle given the number dead. She’d held people’s hands, telling them to hold on until the ambulances arrived.
Enough remembering that awful day.
"I assume that’s a yes. Why are they so intent on killing you?"
She wasnotready to discuss that, but his tone suggested he already knew the answer.
"Are you…" She nibbled on her lower lip while scrutinizing his face. "Yourself?"
"I’m never completely myself anymore, but I’m in charge right now."
She squinted to catch the color of his irises in the low light. "Your eyes… At least, that’s how I can tell. They went completely dark when the demon ran the show." Somehow his gaze sucked her in and stole her thoughts. She shook her head and eyed the exit.
"Madeline. You're staying until we talk about a few things."
One shaky breath. One more glance at the door. Maybe she could delay a few minutes to get information on how to undo the boomerang spell, or at least find out who cast it. "All right. A half hour."
He crossed his arms. "So that you and I can have an honest conversation and not want… How about before anything else, we resolve this spell you cast on me. The desire spell."
She looked upward and held up her hands. "I swear, there's no desire spell."
"You clearly wrote in your note:Your desire will bring you back to me."
"I meant yourdesireto get free of the curse."
"It'll make me happy if you reverse it. Humor me."
"If it helps youbelievethere's nothing connecting us." When he continued to glower she said. "Fine. I'll reverse this phantom spell. Then I have to go. I just need a few hours alone. Then I promise I'll return for us to chitchat about whatever." Perhaps, Shane's belief in her words had been strong enough to will magic into existence. But she wasn’t sure how to reverse a fictitious or imagined curse.
Energy buzzed through her, wild and free. And such a relief. The singing had replenished her energy. Or maybe it was healing Shane that did it. When she healed dragons, it energized her. Music had never recharged her in the past. If it had, she would've been at every dance club across Europe over the past year. "Let me see if I can find what we need to do a spell reversal. Can you look around for a lighter or match? And I need a piece of paper or something I can easily burn for smoke."
He pulled a lighter out of his inside jacket pocket.
"Perfect," she said.
A dash through the lower floor and she found one standing mirror on the wall and a small mirror that comprised the top of a jewelry box. She propped the jewelry box on a chair and opened it so that its mirrored top faced the wall mirror.
"Stand next to me between the two mirrors," she directed.
He moved in close, but not touching, and handed her the lighter and a piece of paper. Too close. Too warm. Oh my God, he smelled amazing—fresh like coconut soap and something masculine that was all Shane. Everything about him was large—his hands, shoulders, forearms.
You’re staring.She cleared her throat. "Take off any talismans, charms, trinkets, and whatnot that might prevent a spell from working on you."
"I’m giving you a high level of trust here. Last time I was free of these you cuffed me to a bedframe." He removed one medallion from around his neck and laid it on a nearby table. Then he removed four things from different pockets in his jacket to lay next to the medallion.
"What about the other one around your neck?"
"It's a patron saint medal. Nothing magical."
"It's magical too," she muttered but assumed it to be a different type of power. She rolled the paper and lit it. While waving the smoke around them, she said, "The magic spell upon us be trapped between mirrors in this night. Never let it see the light."
She instructed, "Say it with me. We must visualize the spell becoming entangled in the mirrors’ reflections."
They both said it twice more.
He stood too close, her body hyperaware of him in the aftermath. One step away barely helped. "That’s it. We leave the mirrors facing each other for a month. Should work."
