Page 33 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"It must be you to reverse the curse? It can't be any old powerful witch?"
"It has to be me. That's how ancient curses work."
"I didn't know that," he whispered. He backed up to support his weight against the counter. "How would the queen know that if you die we can’t get free of the curse? We didn't know this, and we've talked to every magic person you could imagine about it."
"I was stupid and told her. She was the Queen of England. She'd never spoken two words to me and always seemed to wish my entire family would disappear. Then she became interested in us. I was flattered." She closed her eyes for a second, and when they opened, she stared heavenward. "The queen decided she didn’t want an out-clause hovering in the world for you guys. So, she came after me. That’s why I’ve been running for…"
"Forty-eight years."
Silence sat heavy around them.
His throat felt tight. For as long as they’d been fighting inhuman terrorists she’d been in her own war to stay alive. If she hadn’t fought to survive, then they’d truly have no way out. Ironic that the witch who they all despised for causing their misery was the same one who fought for her life, which kept alive the possibility of them getting free.
His respect for her notched up a few pegs.
Wouldn't it have made her life easier if she did find them and reverse it? Then there'd have been no reason for MI6 to hunt her down. Dread coiled in his gut. Old magic often involved something nasty to wield. Perhaps it asked for something awful to reverse it. Something she didn't want to face. Now he needed the details.
"I’m not sure why this FenCor is targeting me," she said. "I bet they found out that if I die, you’re locked into serving the Crown. Maybe they think they can control you four through the monarch?"
"The new king is a member of FenCor—"
"That makes no sense. Your sole purpose is to police misbehaving nonhumans. Yet the king is aiding to produce exactly that type of creature. You're obligated to hunt them down. Why wouldn't he want all four of you gone to make sure this project works?"
"I think he thought it'd be fun to have more nonhuman assassins under his power, but this time ones that could hunt humans. Imagine sending lycans into war."
She chewed on her lip.
He moved to stand in front of her and picked up her hands, touching gently over the knife cuts. He hated that she’d been defenseless in that fight. "You could’ve reached out to us—to me—at any time."
"You guys were hunting me and not in a good way. The queen was hunting me. What happens when the monarch gets wind that you found me and orders you to kill me? I'm a supernatural threat, aren't I? Then we're both screwed." She yanked her hands free of his and focused on gathering ingredients.
"Why didn't she order us to kill you?"
She rolled her eyes. "That risks us talking about things. There's no way she wanted all of us getting together in the same space." Abruptly, she turned to face him. "Can you undo the boomerang spell someone put on me?"
He blinked at her. Then finally said, "What's so horrid about the curse reversal that you won't do it?"
"That's not what I asked about." She paused the can opener’s rotation on the tomato can to glower at him. "The scroll burned. It's gone."
"So, you don't know how to remove the curse?"
"I'm willing to help all of you with the curse but before I cooperate you must undo the boomerang spell. Can you do that?"
Nice dodge in not answering how to remove the curse. She knew.
"I know who cast it," he said. "Maybe you can convince her to undo it. She’s kind of a wildcard. The curse tried to kill Roman when he resisted the monarch's order. She got angry and did the boomerang spell."
"That person’s not going to release me from it, is she?" With a sigh she dumped ingredients into a saucepan.
"I'm sorry it's hurting you." He wondered how the boomerang spell affected her.
"Are you? I feel everything when one of you gets hurts. Not like a twinge. I feelexactlywhatever painful thing is happening to you. Not just you, Shane, but all four of you. If more than one of you is getting hit at the same time, I feel all of it."
He turned away quickly to find dishes for the food in order to hide his desire to force Nova to reverse the spell. As in force her right now. The agony of feeling everything was unimaginable. He was desperate to fix this for Madeline and confused about the depth of this desire to help and protect her. "Bet Antonio has some wine around here somewhere." He searched through cabinets until he found two bottles of red.
He uncorked and filled two glasses to the top. "We need this."
She stared at the glass intended for her. "I don’t drink."
