Page 43 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
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When Madeline reachedthe front yard with its crumbling knee-high stone wall and a few broken clay pots, Cora waved for her to follow into the backyard. The moon had started its ascent into the sky. Cora halted, turned abruptly, and pointed to the healing cuts on Madeline’s hand. "He almost didn’t get to you in time."
"I’m not dead. Things worked out okay."
Cora cocked her head. She removed a crystal from her pocket and twirled it on its chain. "Your magic is back. Did you and Shane…?"
"No." She shook her head. "You know what did it? Music and dancing."
"What?" Wrinkles appeared on Cora’s brow.
"Singing, dancing…giving in to the music."
"It wasn’t that simple. What prompted you to relax enough to embrace the music?"
She compressed her lips. "Shane was losing control to the demon. Turns out it doesn’t like pop music. A little be-bopping and some hip shimmies andvoilano more demon takeover. And I had my magic back."
"You healed him? What kind of demon is inside him?"
She dropped her gaze and muttered, "Dragon."
"Of course it is. Bloody hell. You're the dragon healer." Cora sighed hard. She stared off into the starry night. "Damn it. This is problematic. Where you’re impulsive and sometimes easily distracted—"
"I am not easily distracted." At Cora’s glare, her indignation dissipated. "Maybe I’m a little disorganized on occasion."
"Where you’re chaotic the lycan is more still and assured in his decisions and actions. He’d be stabilizing for you. Yet the two of you together would be a catastrophe." She cursed under her breath. "You sure it's not the dragon that attracts you to him?"
She shook her head. "I felt this before he was possessed."
"I rarely question the fates that drive our destiny, but this is unacceptable. That lycan’s motivation is clear. Regardless of physical attraction, he’s going to do everything necessary to lift the curse. Even he wouldn’t break the bond of brotherhood to choose you over them." She placed a pink crystal on a chain in Madeline's palm and closed her fingers around it.
"I’m not powerful enough to control the magic in this. It’s level two. I haven’t earned past level one." On a whisper she added, "I’m not ready."
"You have to be." Cora stepped back.
Madeline rotated the crystal in her hand. It represented the second of three levels of ascension in magic. Only the elders of each family could decide when one could move up a level.
She closed her fist around the crystal and kissed her hand, a gesture of appreciation for the gift. "Samuel said goodbye last night. He said it's time to face whatever is to come."
"You may be tired of running and fighting, but you’re more alive and connected to living than you’ve been in a long time. Are you sure you can handle what it’s like to feel things deeply again?"
She shrugged, but on the inside she shirked. She didn’t want to think about what Shane did to her, how he forced her to experience this depth of emotion…no, she wasn’t ready for it.
Cora said, "You must be prepared for the power inside you. When my stupid brother asked me not to push you about magic… When I saw him discouraging you from using magic…" She trailed off. Her eyelids drifted shut. She whispered, "No more hiding things from you."
"What else did he not want you to tell me?" Her heart pounded.
"Your mother, that’s your real mother, not the British princess your father married, but your birth mother, was a powerful magical."
"I don’t understand." Her head felt light to the point the world seemed to teeter around her.
"You’re not half witch. No half magical could do a fraction of what you’re capable. It’s why the queen didn’t feel a twinge of guilt about eradicating your family. The human you considered your mother was also murdered. Don’t look shocked. You think her death—a misdiagnosis and treatment in the hospital—wasn’t intentional? Your birth mother died fighting a troll when you were about a month old, not that the queen had anything to do with that. When your father met the princess, the woman who eventually raised you, you were maybe six months old. She accepted you because she couldn’t have children. Of course, she fell for your father. My brother was a charming warlock."
"He lied to me?" She brought a shaky hand to her forehead. Her entire childhood was a tangled web of lies. "Why didn't you tell me? They've been dead for decades." She backed away from Cora.
Cora grabbed her wrist. "Don't you dare run away. I’ve been trying to settle some truth on you for years."
"But you kept this from me. " Her voice hitched up an octave. "Thisis the kind of thing you tell me." She shook off Cora's hand.
