Page 93 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
Heart pounding denial through him, he glanced up when Roman’s voice trailed off.
Roman helped Shane to a shaky stand. A wave of deep emotion passed through his brother’s eyes, and they turned glassy. He pulled Shane into a hug. He whispered, "I lost Nova once and damn near died. I’m scared we’re about to lose you again if she…if Madeline doesn’t survive this. Please, try to stay with us. We’ll figure it out."
He leaned into the comfort, not that it assuaged his feeling it was wrong to have Madeline give her life for them to be free. It wasn’t worth it. They could figure another way out of the curse. "Maybe an angel can bring Madeline back like they did Nova?"
Roman shook his head. "I asked Zadkiel, my guardian angel, if it’d be possible. He said that wasn’t how this plays out."
Shane tried but failed to shove the vision of the child out of his head.Can you save Mommy? This wasn’t as simple as just being about him and Madeline or saving one person’s future child. Too many lives and lifetimes were on the line. His sense of moral obligation outweighed his personal wants. "We’re getting free of this. It’s time."
Aside from feeling rumpled and more than little light-headed, the vision replayed over and over as he followed his brothers to the door of their hotel room. Madeline stood off to the side, leaning against the wall. Her gaze was filled with determination. And sadness. Stabbing pain hit his stomach, which threatened a lurch. He couldn’t fix this. But he had to fix this. He had to figure out a way to spare her life.
He caught her hand as the others moved out the door and pulled her to face him. On a whisper he said, "I can’t do this."I can’t lose you. I won’t survive.
Tears leaked, which she swiped away. She closed the distance between them, stopping a foot away. With two fingers, she rubbed at the center of her chest as if it hurt. "Please don’t make this any harder. This isn’t about you or me. You said it. Everyone’s said it." The exact words he’d said to himself sent chills through his shoulders. "This is for Roman and Ky and Flynn. And your mother who may not live through losing all of you. It’s for the next generation who need both parents free of this curse."
If you die, I have no next generation.Flash. Vision of the dark-haired child.
He steeled his jaw and looked to his left to seek the source of the sensation of being stared at. Roman had halted with a shattered expression on his face. So much empathy. So much concern. How he loved his oldest brother who’d give anything to spare him this. Yet Roman also feared Shane might stop the whole show. That he might convince Madeline not to do this.
Madeline said low, "We can do this. You’ll survive." She gripped his forearm so tight the grip hurt. "You must live and then thrive afterward. I have to imagine it that way." She leaned in to whisper direct into his ear, "Baku, this is your moment. You must keep Shane honest and alive."
No comment from the demon. He wondered what that meant."Baku, you in there?"
Nothing other than a strong sense that everything in his life was about to change.
Heaviness weighed his limbs as they moved one floor up. Before they entered the penthouse suite, he caught Roman to hold him back as the others entered. "I’m not…" He dropped his chin and shook his head. "I can’t let her do this. If you think it’s the right thing, you’re going to have to restrain me or knock me out or something."
"You’ll fight me if I try to stop you."
"Probably. The logical side of me and the moral side know she’s right. That all of us must get free of this. But the other side of me is going to lose it if she dies." He clamped his mind down to stifle the emotion swelling in him and felt Baku reacting to it.
Roman said, "I know. Maybe we don’t do this now? Maybe—"
"Why are all of you here? I didn’t call a meeting. Go away." King Frances flicked his wrist in a dismissive gesture as if they were servants. When Flynn and Ky didn’t leave, he leaned back in the desk chair, glancing up from the monitor of his laptop with a disgusted scowl.
The disrespectful, condescending tone reminded Shane of every time they’d met the queen, this monarch’s mother, in person. Her active distaste for them and unwillingness to look them in the eye hurt. This king’s attitude reminded him of someone studying an insect and deciding how best to squash it so he could return to his computer. These humans that had been granted power from their birth status didn’t see lycans as sentient beings with lives and emotions. They were the monsters, not the lycans.
"He doesn’t deserve our service," Shane said to Roman. "Help me get through this." As he stepped into the room, he was hit by the subtle sense ofdeja vuand the quirky weirdness of wishing he could change what he’d seen before in the precognitive vision of the monarch.
"We’re here to end it," Roman said.
"End what?" the king asked.
Madeline moved to look out the window into the sky at the moon as if waiting for the right moment of the eclipse.
"Who’s she?" The king chinned toward Madeline.
"She’s the one your people have been trying to execute for the past few decades," Shane said. "The one who cast the curse for your mother. She’s not under any sort of magical bond to answer to you." Roman flashed a scary grin, the kind that would lock their classification as beasts into the king’s mind.
"The witch?" Color left the king’s face. He realized this was real. "Guards!" he called out.
No one arrived.
"They’re busy," Roman said as he grabbed the king’s cell phone to keep it out of reach and slammed his laptop shut. He reached over and crushed the landline phone with a fist. To Madeline he asked, "Are we ready?"
"You’re supposed to be dead, aren’t you?" The king pointed at Shane. "How could all of you disobey and not tell me he lived?"
No one answered. Moot point to discuss them not knowing Shane had survived until a few weeks ago.
