Page 96 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
The effort to open and shut her eyes hurt as if someone glued them open, but she managed to force her eyelids to do their job since her corneas burned as they became too dry. For several seconds her hand and arm glowed where it connected with the tattoo before the energy dissipated.
"Will he be okay?" she asked the angel.
The angel shrugged. Freaking shrugged? "The curse is beyond my knowledge. I don’t know if it did something to him. Or if losing the demon broke him. Time will tell."
Shane had stopped seizing. She lifted his limp left wrist. The tattoo was gone.
"It’s gone." She smiled at the angel.
"That was you"
"And the demon," she argued.
"Mostly you." The tall angel leaned in close to whisper, "There’s cleanup to be done here. Then, at the right time, there will be a meeting of all of us." He disappeared.
Madeline wasn’t sure if "all of us" meant just the Lanzo brothers and the angels or her included. Maybe Antonio as well?
She glanced around. "Is everyone else’s tattoo gone, too?"
The other brothers likewise massaged their wrists, curse bands gone.
She’d done it. The curse was gone. With a smile she let all the emotions overwhelm her as she collapsed with her cheek to the floor.
Elation lifted years from Roman’s face. "It’s over." He swiped blood from his nose and cleaned his face on his shirt. He rubbed his wrist and then grabbed Flynn’s wrist to examine. "It’s really over."
I did that.
Flynn hugged Ky. Both of them laughed. And stumbled as if drunk. Probably weakness as their bodies tried to super heal the damage.
"Are you going to hurt me?" The king backed up against the wall.
Roman gazed at him for several silent seconds. "You are nothing to me. Nothing to any of us. You have the ethical compass of a toadstool and the empathy of a rock. I care so little for you that killing you requires effort I don’t care to expend. You held in your hands great power and, through inept mistreatment, lost it." His tone smoothed out. "Forget about us. Forget the existence of lycans and other paranormal creatures. Get out of FenCor. Now sleep."
The King of England slid down the wall and emitted a small snore.
"Finally." Roman did a fist pump. "Thatfinallyworked on him. Fifty years and at last one of these monarchs is susceptible to voice coercion." He lifted Shane, who remained unconscious, and settled him over his shoulder.
Flynn leaned down to Madeline, his dirty blond hair flopping over the brow that had two piercings, and said low, "Can you walk?"
Her head buzzed and every movement rocked her. "No."
"Okay. I’ve got you." Flynn lifted her.
"You’re not going to leave me here?"
"Why the hell would I do that? You’re family now that Shane’s so messed up over you. Hell, Nova would kill me if I left you. She couldn’t stop talking about how you helped her see her parents. She even mentioned you might be able to find the trigger words and remove them." Flynn stalked swiftly through the hallway with the other brothers. They moved in sync as if their exit had been rehearsed. Flynn added, "Besides, the archangel liked you. Said you had to be at the meeting in the future, didn’t he?"
"He wasn’t clear on the need for me to be present." Softer she added, "I’m messed up over Shane too."
"I know. Everyone knows. You two are a sappier mess than Ky and Vivi on their worst lovey fest day."
That warmed her, and damn if she didn’t smile until the movement of being carried blurred everything and she gave in to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The awkward zone.That’s where Madeline had landed. Felt a lot like she’d boarded a lonely, fast train to hell with a stopover in a purgatory. Since that awful day of the curse lifting five days ago, Shane had remained in a coma. They’d taken up residence in one of Evie’s houses on a lake in Switzerland. The estate was heavily gated with high security.
Dom had examined Shane upon arrival. He’d diagnosed Shane with damage from the demon departure, possibly brain damage on a magical level. Then the mage disappeared without another word as if the hounds of hell were on his ass, but she suspected it was Evie’s effect on him that had him scurrying away. Since Dom’s disappearance, Evie had skulked about but remained reclusive.
