Page 74 of The Guardian's Curse

He nodded to her, forcing a smile. “Alistair can translate much of this for you,” he said. “I have business to attend to this evening, but I can return later this week if you need me.” He put his coat on and nodded to Alistair. “Walk with me.”

They left Shoshanna poring over the books, and Paris walked with him out of the house. “What was that?” Alistair asked quietly.

“It’s as if she triggered my curse,” he said. “I saw things. You know.”

His throat tightened. “I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

“Fine now,” he said absently. The way his gaze skimmed away from Alistair’s gave away his lie. “I won’t put Dominic through that until we know it helps. What happened to you?”

“It was...it was different for me,” he said. How odd that her power had made him feel so good, while it had terrorized Paris with his waking nightmares.

Paris glanced back at the house. “Do you really think she can do it?”

“I think she has a better chance than anyone we’ve ever known,” he replied. “And I’ll help her as much as I can.”

“And that fact that you’re fucking her doesn’t influence you a bit?” Paris said.

“You encouraged me,” he said indignantly.

“Of course I did. Look at her,” Paris said. “It doesn’t change my question.”

“I don’t know what she’s capable of,” he said. “But it won’t be for lack of effort.”

Paris nodded thoughtfully. “I hope for all of our sakes that she can pull it off.” He clapped Alistair on the back. “I’ll leave you to your business.”

He returned inside and found Shoshanna making neat stacks of books in the library. Each stack was labeled with sticky notes. He gently rubbed her shoulders, then kissed the back of her neck. She made a little humming sound, almost like a cat’s purr. “What are these?”

She didn’t look up, just tapped each stack in turn. “English. French. German. No clue. I hope you speak more languages than I do.”

“I speak quite a few,” he said. “Tell me what to look for, and I can skim the German and Czech for you.”

She combed her fingers through her soft curls and let out a sigh of exasperation. “That’s the problem. I don’t know. Something about red? That seems so vague that it’s got to be useless. Curses, I guess?”

“Red and curses,” he said. “I can do that.”

She took a deep breath, then turned to gaze up at him. Her brown eyes were warm and wide. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but if I’m going to break the curse, it could help. Why are you different?”

“What?”

“Paris said that he and Safira and some of the others were affected by death curses,” she said. “I haven’t met them so I don’t know why that’s important. But he said you and Dominic and Julian are all different. That she made the curse especially for you. Why?”

He hesitated. Then he crossed the room, poured himself a generous glass of whiskey, and settled onto the couch. When she joined him, he scooped her legs into his lap and stroked her calf idly. He enjoyed the energy that thrummed beneath her warm brown skin. “I was not part of the attack on Stillerwald. Armina was bound to a hunter named Tobias. As one of the leaders of the Shieldsmen, Tobias was the one orchestrating the attacks on our people, and they wanted to take him out and find the upper leadership. I remained behind to help protect Eduardo and some of the others. I felt like a coward.”

“Did he order you to stay?”

He nodded. “I had previously protected several of his most precious Vessels, Zephyrine and Valentin. Zephyrine demanded that I stay close to protect her.”

“Were you...together?”

Was that jealousy in her voice? He smiled within the confining shadows of his hood. “We were not. She was simply attached to me. At Eduardo’s command, I remained there to protect them.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “Then you don’t need to feel like a coward. You did what your boss asked,” she said. “So how did you end up cursed?”

His chest tightened, and he distracted himself by rubbing her slender foot, savoring the way a wave of relaxation rippled up her body, and she sank further into the couch. Her brown eyes followed him, a faint smile on her lips.

“The others didn’t realize right away that they were cursed. Paris thought he was merely having nightmares as first.”

“What exactly is his curse?”

---