Page 79 of The Guardian's Curse

“And I’ll talk to Auntie K,” Ruby said. “She can probably juice you up. Hell, she probably knows someone who can break a curse. I’ll talk to her and have her make some calls tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Shoshanna agreed. “I’ll wait.”

Ruby sighed. “Good. Now you need to rest. If your head still hurts tomorrow, drink another batch and then go back to bed. I left you a whole tin in the kitchen.”

Shoshanna held out her arms and embraced Ruby. “Thank you.”

“I love you,” she said. “Don’t be stupid.”

Shoshanna laughed. “I’ll try.”

Ruby gave him another stern look and walked out of the room. He heard the rustle of her gathering her things, then the crunch of her feet on the gravel outside. “I know you can still hear me,” she said quietly. “I meant what I said. She trusts you, so I’m trusting you to take care of her. But if you hurt my friend, your curse will be the best thing to ever happen to you.”

He just smiled. Maybe they weren’t friends, but he liked Ruby Wang very much. When the other witch was gone, he gazed down at Shoshanna. Her eyes were closed, but her pulse had slowed. He laid next to her, then carefully turned her over. With a gentle touch, he rubbed her back in slow, soft circles. She let out a happy groan and stretched like a cat. “Thanks,” she murmured.

“I mean what I said,” he said. “Your commitment to help Lucia is honorable, but she has been in this state for a long time. I want to help her, too, but not at your expense. And I will not let you hurt yourself to fix me. Nor would Paris or any of the others.”

“Maybe it’s not up to you,” she said.

Now it was not anger, but fear that rolled through him. Her stubbornness might be the end of her, and she would not let him protect her. “Shoshanna,” he said in a warning tone.

But she was undeterred. “Alistair, do you believe in destiny? in fate?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Soulmates,” she said.

He felt as if she’d punched him in the gut. “Maybe. I believe that people can love each other so intensely that they become like one. And should one of them fall, it would ruin the other. Is that what you mean?”

“Maybe,” she said, frowning. He slid his hand up to her neck, gently massaging the tension out of her muscles. Her clammy skin felt feverish beneath his fingers. “Have you ever seen it?”

“Julian,” he said immediately. “Not long after the Midnight War ended, he met a woman named Brigitte. She was perfect for him in every way.” They had all adored her, sometimes teasing him that she had only loved him because she saw him first.

“What happened to her?”

“The curse took her from him,” he said. “And he nearly died of heartbreak. Paris and I had to fight him many times to stop him from ending his own life.”

And at the time, he had not understood. He had experienced heartbreak when love fizzled away. Even though he had been the one to drive Paris away, he’d still drunk himself into a stupor for months, mourning what he had lost.

But even in that darkness, he did not understand what could drive Armina to seek such wicked revenge. Lovers left. They died or fell out of love or betrayed, and the world went on its grim march even so.

Even when he watched Julian wailing over Brigitte’s body that first time, screaming at the heavens, he had not understood. Grief made sense, but this was madness. He and Paris had once fought him so hard that Paris lost an eye, Alistair took three stakes to his half-shattered ribcage, and Julian ended up chained in the bowels of a French castle with half his limbs broken because it was the only way they could keep him from immolating himself. How could someone as strong and wise as Julian be so destroyed by loss?

It was incomprehensible then, but no longer. Watching his beautiful witch with pain all over her face, he started to understand. If someone laid a finger on her, he would become a beast of pure fury and madness. Just the thought that she would endanger herself made him furious, and it was only his concern for her that kept him from shouting at her. How could she be so careless with herself, when she was so uniquely precious?

Yes, he could understand that madness very well now.

He combed the hair away from her neck then leaned over to kiss her shoulder. “Can we talk of more pleasant things?”

She nodded. “My head feels a lot better already,” she said. She rolled over and stroked his arm gently. “Did you eat?”

“I will when you rest,” he said. “And when you speak to her again, please reassure your friend that I will not hurt you by feeding on you.”

“She’s a lot. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” he said. “We should all be so lucky to have such protective loved ones.” He gently placed his hand on her stomach. Her pulse was steady beneath his fingertips. “Did you work all day?”

“Yeah,” she said.

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