Page 83 of Reaper Unhinged
Like magnets we’d gathered around the island: Uri, Grayson, Cora, Bobby, and me. The rest of the pack were all over the house. Kristoff was still chained to the post, but he hadn’t spoken or moved according to Bastian, who was keeping watch on him.
“I’ve called Vi,” Grayson said. “She has a spell to stop your heart, and they have a physician the coven uses on a regular basis who will be able to start it again.”
“There’s no spell to restart her heart, is there?” Uri asked.
“No,” Cora said.
Uri looked to Grayson, but my mate had his attention on me.
“You don’t have to do this,” Grayson said.
They were all forgetting one huge fucking problem with this plan. Eve’s curse. “If I die, it’ll affect Lilith. I can’t die.”
“You won’t be dying properly,” Bobby said. “Your heart would need to be stopped for at least five minutes, maybe ten, for it to be considered proper death. Scientifically speaking,” he said. “I spoke to Petra, too, and she agrees that as long as we can bring you back within a couple of minutes, your soul will remain connected to your body, so you won’t technically be dead.”
But my heart would stop beating, which would stop the curse… “It’s still too risky. What if you can’t bring me back. Lilith will—”
“Fuck Lilith!” Grayson snapped. “All I care about is you. It’s risky because I could loseyou.”
“He’s right,” Uri agreed. “We can find another way.”
There might be another way that wouldn’t risk both my life and Lilith’s welfare. “Maybe we should wait. I mean, I can manage this if someone watches me while I sleep. You guys can tie me down. We might find another solution in the Underealm.”
Cora closed her eyes and sucked in her bottom lip as if struggling with some inner dilemma, and then she looked right at me. “You might not have the time to wait, okay.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t want to scare you, which is why I didn’t tell you before, but Elijah says a curse like this will eventually slip into your conscious mind, and when that happens, it’ll be too late to do anything.”
My conscious mind? “What do you mean?”
“I mean, it will drive you crazy, and at that point, even if we did remove it by stopping your heart and bringing you back, your mind…Your mind would be broken.”
“How much time?” Grayson asked.
“He didn’t say,” Cora replied. “But this is the only way. Right now, the curse is confined to your subconscious. Right now, we can stop it.” She looked at me. “Babe, I’m just as scared as the guys, but I know you. I know how fucking strong you are, and I know you can do this,wecan do this. I won’t lose you to a fucking curse.”
It looked like this was the only way. The alternative was to go insane. “I’ll do it.” Cora’s shoulders relaxed. “But Azazel and Mal will need to know.”
“Azazel will be obligated to stop you,” Cora reminded me. “He’s cursed to keep you alive. He won’t be able to let you take the risk.”
“And if he doesn’t let me do this, then he risks losing me anyway. It’s a damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t situation. I’m not doing this without saying goodbye to Azazel and Mal.” I gave her a what-the-fuck look. “If it goes wrong…”
“We don’t have time to go chasing after them,” Cora said. “There’s too much at stake right here.”
She was right, we still had to find Hunter and the super vamp puppeteers. “Fine, if Conah comes to help with Kristoff, I’ll pass along a message. If he doesn’t, then…Then I’ll do it without them being here.”
“Leave it to fate,” Uri said softly.
Cora didn’t argue this time even though I could see she wanted to.
“I’ll be back in a bit.” Grayson strode around the counter and headed down the back corridor toward the training room.
I didn’t need to drop my shields to know he was freaking out. “Excuse me, guys.”
I followed my mate.
I found Grayson beating the shit out of the punch bag with his bare fists, no wrap-up. He’d taken off his shirt, and his muscles rippled with every swing.
