Page 90 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“We have family in the old country. Now that I am known to the Grigores, Maverick is concerned that they may continue to hunt me even without the ring. My family there will help me find another suitable form.” He drew a hand across the air in front of him as if motioning to his clothing. Were there tears in his eyes, or was it a trick of the light?
“Suitable form? You mean another human form? Can you do that? Why do you want to do that?” Wald without the long hair, marble-chested leanness would be all wrong. Would I even recognize him if he were someone else? Yeah, I’d know that annoying side grin anywhere.
“The Grigores have human resources who make it easier to track a known form. If I change my appearance, they will not be able to find me.”
“Why? Oh, because you can’t fix the past, and you’re cursed? Right, got it. Then I can come with you. Always wanted to visit Scandinavia.” It wasn’t like I had anything keeping me here.
He got up. My heart fluttered against my ribs as he slid a hand under my hair and pressed his lips to mine. When I broke the kiss to get air, he stepped back. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Harlan, once we fix the past, you’ll need to return to your place in your life. We aren’t supposed to interfere with the human lines. Britannia has been breaking the rules.”
“You mean Gentry?”
“Yes, and you can’t fix that either. Britannia has to face her own choices and mistakes.”
“But you can’t leave!” I really wanted to add “me” to the sentence, but it sounded so fricking narcissistic.
“Sometimes the hard choices are made for us. What I want has never been my choice. Our heritage must come first.It’s the best for everyone.” His shoulders stiffened, and his face locked down.
“I need to talk to your mother. Where is she?” I was not giving Wald up.
He grinned, rubbing a spot on the side of his neck, which I particularly enjoyed nuzzling. “She expected you’d want her help in the time reversal, so she’s waiting in the mirror room until you are ready.” His gaze licked me from lips to toes. Nope, wasn’t done with him by a long shot.
“Perfect.” But in my head, I was saying she damn well better be helping me figure out how to fix this. Wald studied me as thoughts swirled in my head. I was floundering in my own indecision. I did want my life back, right?
I had no fucking idea if I wanted my life back: my stupid car, with my stupid job, a bastard landlord, and bills up the wah-zoo. No, I didn’t want that life, but I also didn’t want jail. I’d left drug dealing to get a fresh start, to stay alive. I’d dreamed of having friends who lived in nice houses and didn’t have to sleep with shotguns under their beds. But my desires had changed again. I didn’t want new people. I wanted Wald, but what if choosing him meant running from the police forever and not choosing him made him disappear literally? This was not an easy decision to be faced with after being imbued with magical powers and a night of incredible sex.
Nine hells.
“I should shower,” I said, but it came out more as a question than a statement. I tugged at the black silk sheet, and it took me five awkward tries to get it off the bed so I could wrap it around me. I dragged it to the bathroom door.
“Need some help cleaning up?” he quipped, coming up behind me. One hand lifted my hair while he trailed kisses upmy neck. His other hand burrowed under the sheet and found a nipple. My last sensible thought was,Here we go again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Afew hours later, I was clean in more ways than one. Wald’s hands had left my skin, but the imprint of him glowed on me like warmed oil, and the delicious musk of him lingered on my lips as I walked up to the door of the mirror room.
The power that I owned my decision bolstered me, but still, my stomach soured as I stared at the door handle. I took a moment, adjusting my cleavage that I’d stuffed into a black pantsuit from Britannia’s expensive slutty clubwear. What I wanted to do was go back and have Wald rip it off me. Instead, what I was going to do was enter the room. Because I had to fix this to move us forward. The room had death in it, and I didn’t want to return to death or the past, but now I had something I wanted that eclipsed all common sense.
I brushed back sweaty strands from my forehead, wishing I had brought an elastic. All I had in my pocket was the tarot deck. My fingers tingled. It was weird that by touching it I felt stronger, clearer. Riding on that, I turned the handle and walked into the room. The door shut behind me with anominous click. What I was about to do had meaning. More meaning than perhaps anything I’d done in my whole life. That propelled me forward.
The room was stuffier and darker than I’d remembered, with the shards of mirror giving me instant disorientation. Victoria was on the floor, her long gray chiffon dress lying around her like gauzy clouds. She was painting symbols on the mirrored floor in red chalk.
“Ready?” Victoria asked, rising and somehow managing not to sweep the long skirt across the chalk. A streak of red across her powdered cheek marred her perfect complexion.
“No, but I guess so. I’m not sure what we’re doing.” My laugh was brittle. I was ready to fix this but also frightened by this unknown, whatever it was.
“I expect the ring will work similarly to when you repaired it. But one never knows about these fragile things. An intense emotion channeled through it should activate the gem. Then you will have to focus on the moment you want to get back to. What’s wrong Harlan?” Her lavender eyes were the same shape as Wald’s, which made no sense if he was adopted? Fine lines crinkled between them as she considered me.
I rubbed the stone of the ring. “The ring only alters a few seconds, right? So, if I change things I’ve touched, then I shouldn’t be involved, right?”
“Britannia said that her phone call is what you will need to miss.”
“The phone call, right. It wasn’t the pen. It was before that. But what if…” I took a breath. “What if I wanted to change Wald’s past and instead saved his sister?”
“You can’t. You aren’t of our family, and you weren’t there.”
I’d been thinking about this after the shower while Waldhad been combing and then drying my hair. The mundane repetitive things that capture your heart and trap your mind, allowing it to consider crazy ideas as plausible.
“Aren’t I partly of your family now?”
