Page 93 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“Seriously? Yes, our true blood is blue. Now hurry before the wound closes.” She offered me her knife, but my fingers had already found the one in my pocket.
“I have my own tools.” I poked my finger with the tip of Victoria’s knife. It did nothing. I pressed harder. My heart beat on my ribs, blotting out all thoughts except what color was my blood now. It took four tries before I poked deep enough. My blood was still red, and I released the breath I’d been holding. “Now what?”
“Really? Never seen a movie or read a book? We rub our fingers together. They get the idea right. To work with artifacts, you need a catalyst, so you need to have a little piece of me to get into my past.”
I extended the blood drop on my finger and waited for her to come to me. She walked over, grabbed my wrist roughly and then ground her finger against mine while blowing a kiss. “There. Now we’re blood sisters.” Her laughter made my skin crawl. I tugged my hand back, and she let me go.
Had I made a terrible mistake? My heart beat faster from the weirdness of the purplish blood smeared acrossmy finger, but I didn’t feel any different. “Great, now what?”
She shook her head and raised her palms up. My blood dripped down her index finger. She stuck it between her lips like it was a candy cane and pulled it out with a smack. Her forked tongue darted out, catching whatever was stuck to her lips. “You have the ring. Figure it out.”
Fuck me. I wiped the blood off my hand onto my catsuit. Britannia was in full smirk.
“Okay, pretend Donia is on the bed. Do whatever you were doing, but you need to lock the door first,” I said, handing her the bracelet, leaving my fingers colder.
The door flew open, smacking the wall. I stepped back as Wald strode into the room, sucking the rest of the heat from my bones. His sunglasses were off, and his yellow eyes bored holes into my soul.
“What are you doing in here?” he shouted.
I don’t think I’d heard him yell before. My teeth rattled in my head so hard I covered my ears. “Get out. You aren’t supposed to be here,” I yelled back at him, dropping my hands and squaring my shoulders.
“The hell I’m not. We had a plan. You will resolve your own storyline. I don’t know what you think you’re doing here with Britannia…” He trailed off, the muscles in his neck twitching as the pieces fell into place. His eyes softened. “No, Harlan, no. I forbid you. You don’t owe me anything. Don’t do this.” The growl of the R’s rolled over me salty sweet. He cared, but he wasn’t ordering me around.
“Stop. I get to make my own choices. Now get out of here.” I shoved him toward the door, but it was like trying to move Stonehenge. All the press of my hands on his chest did was recall what we’d been doing an hour before, sendingblood rushing to my cheeks and the desire for his arms to wrap around me.
Instead, he grabbed my wrists, sending more blood to other places as his golden eyes bored into mine. “Harlan, I don’t want you to sacrifice your past for me. I’ll figure something out. This is not fair to you. This is my fault.” His voice was cracking, and his eyes glistened with intensity.
Britannia shifted behind me, reminding me we were not alone, and I had a mission. “Fair? Mother of hell, this has been the best bizarre action I’ve seen in my humdrum life. I have very apparently signed up for the ride, but only if I’m calling the shots—all of them—and if I want to save your not-so-miserable existence, I’m going to have the say.” I shook him off my wrists. “So, get your butt out into the hall and stay the fuck there until Britannia and I are done.”
He didn’t move, looking down at me with simmering and glassy gorgeous yellow eyes. His bottom lip twitched, then started to turn up on one side.
Fuck Britannia. I launched at him, kissing him, our tongues dancing as if they were snakes in a slither. Britannia’sewwprotest was smothered under the blanket of passion surging between us. If I didn’t step back, we were going to screw on the floor.
“Stop,” I said breathlessly, settling both hands on his chest. It broke the kiss, but he didn’t move. His arms wrapped my back, and I looked up at him, silently pleading for him to let me go.
“Harlan, you don’t know how it will turn out for you. Anything could happen. The timeline will reset, and your past will alter as will mine. I won’t let you make this bad decision. I can’t.” His voice cracked again, but his words pierced me. His hands moved to my shoulders. The firm grip had meaning. Meaning he thought he could change my mind.
This was my moment. “But it’s not your choice to make.” I stepped back from him. “You don’t fucking own me. I get to choose my future, and if it’s not with you, then so be it. Now get the hell outta here and let me work.” What he didn’t get was that, if it meant Wald would live, I was more than willing to take almost any risk. I had lost all the people who mattered. First my mom, then my aunt, and then, though I didn’t want to admit it, Gentry. I’d literally raised Wald from the dead, and I was invested in making sure that life continued. If I could break the curse, it would be something I’d done by choice that mattered.
He gripped my shoulders, so I had to look at him. “No. I do not agree. If you do this, we are over. I told you before this is not your problem. I am not yours to fix. If you do this, we’re done. Do not cross this line.” His voice dropped to a whisper, gutting me.
I knew in my soul that I could find him again, or he’d find me, but he needed to be alive and well, and I’d already lost him once. I’m not a fatalist, but maybe I’d just become one. What we had lit on fire was worth fighting for. He was wrong. I didn’t want to fix him. I wanted him alive. I pushed him back. “Please, don’t make this harder than it already is. You have to trust me.” Tears started dripping down my cheeks. In my head,like I trust you,silently echoed.
His eyes narrowed, and he grimaced. “It’s not about trust.” I wanted to kiss him again and fix it. But before I cracked, he turned his back on me and walked out. He stomped away, ripping my heart out with every fading thump. I had to hold hope this would work out. It was up to me.
I sucked in a breath. “Okay, ready.” I turned around and faced Britannia. Her arms were crossed. She didn’t move for a second, studying me, then she shrugged, went to the door,and locked it. As she passed me on the way to the bed, she dangled the bracelet like a fish lure.
“This didn’t exist in the past, so you have to hold on to it, then give it to me.” She nodded at the bracelet.
“Will you be able to see me?” I reached out for the bracelet, the beads instantly warming in my palm.
“What? Do you think I’ve done this before?” She cocked her head and gave me her signature tight-lipped smile-sneer. “But remember you only have nine seconds.”
Great, we had one chance not to screw this up and no manual, and my partner in potential success held me in the highest contempt. It sounded far too much like my life, which meant everything could go wrong.
I turned away from Britannia and focused on the card spreads on the bed. They lay like a promise of something beyond my understanding. To do this, I had to let go of expectations and focus on what was right before me. I was ready as I was ever going to be.
I twisted the ring. The metal heated, and the stone faintly glowed.
