Chapter 4 #3
“Eventually.” It moved closer, and frost spread from its footsteps. “Dragon curses don't tend to let one take the easy way out.”
My blood went cold. “Baz.” I shook my head, “No, he’s strong. Too strong.”
The first stage is denial.
“Your bear is strong, yes. But strength isn't enough. The curse will eat him alive from the inside. Slower than it's eating you, but it’s inevitable.” It smiled, and the expression was pure Illanya. “Is that what you want? To watch him die by inches? To know you killed him slowly with your love?”
“You're lying,” I said weakly as a wave of nausea hit me. I thanked the goddess this wasn’t real. I’d never puked in a dream before.
“I'm the most honest thing in your life. I'm every mistake you've ever made, given form and purpose.” It reached out and touched my chest, right where the curse lived in the real world. “I'm trying to protect you. Both of you.”
Pain lanced through me, but with it came visions.
Baz, aged beyond his years, magic eating at him from within. The town, burned to ash because I couldn't choose. Illanya, dead by my hand, her last words asking why I couldn't just love her back.
And worse, a future where Baz and I were mated, happy for exactly three days before the curse activated in full and started its slow murder.
“Stop,” I gasped.
“This is mercy,” the curse said. “I'm showing you the truth. Go back to her. Let her remove me. Live a long, boring, safe life in a gilded cage. It's better than watching what you love die.”
“There has to be another way.”
“There is.” The curse smiled wider. “Die before the bond completes. I'll die with you. Everyone lives except us.”
“That's not…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. The horror of what she was suggesting was too much.
“A solution? It's the only solution that doesn't end in massacre.” It faded, the dream collapsing before I had time to form a complete thought. “Think about it. Your chaos for their order. Your life for his. Isn't that what love really is? Sacrifice?”
I woke up gasping, covered in sweat that had frozen to my skin. My breath came out in visible puffs. The room was positively arctic.
“Tansy?” Baz was beside the bed instantly. “What happened? The temperature dropped twenty degrees in seconds.”
“The curse,” I managed through chattering teeth. “It showed me… It said…” I was too horrified and cold to speak.
“Shh.” He pulled me against him, and warmth flooded back into my body. “It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare.”
His skin was already showing frost damage where he touched me.
“Let go,” I said. “You're getting hurt this time.” The only flash of pain from our contact was from my own guilt.
“I'm fine.”
“You're literally developing frostbite.”
“Worth it.”
“Baz?”
“I'm. Fine.” He held me tighter, and I felt his magic push back against the cold. Bear magic, warm and steady and stubborn as hell.
Was bear magic even a thing? I didn’t even know shifters had magic.
“Whatever it showed you, whatever it said, it was probably lying,” he finished.
“What if it wasn't?”
He pulled back enough to look at me. His eyes flashed gold in the darkness.
“Then we figure it out. Together.”
“It said the curse would transfer to you if we mated. That it would kill you slowly.”
“Good thing we're not mating then.”
“But the magic…”
“Can want whatever it wants. We make our own choices.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. It had turned white as snow. “I choose to fight beside you. Mated or not. Cursed or not.”
“Even if it kills you?”
“Especially then.” He smiled, and it was sad and fierce and beautiful. “I've died before, remember? It's not that bad.”
“That's not funny.”
“It's a little funny.”
The house rumbled in agreement. Because, of course, it was eavesdropping.
“The curse wants me to go back to her,” I admitted. I left the murder/suicide bits out for obvious reasons. It was never gonna happen.
“The curse can want whatever it likes. What do you want?”
I looked at him, really focused. At the frost damage healing on his arms. At the steady certainty in his eyes. At the way he held me like I was worth the pain.
“I want to live,” I said. “And I want you to live. And I want that fucking curse to die screaming.” The last part wasn’t true.
As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I didn’t have a grudge against the curse itself.
It hadn’t chosen its fate or its purpose.
That was all on Illanya. We were just the fallout of her bad decisions and anger management issues.
Why did I have to give that guy the curse and lead her right to me?
If I’d just said no, I’d be scamming mortals out of rent money in my run-down apartment instead of being cradled in the arms of the gentlest, sexiest, sweetest bear in all the forest.
He grinned. “Now that's a plan I can get behind.”
His grin was infectious, and I smiled right back at him. Happy, warm, and content. That bitch wasn’t going to ruin this for me.
A butterfly landed on his shoulder and turned into a tiny sword before dissipating.
“Even your butterflies are getting violent,” he observed.
“Everything remotely related to me is getting violent.”
“Good. We're going to need it.”