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And Eddie closed her eyes and remembered. The times she’d laughed, the times she’d cried. She relived her sixteen-year-old heartbreak. The delight of running through the sprinklers on a hot summer day. The elicit thrill of hiding under the covers with a book and a pint of ice-cream. She kept the memories coming. All the delights and the tribulations. Every absurd and wonderful part of being human. She lived the contradictions and the struggles, the triumphs, and the thrills.
Until with a final note, the seal rung true. Or almost true. She tried harder, but she could not feel that final piece of dissonance. It was like trying to fill in a missing piece of pie.
Shade tightened his hold on her hips. “What is it?”
“It’s better.” Eddie panted like she’d been running a marathon. “But it’s not all fixed.”
“Wrath?” Shade called. “Can you feel what she feels?”
“Heaven.” Wrath grunted. He was on his knees beneath a pile of moaning, bleeding demons. “She has healed earth and hell in the seal, but she doesn’t have heaven within her to complete the healing.” He dropped face first on the ground. “It’s better, but it’s not entirely fixed.”
Shade wrapped his arms around her. “You can let go now, Eddie.”
She took her hands off the seal. The quiet after the storm almost hurt her ears.
Peeling off demons, Wrath rose to his feet. His wings dragged on the floor behind him, and his head hung down. “Let’s agree not to do that again in a hurry.”
Eddie opened her mouth to whole-heartedly agree when the world went black. She was dimly aware of Shade catching her before everything went dark.
Chapter
Thirty-Three
Eddie woke in the bed in the room Wrath had given her. Warm arms encircled her, and a hard body cradled her. She’d never felt safer or more cherished in her entire life.
She knew it was Shade, and she lay still, relishing the moment.
“You’re awake.” His voice was husky in her ear. “You’ve been asleep for a long time.”
She didn’t want to move and lose the lovely feeling. “How long?”
“Most of what passes for a day and a night here.” He nuzzled her nape. “Dee has almost explored the entire castle by now. She’s beginning to look like she wants to take her adventure on the road.”
For a moment, Eddie allowed herself to wonder what it would be like to have this all the time. To wake up beside a being who made you feel like the world was a better place. Except, it wasn’t real. Nothing with Shade was real; it was all a byproduct of who he was. Or was it? There were times it felt so real, but maybe she just wanted it to be so much, that she made it so. It was way too early and she was way too short on caffeine for mental torture.
Edging away from him, she hung her legs over the side of the bed. She ignored the sense of loss moving away from him opened in her chest. “It’s not done.” She really didn’t want to go through another session with a seal, but she had to be honest. “It’s better, but it won’t hold.”
“Yeah.” Shade rolled to his back and tucked his hands behind his head.
Eddie ignored the wonderful ripply muscle crap happening over his torso. Dammit, but when they’d chosen a form for the embodiment of lust, they hadn’t been messing around. Or had he chosen his form? Perhaps he had a super-hot mother and father out there somewhere? All valid questions, but perhaps better deferred to another day.
“Eddie?” Shade was watching her with that lambent, sultry look he had down pat.
Perhaps over time she would become immune to it. “What?”
“I don’t think you should fix my seal.”
Eddie gaped at him. Wasn’t the mending of the seals the entire reason any of this was happening. And then she got it. He didn’t believe she could do it and was trying to let her down kindly. It shouldn’t hurt as much as it did. After all, she hadn’t been able to complete the job on her blood seal, why would he trust her with one she wasn’t even bound to. Grabbing the sheet, she tucked it around her and stood. “I see.”
“Eddie.” Shade’s voice compelled her to look at him, but she couldn’t let him see her vulnerability.
She stomped for the bathroom. “I have to get dressed.”
“Eddie.” The bed creaked and his feet padded closer. “I don’t think you do see.”
“It’s fine.” She snatched open the bathroom door.
A big hand came over her shoulder and shut the door. Shade’s naked body crowded her against the door. “I don’t believe you do see.”
