Chapter 18

Maddy opened her eyes when she smelled coffee. Rolling over, she smiled at the large cat lying beside her. “Were you posted there to make sure I was all right today?”

-Do I look like a babysitter?

Maddy stretched, she was so sore, but in all the good ways. Colin had kept his promise of three hours, but for having so little sleep, she felt completely recharged. She grinned at the cat. “I don’t suppose you fetch coffee yet?”

-Doubtful. I’m gone.

Maddy watched the animal leap from the bed and land at the doorway. Colin stepped into view.

He smiled at Maddy before looking down at the cat. “Breakfast is ready and waiting for you in your dish.”

Sarabi rubbed against his legs on her way by.

-We really need to start negotiations to keep—

Maddy couldn’t hear anymore. Her range of hearing her pet’s thoughts was only up close and personal, which to Maddy, was a good thing.

“Good morning.” Colin walked over to the bed.

Maddy smiled and stretched again. “Morning.” She glanced behind him. “No invasion this morning?”

He sat down on the edge of the bed and shook his head. “No, just us.”

Maddy pulled herself up on the pillows, so she was more upright. “Good. Waking up to my parents and professors was a little rough. I like coffee and solace when I first open my eyes.”

He leaned over and pushed the hair back from her face. “How are you feeling?”

She felt her cheeks heat and knew it was ridiculous to blush in front of him after everything they had done together. “I feel great, completely recharged.”

Colin chuckled. “I woke up over an hour ago and could have gone for a long run—if I could go more than sixty feet.” He rubbed his thumb gently down her cheek. “I guess we recharge each other’s batteries.”

She leered at him. “Very effectively too.” She sat up, letting the sheet fall to her waist, and kissed him softly. “Hopefully, my parents have good news from someone in the community—” She stopped when she saw the look on his face. His eyes were darkening as they moved down over her. “Oh,” she whispered. He leaned over to kiss her again. “Colin, if we start again, we’ll never get out of this bed—”

“And that would be bad how?” He brushed his lips over hers.

Maddy’s mind dulled at the touch of his mouth. “Uh—we have to get to work.”

Colin sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “Then get dressed and cover all of you, not that it’s going to help me to concentrate away from you, but it will buy us a few hours.”

Maddy wrapped her arms around him. “You forgot to mention that you were insatiable,” she turned her face into his warm neck, “I’m a little sore after—”

“I’ve never been like this before—not since I was a kid, at least. I could have woken you up every hour last night.”

Maddy leaned back and looked at him. “I’m glad you didn’t, or I’d be too tired to think.” She kissed him quickly and let her arms drop. “Coffee. Shower and then parents.”

He groaned. “The word parent is like ice water.” He ran his eyes down her naked form once more and stood up.

~

Maddy set her cup down and frowned. “So you think the curse was affecting you before you went to the museum?”

Colin leaned both arms onto the counter. “I know it sounds a bit far-fetched, but I’ve never had a problem with my moods or self-esteem before—no matter the hours I put in or how many dead ends I ran into.”

Maddy tilted her head and thought for a moment. “You might be right, I hit a low about a week before my trip to the museum. Everything I was doing suddenly felt moot, and I just wanted to hide away here and give up my training and everything.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “So it is possible, but how?”

Maddy bit her lip for a second. “I’m not sure. It has to do with blood.” She looked at him and got up. “Do you have any cousins or family close to your age?”

He shook his head and studied her. “My parents were both only children.”

“Mine as well.” She quickly topped up her coffee and turned towards the door. “It has to have something to do with our blood.” She paused in the doorway. “We need to share this discovery with my parents.”

Colin was nodding as he stood. “It’s just a bit scary—that the curse set us up before either of us ever set eyes on the Quaich.”

Maddy started walking towards her study. Yes, it was, she thought. The question that flooded her mind, though, was how much scarier was this going to get?

~

Her parents hadn’t been able to confirm or deny the possibility of whether Colin’s suspicions were accurate. The only thing everyone knew but didn’t say was that time was running out, and they were no further ahead.

Maddy slammed the book closed and looked over to see if Colin was still waist-deep in spell and lore books on the floor. He was. “Figuring out which plants were used doesn’t seem to be helping at all.”

Colin looked up at her from the book opened in his lap. “There are so many different spells to counteract, cancel out and reverse just about anything that I’ve forgotten more than half I’ve already read.”

Maddy sighed and got up to take the book back to the shelf. “I say we just start trying the safest ones and see if we can’t stumble on the right one.”

He rubbed his jaw and studied her. “Does that involve testing the distance with each one? I don’t know if I’m man enough to put myself through that every few moments for the rest of the day.”

Maddy leaned back against the shelves, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve been trying to figure that part out. In theory, the Quaich should let us know whether a spell is working or not—”

“How?” He leaned back on his hands and looked up at her.

Maddy bit her lip and shrugged. “I’m not quite sure about that, but it let us know when the herbs were wrong.”

Colin sighed. “Okay, let’s get whatever we need and start eliminating.” He stood up and stretched. “You do know I’m almost out of holiday, right?” She nodded. “I can’t take any more time off, especially with the grant approval—and I can’t take you to work with me.” He smirked. “You’d be rather hard to explain, not to mention distracting as hell.”

Maddy laughed. “I don’t think spending a day trapped in a lab with a group of geeks is really something I want to do either.

Colin raised his eyebrows at her and walked slowly towards her. “You don’t have a problem being trapped with this geek.”

Maddy shrugged. “You don’t seem very geek-like—until you start rambling away non-stop—and you’re not bad to look at—”

He stepped in front of her and scooped an arm around her waist, and pulled her tight against him. “Not bad to look at?” He lowered his head and gently bit the side of her neck.

Maddy laughed and tried to push against his chest. “Don’t start. We need to get to work.”

Colin reached and grasped a handful of her hair playfully. “Maybe I don’t distract you enough—” He lowered his mouth to hers and bit her bottom lip lightly.

Maddy squirmed against him. “You are more than distracting enough, but you have to return to work soon, preferably without me attached to your side.”

Colin kissed her thoroughly, taking his time tasting every dark place inside her mouth. When he lifted his head, he let out a slow breath and stared down at her to see her eyes cloudy. “Maybe I am distracting enough.”

Maddy let out a slow breath and pushed him back a step. “More than enough.” She motioned to the books on the floor. “We’ll start by going through those and hope one of them works.”

Colin nodded and looked down at the pile of books. “How will we know if it works?”

Maddy walked over and looked at the Quaich sitting inside its case. “Touch it,” she said quietly.

Colin stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Okay, you’re the expert.”

Maddy turned her head and rolled her eyes. “I’m just winging all of this, and you know it.”

He gave her a boyish grin. “The best discoveries in the world have been made by people that wing it.” He bent down and picked up a stack of books. “Let’s find our spell.”

Maddy watched him for a moment and then turned back to the Quaich. She really, really didn’t want to go hang out in a lab every day with people she didn’t know. She also didn’t want to have a baby right now, so please, please, she chanted in her head, let us find another way.

~

Colin set the book on top of the other three they’d gone through. He turned and watched Maddy rub her hand. “That last one was nasty.”

Maddy examined her palm. Each failed spell made the Quaich zap their hands when they touched it. “Is it just me, or is it getting stronger with each one?”

Colin looked down at his reddened palm. “I’m not sure, maybe our hands are just getting more sensitive.” He rubbed his palm against the leg of his jeans. “It’s still better than having to step over the marker in the yard.”

Maddy sighed as she pulled her long hair up into a loose ponytail. “I’m wondering if we should mix some of them.”

Colin raised his eyebrows. “Mix?”

Maddy flipped open the next book. She nodded as she scanned the contents. “Yeah, take only the parts that are relevant to what we need.”

Colin leaned against the desk. “And the results would be?”

Maddy picked up a notepad and wrote down a few lines. “Afraid of getting zapped more?”

Colin went around behind her and looked over her shoulder as she wrote. “No, the zapping isn’t as bad as the stomach pains—I’m just worried it might get worse.”

Maddy looked over her shoulder at him. “Let’s hope it doesn’t.”

Colin pulled her back into his body and nuzzled her neck. “Or we could take a break.”

Maddy swatted his hands from her stomach. “When we get somewhere, we’ll take a break.”

Colin sighed, “I really need to work on my charm or something.”

“That’s it!” Maddy spun around and looked up at him. “A charm. We’ve been trying to reverse the spell; maybe we just need a charm to counter the spell.”

“I’m not following.” He rested his hands on her waist and gave her a confused look.

Maddy moved out of his arms and quickly went over to her supply cupboard. She pulled out a tray of stones. “I think what Regina and Ginger were doing was more on the mark than trying to remove the curse completely.” She pulled out a few stones and examined them closely. Shaking her head, she put one back and picked up another, “but, instead of trying to reverse the curse, why not try to work around it—”

Colin came over behind her and put his hand over hers to stop her. “Slow down and explain what you mean by work around it.”

Maddy set the stones down and turned to look at him. “We’ve been trying to reverse it or remove it. I don’t think that’s possible.” He frowned. “When they made the talismans, they were also trying to remove it. What if we could come up with some sort of charm that allowed us to be apart without the withering?”

“Something that protects us?”

Maddy nodded excitedly. “Yes. If we can find a way to go about our normal lives and just have to recharge a charm, that would buy us as much time as we need. To—uh, so we could—”

“Not have to have a baby in the next nine months?” he finished quietly.

“Yes.” She hesitantly looked up at him. “I mean, seriously, do you want to be chained to me right now?”

Colin stuffed his hands in his pockets and studied her. “I don’t know. I enjoy being with you and probably wouldn’t have gotten this chance without the curse.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t want to” —he waved his hand in the air for effect— “fix all of this and never see you again if that’s what you want to know.”

Maddy looked down at the floor and then back up to his serious eyes. “I don’t know either at this point, and that’s why we need to find some sort of charm—so we have the time to decide, for ourselves, what we want.”

“Okay then. How do we do this?”

Maddy turned and picked up the stones again. “I think this is going to involve checking the distance.”

He let out a loud sigh. “I was afraid you were going to say that.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her neck. “I’ll take the plants and Quaich outside. What else do we need?”

Maddy paused and looked around at the books. “Somewhere in this mess is the charm book— we need that too.”

He nodded and went over to sort through the pile. “Red binding?”

“That’s the one.” She looked down at the two stones in her hand and slowly closed her hand around them. Let this work.

-You could just go make a baby, then we could keep him.

She spun around and glared at her cat that sat just inside the door.

-Fine, go torture yourselves by jumping back and forth over that moon in the yard.

Sarabi turned and left the room.

Colin looked at the animal and then turned to look at Maddy. He was definitely missing a lot of communication as far as that animal was concerned. Maddy looked like she wanted to bite someone. He held up the charm book. “Shall we?”