Page 39 of Titan’s Mate

She finished it all, then looked up at Tyr, who was watching her carefully. “It’s not good news, is it,” she said quietly.

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not.” He sighed. “This is a very powerful curse, from a very powerful demon. Basically, he left a piece of his essence in you. As far as I can tell, the original purpose of the curse was to infect your body and soul, which would, in effect, turn you into a minor demon.”

Titan felt his claws trying to manifest. “No,” he said. “Just, no. You have to get it out.”

Mari put her hand gently on his arm.

Tyr said, “I just tried to do that. It’s not possible to do it without removing the barrier surrounding it, and if I do that, the thing will take her over completely—and most likely kill me in the process.”

Brock said incredulously, “You’re a dragon.”

“Exactly. If my magical resistance can’t stand against it…” He sighed. “The problem is, it wasn’t meant to be contained. And since it has a piece of the demon in it, there’s a magical connection between it and the actual demon that means it’s been growing, feeding on itself. It can’t get out and dissipate that energy, so it’s just becoming stronger and stronger. It will kill any witch, wizard or healer that tries to remove it. At this point, I don’t think even a group of them could overcome it. I’m sorry.”

Titan squeezed the arm of his chair until he thought his fingers would break. He’d been so sure Tyr could help…

Mari said, “That’s what happened when I first got it. A healer tried to fix me, and she died. So then a necromancer got to me and managed to do the containment thing. I guess it was weaker then? But she said it wouldn’t be permanent.”

“It’s not,” Tyr agreed. “Your shaman friend and his bear managed to force it back inside the barrier just now, and I shored it up as best I could, but I don’t know how long it will last. Weeks, months maybe. After that, it will be too powerful to be contained.”

“So she’ll be a demon?” Titan snarled. Over his dead body.

“No,” Mari said softly. “I’ll be dead.”

Tyr sighed. “She’s right. It’s too powerful now. When it finally gets out, it will overwhelm her body and kill her within a few minutes.”

And then the demon would try to take her soul back to wherever he came from so he could play with it. Titan wanted to break things. This couldn’t, could not be happening again.

“There has to be a way to fix this,” he said. “You’re a dragon, for fuck’s sake.”

“Yes. I’m a dragon. Not a god. I can’t fix everything.”

Mari said to Tyr, “It’s all right. I didn’t really think there was anything you could do.”

“I’ll keep looking,” he said. “Now that I know what we’re dealing with, I’ll see if I can find anything in my library that could possibly help—either to defeat this kind of curse, or improve the containment. We might be able to at least extend the time you have.”

“That’s really nice of you,” Mari said. “But I’d feel bad, you wasting your time.”

He gave her a lopsided half-smile. “I’m a dragon. I have lots of time. And I love searching through dusty old tomes for esoteric information. Just ask my mate.”

Mari said, “I appreciate it. And when the time comes, at least I have a kickass shaman on my side, to cross me over.” She squeezed Titan’s hand.

That was too much for him. “Stop saying that!”

He couldn’t stand it anymore. He put Mari aside, rose to his feet and slammed out of the house without looking back.

Chapter 16

When Tyr and Brock came out of the house to head back up to the portal terminus, Titan was waiting for them. Brock took one look at his face and backed off, thanking Tyr for coming before leaving him and Titan alone together.

Tyr glanced at Titan and jerked his head in a friendly way, inviting Titan to walk up the hill with him. Titan fell into step with the dragon, but he didn’t say anything at first.

There were so many words, questions and feelings churning around in his head, he couldn’t get any of them out. That happened to him too much. The Wild Bloods and Brock understood, and Mari seemed to, but usually other people didn’t.

Except maybe Tyr did, because he just walked up the path alongside Titan, not seeming uncomfortable or impatient at all.

Finally Titan blurted out, “This isn’t right. You have to fix it.” He knew he sounded like he was blaming Tyr, but he hadn’t realized how much hope he’d been holding out that the dragon could fix things, until he couldn’t.

Tyr didn’t get pissed off, though. He walked quietly for a minute, and then asked, “Are you sure she isn’t your mate?”