Page 18

TEN

AERIN

B y midnight, the curse mark had spread across Leo's torso like silver fire consuming him from within.

Aerin watched helplessly as the corruption traced patterns through his nervous system, each pulse of malevolent energy making him gasp and struggle against invisible restraints.

The inn's restored power flickered in rhythm with his pain, and she could feel the building itself responding to the supernatural crisis unfolding in its heart.

"The translations are incomplete," she said, her voice tight with frustration as she rifled through Mordaine's encrypted journals for the third time. "Half the ritual instructions are written in languages that don't exist anymore, and the other half require magical understanding I don't possess."

Leo tried to respond, but another wave of corruption lanced through the curse mark, and his words dissolved into a growl that carried too much of his lion's desperation.

The entity beneath the falls was using the mark as a conduit, pouring centuries of accumulated malevolence directly into his magical signature.

Soon, there wouldn't be enough of his human consciousness left to fight back.

"Aerin," he managed, his voice rougher than she'd ever heard it. "If this gets worse, if I lose control?—"

"You're not losing anything," Aerin interrupted, abandoning her research to kneel beside the chair where he was trying to contain the worst of the convulsions. "I'm going to figure this out."

"The ritual," Leo gasped, his golden eyes blazing with supernatural intensity as his lion fought to surface. "Maybe we're overthinking it. Maybe the complexity isn't in the magical mechanics."

"What do you mean?"

"Mordaine designed this as a failsafe against corruption," Leo said, his words coming in short bursts between waves of pain. "But corruption isn't defeated by academic knowledge or perfect technique. It's defeated by truth."

Aerin felt something click into place as his words resonated with understanding she'd been missing. "Emotional truth. The betrayal sigil doesn't respond to magical formulas—it responds to authentic feeling."

"Which means the cleansing ritual isn't about complex spellwork," Leo continued, his breathing growing more labored as the curse mark pulsed with increasing frequency. "It's about being completely honest about what we feel for each other."

The simplicity of it was elegant and terrifying in equal measure.

Mordaine hadn't created a ritual that required academic precision—she'd created one that required the kind of vulnerable honesty that made corruption impossible to maintain.

But that honesty would also make them completely open to each other, with no barriers to protect them if the cleansing process failed.

"Leo," Aerin said quietly, "if we do this, if we open ourselves completely to each other while the curse mark is active, there's no guarantee we'll both survive the process."

"And if we don't do this, there's a guarantee that thousands of people will die when the founder network collapses.

" Leo reached for her hand despite the way contact made the curse mark flare with dangerous energy.

"Aerin, whatever happens, these feelings are real.

This connection is real. It's not manipulation or inherited memory or magical compulsion. "

"How can you be sure?"

"Because my lion recognizes you as mate," Leo declared. "Not because of bloodline compatibility or ancient magic, but because you challenge me and comfort me and make me want to be better than I thought possible."

The confession hit Aerin like a physical blow, stripping away the last of her academic defenses.

"Leo, I've spent my entire career believing that emotional involvement compromises intellectual integrity.

But with you, emotion enhances understanding.

You make me see patterns I would miss, connections I would overlook. "

"Because we're better together than apart," Leo said, his hand tightening on hers as another wave of corruption tried to override his consciousness. "Which is exactly what the cleansing ritual requires—two people who choose each other completely, without reservation or self-protection."

Aerin felt the truth of his words settle into her bones like recognition coming home.

The betrayal sigil wasn't just designed to detect corruption—it was designed to be activated by the kind of love that made corruption impossible.

Not the desperate passion that had driven Mordaine to betray Kieran's trust, but the conscious choice to be vulnerable with someone who would guard that vulnerability as carefully as their own.

"The ritual," she said, understanding flooding through her with startling clarity. "It's not just about magical mechanics. It's about the mating bond itself becoming the cleansing matrix."

"Which means?"

"Which means we need to complete the bond while channeling our combined energy into the betrayal sigil," Aerin replied, her mind finally grasping the elegant horror of Mordaine's design. "We need to make love while our magic works to cleanse centuries of corruption from the founder network."

Leo's eyes blazed with gold fire as his lion responded to the implications. "And if the curse mark corrupts the process?"

"Then we trust each other enough to fight the corruption together," Aerin said, moving closer until she was straddling his lap despite the terrifying energy slithering around his curse mark.

"Leo, I'm terrified of what might happen if we do this.

But I'm more terrified of what will definitely happen if we don't."

"Are you sure?" Leo asked, his hands settling on her waist with reverent care. "Once we start this, once we open that connection, there's no taking it back."

"I don't want to take it back," Aerin said, her voice carried the tone of someone who stopped fighting what she wanted most. "I want you, Leo Maddox. Not because destiny demands it or magic requires it, but because you're mine and I'm yours and that's worth fighting for."

The words seemed to unlock something in Leo's magical signature, and for the first time since the curse mark had activated, the corruption's advance slowed.

His lion surged forward with recognition and claim, while his human consciousness held steady with the determination of someone who'd finally found something worth any risk.

"Then we do this together," he said, pulling her down for a kiss that tasted akin to promise and desperation in equal measure. "All of it. The ritual, the bond, the consequences."

Their mouths met with the intensity of people who'd been denying themselves, and Aerin felt her magical signature respond to the contact with harmonies she'd never experienced.

Leo's lion energy wrapped around her fae magic like protection and welcome combined, and the curse mark's corruption seemed to recoil from the pure emotional honesty of their connection.

"The betrayal sigil," Aerin gasped against his lips, feeling magical energy building between them with each heartbeat. "We need to establish the connection while we can still control the process."

Leo's hands moved to the buttons of her shirt with movements that shook slightly from the effort of maintaining human control while his lion demanded immediate claiming. "How do we establish the connection?"

"Direct contact with the rune while we complete the mating bond," Aerin said, her own hands working at his shirt despite the way the curse mark's glow made her skin tingle with warnings. "Physical, emotional, and magical unity channeled into the cleansing matrix."

"That means going to the market basement," Leo said, his practical mind functioning despite the desire coursing through his system. "In our current condition, with magical instability affecting the entire town."

"It means trusting that what we feel for each other is stronger than whatever's trying to corrupt us," Aerin corrected, her shirt falling away to reveal skin that seemed to glow with its own inner light.

"Leo, I love you. Not the version of you that matches my academic theories or fulfills some mystical destiny, but you—stubborn, protective, impossible you. "

The declaration hit Leo's consciousness like sunlight breaking through storm clouds, and for a moment the curse mark's corruption seemed to fade entirely. His lion roared with satisfaction and claim, while his human heart opened in ways he'd never thought possible.

"I love you too," he said, his voice rough with emotion that went beyond mere attraction. "I love your brilliant mind and your stubborn courage and the way you threaten ancient curses when they inconvenience your research."

They were moving even as they spoke, leaving the library to navigate corridors that flickered with unstable magical energy.

The inn seemed to approve of their mission, doors opening at their approach and floorboards providing silent passage despite the building's general tendency toward dramatic creaking.

The journey to Moondrip Market took place in a haze of building anticipation and supernatural urgency.

Leo's curse mark pulsed with increasing frequency as they approached the betrayal sigil, while Aerin's fae magic responded to their proximity with harmonics that made the night air sing.

By the time they reached the market's basement, both of them were glowing with visible energy that turned the mundane storage space into something that belonged in a fairy tale.

The betrayal sigil waited beneath its cleared section of floor, dark granite carved with forms that moved as they watched.

Silver roots still emerged from around its edges, but now they pulsed in rhythm with Aerin and Leo's combined heartbeats, as if the magical system was preparing to receive whatever they were about to channel into it.