Chapter 3
Nyx
She still loves me.
Fuck.
I thought she hated me. I thought she saw me for who I really am—a killer. I thought she had accepted her bond with Ambrose, and a flood of feelings hit her when she did. I thought…
Fuck.
Even my plan to make her hate me—using mind control to make her commit the one act that would destroy us both. I would never actually let her kill me, but making her believe I would force her to should have been enough for her to hate me forever. To her, that kind of control would be unforgivable.
I thought she’d finally understand how much danger she is in around me. How easily I could kill her against my will in the same way she didn’t have control when magic was pressuring her to kill me. But it backfired.
Lumi was pissed, but still, she didn’t hate me. I’m not sure if I can make her hate me, but I have to try. If not, I’ll end up killing her.
I don’t have to open my eyes to know exactly where I am. The smells are familiar; the soft bed beneath my back smells like a mixture of her and me, and given the covers pulled high over my head, sunlight is streaming into my room. I’m back in my bedroom.
I move an inch and feel magic gently stirring, stretching around me.
Ambrose’s magic.
His magic is locking me in this room. It might be my comfortable room, but there is no mistaking that I’m in a cage. I have no hope of breaking free, not that I want to.
I just don’t understand why we are here and not a million miles away from the Moonfire witches. If Lumi and Ambrose think the witches will respect the edges of my territory or fear the Bloodmoon pack, they’re wrong. Those witches will stop at nothing to break their curse. None of us is safe here.
Voices carry up the stairs, drawing me out of my own thoughts long enough to listen.
“Shouldn’t we be seeking other seers? Someone who might have answers on how we can break all the curses at once?” Riven asks.
“No,” Lumi and Ambrose answer at the same time.
“The witches aren’t to be trusted, and since all seers are witches, we’re on our own to figure out how to break the curses,” Lumi says.
“We should just kill them all. Then we’d have all the time in the world to figure out how to break our curses,” Brax says. He’s always the one to fight first and ask questions later.
“If we could kill all the witches, we would have already done that. No offense, Riven. All the offense to you, Ambrose. But it wouldn’t solve anything. Ambrose’s witch curse still means Lumi will die if we don’t undo it first,” Sylara says.
I smile, loving how protective she is of Lumi.
“We can’t stay here. The Moonlight pack members aren’t going to want to camp out in the Bloodmoon territory forever,” Emeric says.
“Well, as I’m still their alpha and I need us to stay here to protect my mate, they don’t have a choice. They’ll learn to get along well enough with the Bloodmoon pack and any vampires that are willing to help us,” Ambrose says.
“There will be no vampires willing to help protect Lumi, not now that they know she’s not Nyx’s mate and you’re going to break the curse for the witches, not the vampires,” Talonis says.
“You have to get the vampires to help us,” Ambrose suddenly says to me.
I laugh. “No way.”
“You’re their lord; they have to listen to you. And we need everyone we can get to help protect Lumi,” he snaps back.
“Doesn’t matter. My control of the vampires isn’t as absolute as it is with my own pack. They don’t respect me in the same way. Besides, I would never force them to do something like that, even to protect Lumi.”
“They’ll help us if we promise to break the curse for the vampires,” Lumi says.
The room is silent. My own heart is pounding through my chest. There is no way any of them can be considering her proposition.
They are all just searching for the right words to remind her that if they don’t break the witch’s curse, then I’m going to kill her.
That’s more important than me going savage and mad and killing a hundred humans out of bloodlust. I have faith that my vampire curse can be contained.
They can keep me locked up forever if they refuse to kill me.
But I know the other vampires will kill me eventually for it. They won’t want a savage as their lord.
I wait for someone to say that’s insane.
For someone to say the only choice is to break the witches’ curse, to break Ambrose’s curse.
I wait.
But no one says anything.
For a heartbeat, then another and another.
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Ambrose asks.
“Yes. Thalia said that Nyx was the key to breaking the other curses. She said that you and I would break one, and he’d break the rest. The key to breaking all the curses is keeping Nyx alive, and breaking the vampire curse is the way to do that,” she continues.
“No, no, no!” I shout at Ambrose through the bond. “This is insane! Tell her that.”
Ambrose ignores me, putting up a mental wall to shut me out. Bastard.
“You’d be vulnerable until we figured out how to break the witches’ curse—my curse.
I love you. I admitted it. Out. Loud. There is no stopping it now.
Nyx is the most likely one to kill on behalf of my curse.
We are connected in a strange way that I’m not sure I’ll ever understand, but if we do keep him caged until we break all the curses, then it’s likely that someone else will be triggered by my curse to kill you,” Ambrose says.
“I know what I’m doing. How long did it take the curse the last time to trigger?” Lumi asks.
“Raya was dead within a week, and I felt my love for Rowena a couple of days before Nyx killed her,” Ambrose admits.
“Fucking asshole. Blaming me like this is my fault when it’s all yours,” I snap at him, but my words bounce back to me.
“We can’t do anything to break either of the curses that fast. We have to wait until the next full moon, regardless. So it might be a moot point,” Lumi says.
“We aren’t going to let some stupid curse kill you,” Sylara says.
I can feel them all stepping forward. Every single shifter from the Bloodmoon and Moonlight pack present surrounds her, willing to protect her with their lives.
“Are you still connected to him?” Lumi asks Ambrose.
“Yes, it’s quite annoying. The asshole won’t stop talking,” Ambrose says grumpily.
Good, at least I’m annoying him even with his shield up.
“Maybe you should reject the bond with him like Lumi did,” Kael says with a chuckle.
“If only I could,” Ambrose sighs.
“I reject the bond,” I growl, but I can still feel his presence in my head.
“We should let Nyx out,” Lumi says quietly, like she knows no one is going to like that idea.
“Like hell we are!” Kael says.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Emeric says.
“I think we should respect Nyx’s wishes,” Riven says.
“I don’t like seeing my alpha locked up, but I think it’s for the best,” Brax says.
Talonis doesn’t share his opinion.
“I agree with Lumi,” Sylara says.
“Can I kill your beta?” Ambrose says suddenly to me.
“No. You can try, but she’ll take you down before you even draw blood,” I say.
“Figures, but care to shut her up?”
I chuckle. “There is no shutting Sylara up. That’s why she’s my beta.”
“You want to be free?” Ambrose asks.
“Hell no, I don’t trust myself around Lumi.”
“Good, I don’t either.”
“If Ambrose’s curse is going to be attempted by the end of the week, no matter what, then it doesn’t matter if Nyx is locked up or not.
The curse will use any of us as a vessel.
Which is why we need to work in tandem, at least two people always guarding Lumi to ensure her safety.
Nyx being caged just means he can’t help us get the vampires on our side in the war against the witches.
It means he can’t help us figure out how to break the curses, which is idiotic since the strongest seer on the planet said he was the key to breaking at least two of the curses,” Sylara continues.
“Let him go, Ambrose. Then he can help us figure out a plan,” Lumi says.
“Don’t you dare let me out!” I yell so loudly they can all hear me. Not that I’d need to yell, they all have superhuman hearing. I could have joined the conversation at any time.
“Staying locked up won’t help anyone,” Sylara says.
“Letting me out ensures Lumi’s death at my hand. I’m staying right where I am,” I say back.
“I’ll do whatever Lumi wants me to do,” Ambrose says.
Fucking suck up. He just wants his mate to love and respect him again.
“If you let me out, I’ll spend whatever time I have left seducing her.
If I’m destined to kill Lumi, I’m going to make sure she enjoys every second of this miserable life we have left.
She’ll spend every waking moment in my bed riding my cock.
I’ll worship every inch of her body, and that bond that you share, you’ll get to hear and feel everything.
You’ll hear how I make her scream my name.
She’ll forget you’re her mate. She’ll tell me she loves me and how she’d rather die than never have my cock again.
I’ll make sure she dies mid-orgasm so she never has to feel pain. I’ll—”
“Enough,” Ambrose growls back.
I smirk.
“Your antics won’t work. I know what you’re doing.
And it doesn’t change anything. I’ll do whatever Lumi tells me to.
I’m not fucking this up again. I’m her mate.
You are a complication. An infatuation who she enjoyed fucking.
A tragedy waiting to happen in her life.
No matter what happens, your life with her is over.
Help her see that if you want to help her.
Either way, I’m her future. You’re her past. I’m her mate, the one she’s destined for.
I have eternity and the afterlife to make her fall in love with me again.
Nothing you say is going to bother me,” Ambrose says.
“Good, you had me scared there for a bit that you weren’t going to fight for her. She needs you. She’s bound to you with the blood deal and the gods selecting her as your mate. Don’t fuck it up.”
Ambrose snorts, not acknowledging my words. But I vow then and now to do everything possible to make Lumi and Ambrose’s relationship work. To help her fall in love with him and forget me. I’m doomed. There is nothing she can do for me now.
“Release him,” Lumi says confidently from downstairs.
Fucking hell.
A second later, Ambrose’s magic lifts. The second it does, I move. One second, I’m upstairs in my bedroom, the next, I’m standing in front of her face-to-face, so close that a light wind would knock me into her.
Lumi doesn’t react. Her expression is neutral, as if she were expecting me to do this.
I lift my lips, revealing my sharp fangs, waiting for someone to stop me. For someone to realize the threat I am and kill me.
No one moves.
Not even Ambrose.
They all trust me. No one believes I’ll actually hurt her.
It’s a mistake.
One we’ll all live to regret.
“I’m not afraid of you, Nyx. No one is. We know the game you’re playing, and we’re not falling for it. We are going to find a way to save you. Find a way to stop the curse from killing me. It’s only been a few hours. We aren’t ready to give up yet,” she says.
I tilt my head, angling my face over her ear. I lower my voice so that, despite the superhuman hearing in the room, I know she’s the only one who can hear me.
“You’re trying to save me to give me a lifetime of misery.
Watching you with him for all of my life will destroy me worse than any curse will.
You are my everything, Lumi. But no matter what, you’ll choose him to save me.
Choose him to stop the curses and save the damn world.
That’s who you are—selfless, strong, brave, relentless.
You won’t choose me. You can’t choose me.
Not in the end. The only way you save me from the suffering of a lifetime is to kill me now.
It doesn’t have to be at your hand or someone you love, but let me go. ”
I watch her swallow, the muscles in her neck working slowly. Her eyes cut to me, and I think for a moment that look is going to kill me.
“You’re wrong. I’m not selfless or brave or strong. But I am relentless when it comes to you. You’re right, the kind thing to do might be to end your suffering now. Kill you quickly and painlessly. But I’m selfish, and I’m not ready to give you up. I can’t give you up, even to save the damn world.”
Her voice falters as she speaks. It’s a lie. All of it. It’s what she wants to be true. She wants to love me more than caring about her friends, family, and the world. But it’s not how she feels.
“Promise me when the time comes, you’ll give the order to let someone kill me.
Brax or Talonis could shoulder the weight of killing me.
The others would struggle more with it. Kael, I’m sure, would enjoy it.
Ambrose would, too, but I don’t want you holding any grudges against him.
Or just send me to the vampires, and they’ll make sure to get the job done—”
“No,” she cuts me off.
I frown, pushing my frustration down. I’m getting nowhere. The threats and taunting aren’t working.
“I will,” she says suddenly.
“What?”
“I’ll kill you. It will be me who does it. I’m not letting any of the others carry that burden. If the time comes, I’ll kill you myself.”
I suck in a breath, not sure what to say to that. “Thank you—”
“I’m not finished. But you have to promise me something first.” Faint sparks of electricity dance across my skin as she brushes her hand against my face. I flinch. She doesn’t. Her determination holds steady.
“I’ll kill you after we’ve exhausted all other options.
If you are suffering too much. If you’ve killed too many people.
I’ll kill you before I let you kill me, but you have to promise you’ll stop your antics.
You’ll stop trying to get others to kill you.
Stop acting like you’re worse than you actually are.
You’re going to do everything in your power to control your bloodlust and stay in control of your mind.
You’re going to fight Ambrose’s curse that wants you to kill me.
You’re to help us find a solution that doesn’t involve your death.
And you’re not going to try to take your own life. Do you agree?”
I prick my finger, assuming she wants to mark this deal in blood, but she shakes her head.
“I’ve had enough of magic, all I need is your word. Do you promise?”
Why does she have to be so perfect? The gods truly must hate me. They gave me everything I could ever want in the world and then took it away from me in the cruelest way possible.
“I promise, my love.”