Chapter 27 Lumi
Lumi
The intense feeling to turn around washes over me as we approach the Moonfire territory. The feeling sinks in easily, weighing each footstep down. This is the farthest I’ve ever run in my wolf form, but I feel like I could run another thousand miles. Until we got close to the Moonfire territory.
I look to the others surrounding me. We all look like we are walking through quicksand. Each footstep is painstakingly slow, taking all our energy to take the next one.
“Runes—they’ve marked every tree within a mile of their territory to prevent intruders. They know we’re here,” Ambrose says.
I suck in a breath. Knowing we never had a chance for a sneak attack to get Nyx back. But still, I hate that we are so easily discovered.
Kael shifts into his human form first, like he’s unable to keep a hold on his wolf form with the magic surrounding him.
As soon as he does, others begin to follow suit—Emeric, then Brax, then Talonis, then Riven.
The rest of the Moonlight and Bloodmoon pack members have already shifted.
Sylara, Ambrose, and I are the only ones able to maintain our wolf forms.
I go to shift, but Ambrose says, “Don’t even think about it. Stay in your wolf form. It will keep you safe.”
I frown, but don’t argue. I watch as Sylara and him both shift. Amora leads the vampires, and they all approach us.
“We aren’t going to be able to enter the territory without a hole blasted in their magic. It took all of our strength to walk this close. No way are the vampires going to be allowed in their territory without their permission or someone blasting a hole in their magical shield,” Amora says.
“I’ve got it, but everyone needs to gather their strength first,” Ambrose says, looking around the group.
Kael starts passing out clothes to the shifters from a bag he carried here.
As much as it’d be safer for the wolf shifters to be in their wolf forms, we already know that won’t be possible in Moonfire territory.
Their magic won’t allow it. We’ll have to rely on the vampires’ and the shifters’ own hand-to-hand combat skills.
I don’t like it, but we don’t have a choice, really.
The vampires have agreed to lead the attack, with the shifters focusing on finding Nyx and freeing him.
I stare at everyone as I stand alone in my wolf form. I feel like a coward, like I’m asking everyone else to risk their lives while I’m cowering alone, unable to help.
“Don’t—don’t do that to yourself. No one here wants to risk your life. No one here is unwilling to risk their own. Everyone has a part to play in this war. Your part is keeping yourself alive so that you can complete the marking ceremony and break the curse.”
“But they are doing it for me. Because they know I care about Nyx. And that the witches can use him to manipulate me into breaking it for other creatures.”
Ambrose shakes his head. “They are doing it because Nyx is their alpha, lord, friend, or lover. They are doing it because he has been prophesied to break the other two curses. It has nothing to do with your feelings for him.”
I look at Ambrose. “How do you do it? How do you keep hope with me when I keep telling you repeatedly how much I love a man who isn’t in love with me and loves another? A man I should hate, but can’t let go of?”
Ambrose stills for a moment, and for a second, it seems like he’s considering something—something he wants to tell me but can’t.
“I do it because I love you. Because even if you never love me in the same way you love him, it’s enough for me. Curse or no curse. Mates or not. You’re the one I want. You need him alive in this world so you don’t lose hope. Then I’ll save him. Simple as that.”
I gasp at him, not sure what to say. But he doesn’t give me a chance to respond.
“Ready?” he asks Sylara and Amora.
They both nod at them.
And then Ambrose holds out his hands. The world stills. Our plan depends on him being able to do this. If he can’t, we’re fucked. He has to create a hole in their shield. He has to create a way in. Because the Moonfire witches won’t allow us in, otherwise.
Ambrose is sweating, and the air shifts, and then a blast shoots out from his hands. I can’t see anything, but I feel it happening. The runes telling me to turn around lessen.
“Now!” Ambrose yells.
Amora and Sylara are the first through the opening. The second they are through, my heart stops beating out of my chest.
We are going to get Nyx back.
Vampires follow next, then Bloodmoons, then Moonlights. Ambrose is the last through, and I realize as soon as he’s through, I won’t be able to help even if I want to. The opening will close with him. It doesn’t matter the promises I made to him.
“We’ll find him. Stay safe, my queen,” and then he’s through and the magic descends on him, like a door slamming shut.
I whimper, my paw scratching at the invisible wall like I’m going to be able to open it. But of course I can’t.
I pace, needing something to do. I stay in my wolf form as Ambrose requested. I know Ambrose will keep updated on what’s happening inside, but I want second-by-second reports, and I know that’s not realistic. He needs to concentrate on keeping himself and everyone else alive.
Hold on, Nyx, they’re coming for you.
I close my eyes, concentrating on Ambrose, slipping into his mind with ease. I expect fear, but I find none. Only a steady pulse of determination, alongside a sharp, simmering anger.
His heart doesn’t race. It beats calm. Controlled. Unshaken.
Even as they move quickly through the Moonfire territory, he remains perfectly steady.
“No one is here,” Ambrose says suddenly.
“What do you mean, no one is here?”
“I mean, I sense no one, and we haven’t run into a single witch. Their magic would have announced our presence. It seems they may have fled as soon as they heard our arrival.”
I frown. “Make sure they didn’t leave Nyx behind.”
“Of course, my queen. We’ll find him. Here or we’ll hunt them down.” There is such promise and assurance in his voice that I almost believe him. Almost believe that he can save him no matter what.
Where are you, Nyx? I whisper into the dark.
Ambrose doesn’t say much, but I continue to cling to the feel of his steady heartbeat. Calm and unshakable.
He’s probably doing it to try to keep me calm. To keep me from trying to break through the shield and run after him. But it’s not working.
My heart is erratic, wild, and uneven. I can’t stop pacing as my mind spirals into a tornado of thoughts I can’t control.
I’m not in a cage. But I might as well be. Every instinct in me claws at the walls, demanding I break through, run after them, do something. Anything.
My promise keeps me here. My faith in Ambrose, in the Bloomoon pack, the Moonlight pack, Kael, and even the vampires keeps me here. Knowing that they need me alive no matter what. I owe it to them all to break the curse.
“Lumi, I think—” Ambrose starts in my head, but he never finishes his thought.
“Ambrose?” I ask cautiously back.
He doesn’t answer immediately. I give him a minute, knowing he could be distracted, but the second his minute is up, I’m frantic.
“Ambrose, talk to me. What’s going on?” the words float out this time, but they don’t make it to him. I know because it feels the same way as it does when I speak to Nyx. Empty. Hollow. Like I’m talking to myself.
I strengthen that connection in my mind to Ambrose, searching for the heat, warmth, comfort that only his mind provides me. But it feels lost. It’s not where I normally find it. It’s like it’s been ripped from my brain.
Unlike with Nyx, I don’t find an empty void. I find something. Remnants of the heat. Remnants of an earthy scent. A tingle of magic.
He wasn’t ripped from my head. He’s still there, just hidden. Like a cloak has been placed between us, making it impossible for me to find or communicate with him.
Fuck, this can’t be good.
I stare at the invisible wall in front of me. I promised Ambrose I wouldn’t go through. That I would stay safe. Run if I had to.
But with him unable to communicate, without even being able to share if he’s alive or dead, I’m not sure I can keep my promise. If everyone I care about is captured or dead, who cares about my promise. I won’t be able to break the curse if my mate is dead.
I try once more, concentrating as hard as I can on the darkened spot in my mind that has been dampened.
Come on, Ambrose.
A flicker sparks back. Like a steady heartbeat—once, twice, then nothing.
He’s alive. Or was for two seconds. I felt his heart beating. Ambrose is alive, but our connection is being controlled by the Moonfire witches. I have no doubt about that.
I feel a tug in the other direction in my brain. Like there is something there. Something worth checking on.
I move from one side of my mind to the other.
To the far more painful side. To the spot where Nyx should be, instead, it’s completely empty.
There isn’t a flicker. Isn’t a drop left of him in my mind.
He’s gone. Like he’s been surgically removed with exact precision.
There is nothing for me to wade through.
Nothing for me to find. No connection to be regrown. He’s gone.
And I sent everyone he and I cared about after him to their deaths, most likely.
Tears well, but I refuse to be the damsel in distress. I refuse to sit on my hands and not help.
“I’m sorry,” I send to Ambrose, but I doubt he gets the message. I’ll have to deal with breaking my promise to Ambrose later, but right now, I have to break through this magical shield of a wall the witches have created.
I run as hard as I can straight at it, hoping that it will be enough.
It’s not.
It feels like hitting a brick wall—unwavering, with absolutely no bend or softness when I hit it. I crumble to the ground in agonizing pain.
That was stupid.
I stand up, shifting into my human form. I face the wall, not bothering to find clothes. For once, I don’t care about my nakedness. I just care about getting to them. About saving them.
“I’m the one you want! Me! Let me in! I’ll make a trade. I’ll do whatever you want. Just let my friends go,” I shout at the wall, knowing that the Moonfire witches can hear me.
I wait, holding my breath, begging my heart to beat slowly. But I get no response.
I frown, confusion wrapping around my face. I’m the one they want, and when I offer myself up to them, they don’t let me in. Something is happening. Something I don’t understand.
I place my hand against the invisible wall and close my eyes, listening closely.
I don’t understand magic, but I know that when I was a Moonlight pack member, I was granted some of Ambrose’s magic.
When I denounced his pack, he took it back.
But I’m his mate. He has magic. Maybe there is still a drop left.
Enough to persuade the magic holding up the barrier to open enough to let one female through.
I calm my mind, focusing on the magic, trying to feel its essence, how it works, and if it has any free will of its own.
But I know nothing of how magic works, and the tiny amount of magic I had is gone. It took all of Ambrose’s magic to create an opening before.
I should never have agreed to stay here. Never agreed to let them go without me.
But I refuse to be helpless. Refuse to give up so easily. I will find a way in. I will find a way to them. I will not stop searching for them. If they are alive, I will save them.
If my will alone could break through the magic wall, it would.
Break, dammit, break.
The wall doesn’t bend, doesn’t break to my will, it doesn’t budge.
The magic behind it is more powerful than anything I will ever understand.
It tells me exactly what I’m up against. In rankings of power, it goes witches, then vampires, then wolf shifters.
The shifters will never win this fight. Especially not now that our powers are beginning to fail us. Not against this power.
“Take me to him,” I say, I whisper against the wall, like it can help me. And then I’m sucked into a portal—darkness, and spinning tosses me around like an endless void, and then I’m spat out, hitting the ground hard.