Chapter 30 Lumi
Lumi
Istare at Nyx, waiting for him to tell me his theory, but he’s lost in his head, like he’s trying to mentally put together the pieces of a puzzle.
“Care to share?” Ambrose asks.
Nyx snaps his head in Ambrose’s direction. “Surely, you’ve figured it out, too.”
Ambrose narrows his eyes. “I haven’t, which is why it’d be nice if you’d share something that could save my mate’s life.”
Nyx sighs, like he doesn’t want to say what he’s thinking. Which means whatever he’s thinking Ambrose is going to disagree with.
“Please,” I say so softly, so gently.
Nyx turns to me, chains rattling with the movement. His gaze drags over my naked body, heat flaring in his eyes at the sight of me.
I’m the only one fully naked. He’s somehow managed to keep his boxers on. And Ambrose is fully dressed.
I swallow the lump in my throat as he looks at me like he’s seeing me for the first time.
“Stop eye fucking my mate,” Ambrose hisses.
“I’m about to die, I’ll spend my last hours eye fucking anyone I want.” He turns his attention back to me. “Unless you don’t want me to, love.”
“I don’t mind,” I whisper.
He smirks in satisfaction.
Ambrose huffs.
“You’re probably about to die, too, so I would suggest you eye fuck her as well. It’s the only pleasure you’ll find we have left,” Nyx says.
I glance over my shoulder at Ambrose. I know he wants to rip Nyx’s head off to get him to shut up, but to my surprise, Ambrose does as Nyx says. I feel the heat in the room amp up as Ambrose runs his eyes over my naked form.
“Stop distracting us and tell us what you’re thinking,” I tell Nyx.
“I think you are the reason that you fell through the sky and landed on my lap.”
“What do you mean?”
Nyx hesitates and then says, “I think you can create a rip in the world and step through it, transporting yourself between two places.”
I laugh, hysterically, like it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. I laugh until my stomach hurts. But when I look back up into Nyx’s dark eyes, I realize he’s serious.
“What? How? No…”
I glance back at Ambrose, expecting a similar reaction from him, but he’s frozen. His mind is spinning, obviously trying to put the pieces together as well. And then he looks at me like he’s seeing me clearly for the first time.
“You think he’s right?” I ask Ambrose.
Ambrose and Nyx exchange glances, and I know they are talking mind to mind.
“Don’t talk to each other mind to mind when I’m right here! I don’t feel like using my strength to try and listen in to your conversations,” I say, annoyed.
“It’s possible that Nyx is right,” Ambrose says cautiously.
“How? I can’t teleport! I don’t have any magic!”
Ambrose scratches the back of his neck nervously, looking from me to Nyx, waiting for Nyx to explain more.
“What is your theory about how you ended up here?” Nyx asks.
“Isolde, she teleported me. She has the power; we just watched her do it. You were obviously bait, and she wanted me to find you to lock us all up.”
“No, she didn’t want you here yet. That’s why they put up such a fight to drive us away instead of capturing us.
They only captured Amora, Sylara, and me when they realized they had no choice.
They just wanted us gone. She wouldn’t have transported you here.
At some point, she wants to capture you, sure.
But we’re still two weeks away from the full moon.
She got Nyx so she could test this “cure.” But as you can see, it only lasts a couple of hours. She wants more time to test this cure.”
“Why? Why create a cure?”
“To control the vampires. To convince you to break the curse for the witches, since she can cure the vampires that she chooses. I don’t know. All I know is she wasn’t prepared to hold you hostage yet. She wouldn’t have brought you here,” Nyx says.
“I didn’t do this. I—”
“You did. And it wasn’t the first time either. When someone was trying to kill you with your own blade, I think that was you. I think you sensed them and tried to flee, but they followed you. And you did it again today.”
I shake my head. “You’re insane. I’m a wolf shifter. I don’t have any magical powers. And as you’ve said before, I would have to have insane magical powers to be able to transport myself through space. Most witches can’t.”
“You do,” Nyx says.
I turn to Ambrose, who is looking at me differently, too, like he’s trying to figure it out. I don’t like being ganged up on by both of them.
“So what? You think I’m part witch?”
“It’s possible. Riven is half witch, half wolf shifter. Do you know who your mother was?”
I sigh. “No, she died shortly after I was born. And my father never talked about her.”
Nyx raises an eyebrow as if to say see, it’s possible.
“I’m not a witch,” I say angrily.
“There are other ways to possess magic other than being a witch, although less likely. When you were part of the Moonlight pack, you held a small part of my magic; maybe you held onto that magic even when you left the pack. Maybe it grew inside you as your strength grew,” Ambrose says.
My mind is whirling, trying to make the pieces of the puzzle fit.
“Maybe being his mate granted you some of his power and him some of yours. The universe is trying to make you equals,” Nyx suggests.
“Maybe the gods granted you a gift to keep you alive long enough to break the curses. Maybe they’re on your side and actually want you to break the curse,” Ambrose says.
Their ideas are becoming increasingly far-fetched. I close my eyes, turning inward, trying to figure it out for myself.
I steady my breathing and focus. Get out of the chains. Transport myself across the room, out of the chains. I whisper the words in my mind, visualizing moving across the room and out of the chains.
Nothing happens.
I feel no tingling.
No movement.
Nothing.
“You are both insane. And it doesn’t matter anyway. Even if I can vanish and reappear, I’m sure Isolde’s magic is blocking my ability to use it in this cage. So it won’t help us escape.”
Ambrose and Nyx trade looks, but neither pushes me further on the topic.
“What we need to discuss is this cure thing and what we are going to do when the cure stops working. How are we going to escape?”
Nyx gives me a serious look. “You’re going to let me die.”
“Like hell I am!”
Nyx looks over my shoulder at Ambrose, like he’s going to help, but Ambrose remains quiet.
“Coward,” Nyx throws the word at him.
“I just think you’re wrong,” Ambrose says.
“We all know what this cure is about. It’s about controlling the vampires.
Controlling our decision on who the curse is broken for.
The Moonfire witches own us now. We belong to them.
We don’t have a choice. If it comes down to it, they will use their magic to force the two of you to complete the marking ceremony and choose them.
You have to break the curse for the witches.
The Moonfire witches will assure that. And it’s the only way to keep Lumi alive.
“Where does that leave me? The other vampires? It leaves us at the mercy of Moonfire witches and their cure, which they will only give us if we side with them, do their bidding, and become their slaves. It won’t be a life worth living,” Nyx says.
“You’re wrong; Thalia already told you your fate. If you stay alive, you break the other curses. Everyone is depending on you staying alive as much as they are Ambrose and me,” I say, trying to reason with him and not say any of the reasons that affect me personally.
Like I need him fucking alive. That I love him. He’s my strength. My reason for getting up in the morning. That without him alive, I can’t do any of the hard things that are required of me.
“Seers get things wrong all the time. And I don’t trust Thalia, she’s a witch. She’s going to spin things to ensure that the curse is broken for her,” Nyx responds.
I sigh, looking to Ambrose for help. “Please.”
A gentle caress shoots back through our bond, easing the tension in my body. He’ll help me.
“If you don’t believe Thalia, then that means there is a possibility that you and Lumi are still mates. And the only way to save her is that we both stay alive until the marking ceremony. Even if you aren’t her mate, you need to stay alive. We all do to protect her for as long as possible.
“After the marking ceremony. After a curse is broken, everything else will change. We’ll deal with that when it happens,” Ambrose says.
I can see the words hitting Nyx. The truth in them.
“Besides, we made a blood deal—one that ensured we’d do whatever we could to protect Lumi. I know the consequence of breaking it is death, and you don’t care if you live or die, but I know you’re a man of honor and won’t renege on our deal.”
Nyx doesn’t speak for one minute, two. Eventually, he says, “Fine, have it your way, we all fight like hell to stay alive then.”
I can’t help the smile that spreads on my lips despite the predicament we are in. “Thank you,” I send to Ambrose.
“Of course, I’d do anything for you.”
And I know he means it. He really would give me up for Nyx if I thought Nyx was my mate.
But I know it’s Ambrose, even if I love Nyx more.
The more I learn about the gods, the more I realize that none of this is meant to be fair.
They wanted to hurt us. They wanted to curse us for as long as possible.
And to undo the curse, it’s going to take a lot of pain and suffering and unfairness.
“Um…how exactly do we fight to stay alive? What does that mean?” I ask.
“It means that when my curse is triggered, you stay as far away from me as possible until Isolde offers me the cure again. And we hope that whatever she makes us do for the cure doesn’t destroy us,” Nyx answers.