Chapter 37
Lumi
Ihave magic.
I have magic.
I have magic.
I’m a witch.
How?
My mother—my mother must have been a witch. Had magical powers. It’s rare, almost impossible, but she must have been.
My father lied to me.
My entire life.
That’s the only explanation. But why didn’t my magic manifest before now? Why remain dormant for so long?
The same reason my wolf shifter abilities did—the curse. It must have had something to do with my individual witch curse.
Heavy panting brings me quickly back to reality—I fucked both of them.
My first love. The man who is my mate. The man who betrayed me. But fixed his mistake. The alpha wolf. The witch. The man I was hesitant to fuck.
And my true love. The man I will die still loving. The man who betrayed me. The alpha wolf. The vampire. The man who is in love with another.
I fucked them both.
And they are both lying next to me, panting like we all just ran a marathon instead of fucking together. I can smell myself on both of them. And them on me. Our scents mixed together—embers, blood, and sweat make it clear exactly what transpired here.
I’ll never forget this moment, but I can’t hide the heat on my cheeks now that it’s over. I have no regrets. This was perfect. But there are about a thousand reasons I shouldn’t have fucked either of them.
“You’re a witch,” Ambrose says.
“You have magic,” Nyx says.
Both men are grinning at me like they couldn’t be prouder.
I swallow hard, letting the feeling wash through me.
I’ve never been more unsure how to feel.
I hate witches. Isolde has taken everything from us.
There is a war between the creatures. We’ve always hated each other.
But now I’m one of them. Half witch, half wolf.
It seems the world has made it even clearer who my mate is.
I turn my head, looking from one to the other, unsure of what to say. They both seem to want to talk about the magic part, but what about the sex? We should talk. We should—
“I knew I should have put a stronger spell on this cage to prevent you from using magic,” Isolde is suddenly standing outside the cell, glaring in like she wants to kill us. “You shattered all the glass that we were setting up for the feast.”
I meet her gaze, expecting her anger to be directed at me; instead, she is glaring at Ambrose. He snickers. “Oh dear, I guess you’ll have to use paper then.”
She blasts her magic out, straight at his chest.
“Ambrose!” I scream, throwing myself onto his body before she blasts him again. Heat burns me as I touch him like an electric shock. It lingers in his body, almost knocking him out.
I’m about to tell Isolde to leave him alone, that I was the one to do that, when subtly, Nyx shakes his head.
I keep my mouth shut; I know it’s better that she doesn’t know I have magic. Something I can use to my advantage later. But I’m angry. I’m tired of hiding. Tired of pretending I’m not good enough. Not strong enough. That she can boss me around.
My magic flares at my fingertips. I don’t know how to control it. I don’t know how strong I am. I don’t understand a thing about it. For now, it’s a secret weapon to use against her.
Isolde looks from Ambrose to me. “You reek of sex. The real reason you’re confused about who your mate is that you’re a whore.”
“And the real reason you don’t believe that Ambrose is my mate is that you don’t trust your seers. They are witches, your people, and you don’t believe them. Don’t trust their magic.”
“I trust them just fine. It’s you I don’t trust.”
“You think I tricked every single seer into believing the man I hated at the time was my mate instead of the man I had fallen in love with?”
She ignores me. “What you did changes nothing. I’ll be deciding who you do the marking with. I will control you. I will ensure you join with the man of my choosing.”
Ambrose slowly sits up next to me. “You okay?” I ask him in his mind.
He gives me a slight nod in return.
“Taunt her then, with your magic,” I say.
“What? Why?”
“Trust me.”
“That’s all you’ve got? A blast to the chest. We’ll be breaking out of here long before the next full moon.”
She growls, her magic blasting out of her as she forms a new barrier around our cell. I can feel how thick it is. How strong the walls are she builds, thicker and thicker this time, until I’m sure she’s caged our magic inside. It will be hard to blast our way out. But that’s not the point.
“Better?” she asks, smirking.
Ambrose blasts his magic out, and it ricochets back to him, knocking him back.
I wince. “Sorry.”
“I’m okay.”
“Your magic isn’t strong enough. You can’t force us to join together for the ceremony.
You don’t have that kind of power,” I taunt her, knowing what I’m risking and hoping both men next to me forgive me if I’m wrong.
But after both of them just willingly fucked me together, I know they trust me and each other enough.
Impossible levels of heat wrap around my body. I look down at my skin, expecting to see flames. From the outside looking in, nothing is wrong. But I cry out nonetheless from the pain shooting through me.
My legs bend under me, and my body catapults itself into a standing position. Nyx and Ambrose are suddenly standing next to me as well.
Her magic is almost impossible to fight. It feels like pure pain, not a battle of strength. She uses pain to make my body bend to her will. But I have to know whether she can really do this. Can she make me fuck them?
My body slams into Nyx’s chest. It’s rough, uncontrolled, and jerky.
“Sorry,” I whisper through Ambrose’s head to him. Already regretting taunting her.
She was going to leave us alone. I didn’t have to do this.
“Don’t—she won’t be able to. You’re right.”
“But what if she does? What if she forces us?”
“Then you keep playing the memory of what we just did together in your head while it happens. You know that I want you desperately, whether I have control over how it happens or not. That Ambrose wants you. That you want us. You don’t think about anything else.
This is just a test. A test to see how strong she really is,” Nyx says.
“We don’t regret this. No matter what,” Ambrose adds. “Plus, there is no way she’s making either of us hard anytime soon after we just fucked you like that.”
“Speak for yourself,” Nyx says, and I can feel his arousal already lengthening against my stomach.
“Kiss,” the demand comes, pouring into us.
Our lips collide.
There is nothing soft, tender, or controlled about it. Our lips technically touch, but she doesn’t separate our lips. Doesn’t force our tongues to touch.
“She can’t do it. She’s not strong enough. We’re stronger,” Nyx says.
Pride wells inside me. I’m still in control. I still get to choose my mate. She can’t force me…
Pain explodes. The earth shakes. Nyx and Ambrose spin around me. Slamming into me. Suddenly, they’re both hard. Both are trying to penetrate me.
I panic.
No, I can’t. I can’t do this. This can’t be happening.
I was strong enough. Her magic was fading. I saw it.
“You want us. We want you. It’s okay, love.”
“It’s not. It’s fucking not,” I sob.
“Do it,” Ambrose shouts to Nyx. “Do it now!”
“Make it stop. Just make it stop!” I scream.
And then a different kind of control twists into my mind—Nyx.
Shadows and ice fill my mind. “Sleep, sleep until it’s over, Lumi. Dream of something that makes you happy.”