Lumi!
I stand up immediately, searching for the love of my life. She’s hit the ground, face down, like all of her other pack members, and she looks completely unharmed.
I reach for our connection like it’s second nature before I remember the emptiness there.
The blast from Ambrose finally recedes. Everyone stays down for a few more seconds, nervous it’s going to happen again.
“Did it work?” Emeric asks as he slowly stands up.
“No, it didn’t,” Lumi answers for Ambrose.
“How do you know?” Emeric asks.
“Because I can still feel the guilt, the heaviness that he carries, the pain. Can’t you feel it?” she asks Emeric.
Emeric frowns. “Yes.”
“If it had worked, the pain would have lifted. He would be able to say I love you to me without feeling the heaviness of his words,” Lumi says.
“But how can you be sure?” Emeric asks.
“Say it,”Lumi says gently to Ambrose, but it’s in his mind. I find myself in his mind, and I hear her as if she were talking to me in my mind.
“Are you sure?”he asks back.
“Yes.”
“I love you, Lumi.”
Terror lights up Lumi’s face in the same way it did before. There’s a shift in the air, like the curse has a mind of its own.
Ambrose didn’t break the curse.
Ambrose turns to Riven. “Any other great ideas?” he snarks.
But Riven is used to my own grumpiness and isn’t deterred by Ambrose in the least. “I have a few.” He looks from Lumi to Ambrose.
“I think we should try again, but this time, pour that energy into Lumi,” Riven says.
“What? I’ll kill her!” Ambrose says.
“You won’t. You love her. You have a strong connection to her. That’s what this curse is about. Your connection. Maybe trying to sever it will sever the curse.”
I smirk, liking this idea too much. But then Riven gives me a look that says just wait, and my smirk drops. I’m not going to like whatever comes next.
“Are you telling me to stop loving her? Because I can’t do that. Even to save her life, unfortunately,” Ambrose says.
“I’m not telling you that. I’m telling you that you have to sever this thing between you. This curse. Lean into your connection, then sever it with magic.”
Ambrose reaches for Lumi’s hand, and she slowly accepts it. It feels awkward watching them hold hands. He looks into her eyes, but her eyes don’t sparkle back like they do when I look at her. There is no connection. No spark. Nothing that tells me she’s his and he’s hers.
Fucking gods, he needs my help if he’s ever going to have a chance at winning her heart. Fuck me.
“I’m going to have everyone pour their magic into you again, but this time all at once. That way, you’re not having to wrangle the magic for long, now that everyone understands how to send their magic to you. And then just focus on your hands, on the thing connecting you, blast the curse away from you while you hold onto her.”
“I’ll hurt her,” Ambrose says again.
“No, this is protecting her. Blast the curse causing her pain away from her,” Riven says.