And then it’s just Ambrose and me.
“I think Nyx is wrong,” Ambrose says.
“What? Why?”
“Magic, curses, they do have loopholes, other ways they can be broken, that’s true. But you loving me would be a far too easy way to break the curse.”
I stare at him suspiciously. “Are you just trying to give me an out? A reason that I don’t have to fall in love with you in hopes that I’ll fall in love with you?”
He chuckles. “No, I genuinely don’t think it will work.”
“What will work?”
“The marking ceremony. Breaking the curses for the witches.”
I frown.
“I know you don’t like that answer, but it’s what I believe.”
I shake my head, hating every answer that anyone gives me. “There has to be another way.”
“Maybe, maybe not. We just keep trying, keep searching for answers. And keep each other alive until we figure it out.”
I nod.
“You look beautiful, by the way,” Ambrose says, out of nowhere.
I freeze, not sure how to respond to him.
“Sorry, I—I shouldn’t have said that. But now that I can love you openly, it’s hard for me to keep my thoughts to myself. I know you’re in love with him. It’s why you are working so hard to save him. I just—” he runs his hands through his hair, his broad chest expanding under his thin white shirt.
He’s ruggedly gorgeous with his broad shoulders, messy hair, and confident stare at me. For a moment, I try to let myself feel all those things I felt before. Before, when I first met him. Before, when I loved him. When I thought he was it for me. When we were fucking, it felt like so much more. But when I think about how I felt then, nothing conjures up in my mind. The feelings are nice, but nothing like what I feel now.
“You know we can’t save them all. We can’t protect everyone. We have to choose. And saving the vampires first could lead to our demise,” Ambrose says.
I frown, hating where this is going.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because if the vampires are the first freed from the curse, they’d be stronger than any of us. They would be at their full powers. They could kill the rest of us before anyone else has a chance to break the other curses.”
“We have a blood deal. If you don’t break the curses for the vampires, you die.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not saying I won’t honor our blood deal. I’m just thinking out loud. That’s all. We need to think about everything before the next full moon.”
Suddenly, my stomach growls.
Without a second thought, Ambrose holds up his hand, pulling like he’s tugging on a magical rope I can’t see. A table and two chairs that I recognize from Nyx’s deck appear. A second later, two plates of food and a bottle of wine sit in the center of the table. Even our surroundings have changed, and we are a good mile or more from Nyx’s house, deep in the forest.
“Have dinner with me?” he asks.
I stare at the table, the food, the candle he just magically produced. Like it’s somehow supposed to impress me. All it does is piss me off and remind me of the lies he told me.
‘No’ is on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t make the word come out. Is it the blood deal we made stopping me? Or my conscience that attempting to love him again could be the only way to save myself from certain death?
“Okay,” is what leaves my lips instead.
The chair across from me slides out on its own, though Ambrose never lifts a hand. His magic takes over once again. I stare at the chair, unsettled by the unnatural way it moved. Hesitantly, I take a seat as Ambrose sits across from me with a disarming smile.