Never see her look at me like she loves me again.
Because after tonight, she’s going to hate me.
She has to hate me.
It’s the only way she can love him. The only way she’ll make space for him.The only way.
But gods, someone please put a stake into my heart and end it all for me. This is absolute torture.
Lumi will fall in love with him. I know she will. She’s selfless. Incredible. The reason we all wake up every morning. She’ll fall in love with Ambrose because, despite his idiotic decisions, he loves her. He’s her mate. The strongest alpha to ever exist.
He’ll let her flourish into the queen that she is destined to become. He’ll teach her how to get others to follow her. Togetherthey’ll change the fucking world. If she kept loving me, I would destroy the world to keep her safe.
The fates were right to make Ambrose her mate instead of me.
“You’re doing the right thing,” Talonis says from the shadows.
“Am I?” I laugh.
“Yes.” He reaches his hand out to me, and I take it. He pulls me up, and I look him in his eyes. I can’t ask him to kill me. I made a promise to Lumi. But maybe if he sees the amount of pain I’m in, he’ll take mercy on me and end me.
He swallows. “Lumi has to hate you. It’s the only way.”
I nod, moving away from him.
But he grabs my arm, stopping me.
“You have to, Nyx. You have to hurt her. You can’t fake it. You have to rip out her heart. You have to force them together because she needs him to get over you,” Talonis says.
I still understanding washing over me. My expression is neutral. I don’t react to his words. I don’t let the emotion in. In fact, I doubt I’ll ever feel an emotion again.
I turn away from Talonis, determination on my face. Talonis is right. I have to do this. I have to hurt her. I have to make her believe there is no chance for us because there isn’t. Our life together is over. It was a once-in-a-lifetime love for me. The kind that burned hard and fast. But it’s over.
I have to follow through now. Fuck another woman. Become infatuated with her. Be on the precipice of love with her. Because anything less than that won’t be enough. Lumi will forgive me. She’ll cling to the hope. She can’t have any hope.
“Save her,” Talonis says as I walk toward my fate.
Chapter 12
Lumi
Go after him.
Every instinct in me is screaming to chase him. To go after him. I don’t believe a word he said. He still loves me. He just saved my life for fucking sake.
But there’s that tiny kernel of doubt. The one that says I barely know him. I thought I knew Ambrose before, and I was wrong. He betrayed me.
Nyx’s love might be no different. He’s not my mate. He isn’t tied to me. Maybe he did fall out of love with me.
No, he didn’t.That kiss wasn’t one-sided. It was world-shifting. He felt it too. It’s not just lust; it’s love.
I’m about to walk out the door and chase after him when Talonis appears.
“Don’t,” he says.
“I can’t let him go. He’s not in the right state of mind. He’s going to get himself killed. I can feel it.”
Talonis shakes his head. “Unless the curse is broken, he doesn’t have much time left to live. Let him live with the time he has left so that he has no regrets.”