Nyx rolls his eyes in a huff.“Really? We’re all about to die, and you’re worried that I’m looking at nipples and thinking about how I want to suck them?”
“She’s mine, Nyx. I saw that kiss. I smelt the lust and desire rolling off your body. You promised.”
“I had lost my mind. She was trying to help me regain control. She thought I was about to die! Don’t hold it against her.”
“I hold it against you!”
“No, you’re mad at her. Mad that I still have a hold on her. Mad that she still loves me.”
“I don’t care if she loves you—”
“As long as she loves you more. I know. I’ve lived in your mind enough to know how you think. Just like you’ve been in mine enough to know I’ve given her up. She’s yours. Completely yours. But what we do to survive until the marking ceremony is for her. We do anything to keep her alive. To keep her from suffering. Anything.”
I don’t answer him. But I know he knows that I agree with him. So that’s enough.
“Feel anything yet?”I ask him.
“No. You’ll know when I do. I won’t have to tell you.”
I frown.“Maybe, but maybe it will start slow.”
“No, it won’t. That would be too kind. I’ll start how I ended. I’ll want to kill everything. I’ll want to rip out both your throats for your blood. I’ll forget who you are, what your name is, what our mission is. I’ll remember nothing of who I am. And then the pain will come, and I’ll want to die.”He pauses.“Protect her.”
“Always.”
I still study him closely for any signs of changes coming. It has to be close to two hours now since he took the cure. I alternate it with looking and listening for any signs that Isolde or the other witches are returning.
“You okay?”I ask Lumi.
Her head pops up, looking at me for the first time in the last hour. She doesn’t respond with words, just nods, and then goes back to studying her hands like they hold some sort of clue.
Time continues to tick, anticipation builds, and nothing happens.
Did Isolde lie? Has the cure already worn off, and is it going to take longer for Nyx’s symptoms to start again? Or is my sense of time here so wrong that I can’t tell how long we’ve been here?That even though I think it’s been longer than two hours, maybe it’s only been twenty minutes.
Time settles again. Slowly. Unyielding. Ticking like every beat takes a half second longer than usual.
And then, Nyx screams.
It pierces the room—agony unrestrained, being torn from his body. One that leaves no doubt as to what’s happening with him. Pain explodes out of him in every direction, violent and consuming. He scrambles to his feet—chains clashing as he thrashes against them, every movement wild and uncontrollable.
Lumi starts trying to talk to him in a calm voice. Trying to break through the animalistic chaos that’s going on in his head. But right now, there is no reasoning with him. There is no part of him left. The curse has completely taken over his body. In a second, he’s lost to the curse, right back where he was before he took the cure. I had hoped that it would build slowly, giving us more time, but that hope is gone.
Lumi doesn’t give up on him, though, even though it would be so much easier for all of us if she did. That this is going to be our life over and over and over again until we either break a curse in the marking ceremony or die. That fighting to get him back each time is pointless.
I wait for Isolde, but instead of appearing, the gate flings open and a warm body is thrust through the door before it slams shut again.
Not just a warm body—a human—alive.
My heart stops as I look from the person to Lumi, knowing exactly what’s going to happen next.
The female human begins to stumble around as if she’s been drugged. Her clothes barely cling to her frail body. She’s probably been caged and starved until this point. I don’t know who she is, and I never will.
After this moment, my mind will wipe itself clean of this moment. I won’t allow myself to carry this memory with me. I won’t suffer from it. I won’t replay it in my head. It’s just another moment of torture. One that I won’t blame Nyx for, despite all his shortcomings. I’ll blame Isolde. I won’t think about this life that is about to be lost.
I look at Lumi—at my mate. At the woman I love more than anything, while she’s looking athim. Desperation fills her eyes, and she starts to pull against her chains to try and get to Nyx, like she’s going to be able to stop the inevitable. She can’t. But Ican do something to help her not make this another permanent scar on her memory.
I wait, watching the woman stumble around in the darkness so that she can’t see the predators she’s trapped with. I watch Nyx, who has suddenly gone very quiet, laser-focused on his target.