“Take one step to your left,” Lumi shouts to the woman in a desperate and futile attempt to save her.
She doesn’t realize that even if she keeps the woman from Nyx, the woman will still die. Possibly a much more horrible death than what Nyx is going to do to her. Isolde will never allow this woman to live. It might be kinder to just let Nyx finish her quickly.
The woman stumbles, not heeding Lumi’s advice. She either can’t hear her or doesn’t believe she’s telling the truth.
One more second. One more inch and she’s Nyx’s.
I hold my breath, waiting for the moment—for the timing to be perfect.
She moves, and I scream into her mind,“Lumi, help!”
I crumble to the floor, acting out my incredible pain.
“Ambrose!” Lumi screams out loud, running to my side as quickly as she can. The chains prevent her from reaching me, but still she reaches out her hand, trying to touch me.
“What’s going on?” Her voice is desperate and full of fear.
I writhe on the floor, pretending I can’t answer her because of the pain. I grab my chest, tugging at my shirt to the point of almost ripping it.
“Ambrose!” she screams again. I hear the chains she’s pulling against rattle as she struggles to get to me.
The woman Nyx is drinking from lets out a muffled cry. I cry out louder, blocking the sound before Lumi hears it.
I thrash against my own chains so hard that they bite into my wrists until blood begins to drip from my raw skin. I don’t care.I’d do anything to protect Lumi, even suffer a little bit of pain for her.
“Over.”I hear his voice in my head, unexpectedly.
I slow my breathing, pretending the pain is slowly subsiding so as not to let Lumi know that I was faking the pain to distract her.
“I’m okay. I don’t know what Isolde did, but I’m okay now,” I say breathlessly.
Lumi lets out a rough exhale as her eyes scan every inch of my body, looking for any signs of damage.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m just glad it wasn’t you she decided to torture.”
She shakes her head. “She did torture me. Every time either of you is in pain, it’s torture to me.”
Finally, she glances over her shoulder at Nyx. I follow her gaze, and shock rolls through me.
Nyx looks stoic, like he has complete control. But I can see the truth beneath his stance. I can see how he fists his hands. How the veins are popping in his body, sharp and strained beneath his muscled skin. The breath he’s holding. He’s fighting like hell to keep his control.
He’s somehow managed to wipe all of the woman’s blood from his mouth. There is no sign that he just devoured her except for her lifeless body hidden in the shadows.
Lumi looks from him to me and then back to him again, like she’s slowly piecing what just happened together. But the fact that he tried to hide it from her. That he’s trying to keep control tells me that he isn’t as lost as he thought he’d be. The curse doesn’t have complete control. He’s fighting back.
He gives me a look that thanks me, and I nod back, thanking him for fighting. But before any other words can be spoken, Isolde and the other witches appear.
Isolde looks at Nyx with a smirk on her face. “Well, done.”
Nyx doesn’t move, like if he moves, he’ll lose the control he has. I can feel how hard he’s grasping onto that control in his mind, like a vice grip, clenching down so hard that I know if he lets up at all, I’m afraid he’ll try to strike out at the closest source of blood—Lumi.
“But it’s not going to be good enough,” Isolde says.
She lifts her hand in Lumi’s direction.
“No!” I scream, and I can feel Nyx flinch in my mind, losing an inch of that control he has.