“I don’t have any magic,” I remind them.
They ignore me.
“What reason will she have for letting us out?” Ambrose talks to Nyx like I’m not even here.
“The marking ceremony at least.”
My mind spins with anxiety.
Not about surviving or not.
Or escaping.
But of losing what little control I have over what little time I have left on this earth.
“What is it?” Nyx asks suddenly, feeling the shift in me.
I bite my lower lip. “She made me kiss both of you.”
Nyx drops his hands from my hips like he’s just realized what he’s been doing. “I’m sorry. I know you hate me, and kissing me is the last thing you wanted to do in front of your mate.”
“Apology not accepted, asshole. You could have tried harder not to kiss her so hard like I did,” Ambrose says.
“Stop, both of you. It’s not that you guys kissed me. It’s that she had the control. She forced me to. And she’s going to do it again. We know she will, but this time, further.” I wrap my arms around my body, hating that she has that control. She has control over everything, but still, her actions don’t fully makesense to me.Why risk everything? Why risk one of us killing each other?
“It’s your curse,” I say to Ambrose.
“What do you mean?” he responds wearily.
“I mean, the reason that Isolde is behaving the way she is. It’s because of your curse. I have to die. So even though my dying is the last thing Isolde would want right now, it doesn’t matter. She’s not thinking clearly because of your curse.”
Ambrose stares at me without blinking as he processes what I just said.
“She’s right, it’s the only logical reason that I’m free, that Lumi has a knife in her hand, and you’re tied up. Your curse demands that Lumi die. And it’s using Isolde to do that through me,” Nyx says with surprising calmness in his voice.
Ambrose rattles the chains holding him, testing their strength again like he’s going to be able to break through this time. The solid strength of them doesn’t bend. They are as secure as ever.
He curses under his breath. “I hate this. Your blade or your magic? Any chance either could be used to break the chains so I can help keep you alive?”
I give him a look that says that his thinking I have magic is ridiculous. It’s not possible. My parents were both wolves. My father and I had a complicated relationship. And my mother was gone before I was old enough to remember her, but he would have told me if she were a witch.
I look at the knife, and then the manacles, and I know it would be a useless endeavor. I can’t help him get free. I’m on my own.
Nyx stares at his broken manacles like he wishes he could get them back on.
I sigh. “You’re not going to kill me. You’ve resisted this entire time. For once, the curse isn’t about you. It’s not acting through you. You’re able to fight it.”
I move toward him, and he puts up a hand, halting me. “You should get some sleep. At least one of us should be rested. Ambrose will ensure that I don’t hurt you or at least give you a warning if I lose control again.”
I look from Nyx to Ambrose to see if he agrees with Nyx’s plan.
He nods solemnly, like he doesn’t have a choice.
I yawn, knowing that exhaustion is going to pull me under quickly. We haven’t been given so much as a pillow or a blanket, but it doesn’t matter. I curl up on the ground beside the wall, turning carefully onto my side so nothing brushes my aching back. I’m about to place my blade next to me—
“Don’t you dare,” both Nyx and Ambrose speak aloud at the same time.
I freeze, unsure of what I did wrong.