POV: Thelma

I was alive. I could move my fingers, blink my eyes, breathe air into my lungs. But something was terribly, horribly wrong.

Xavier pulled back from our embrace, his face filled with relief and love. I could see the emotion in his eyes, read it in his expression. But I couldn't feel it. Not through the mate bond. Not in my chest where my heart should have been racing with joy.

Nothing.

"Thelma?" Xavier's smile faltered. "What's wrong? Are you in pain?"

I pressed my hand to my chest, searching for that familiar warmth I'd always felt when he was near. The flutter of excitement. The pull of the mate bond. But there was nothing there except a cold, empty space.

"I can't feel anything," I whispered.

"What do you mean?" Theo moved closer, concern replacing his earlier relief.

"My heart." I looked down at my chest, half expecting to see gray stone still visible beneath my skin. But it looked normal. Flesh-colored. Human. "It's beating. I know it's beating. But I can't feel it. I can't feel... anything."

Xavier's hand covered mine on my chest. Through the mate bond, I felt his alarm spike, sharp and painful on his end. But on my end, there was only emptiness.

"The curse," Elena said quietly, horror dawning on her face. "Oh gods. Xavier's kiss broke most of it, but.."

"But her heart was stone the longest," Luna finished, understanding immediately. "The curse remains in her heart."

"What does that mean?" I asked, though something inside me already knew. Something logical and detached, because that's all I had left now—logic. No fear. No panic. Just cold, clinical understanding.

"It means," Elena said slowly, "that while your body has returned to normal, your heart—the center of all emotion, all feeling—remains cursed. It's beating physically, keeping you alive. But emotionally, magically, it's still stone."

Xavier's face crumpled. "No. No, that can't be right. The curse broke. I felt it break!"

"You broke the petrification," Luna corrected gently. "You saved her life. But dark curses are layered. They don't always break completely, especially ones as powerful as Morgana's."

I stood up, testing my body. Everything worked. My legs held my weight. My arms moved normally. But it felt mechanical, like I was operating a machine rather than living in my own skin.

"Thelma," Xavier reached for me, and I let him take my hand. His touch was warm, I could register that intellectually. But I didn't feel the electricity that usually sparked between us. Didn't feel the comfort of his presence. "Talk to me. What are you feeling?"

"Nothing," I said honestly. "I see you. I know you're Xavier, my mate. I remember loving you. But I don't feel it anymore. It's like.." I struggled to find words for the emptiness. "It's like someone told me a story about a girl who loved you, and I'm just watching from the outside."

Through the mate bond, I felt Xavier's heart break. The pain was sharp and overwhelming, on his side. On mine, I observed it with detached curiosity, the way you might watch an interesting experiment.

"This is killing him," Theo said, looking between us. "The mate bond works both ways. He can feel her emptiness, her lack of emotion. And she can feel his pain but can't respond to it."

"It's like being haunted by a ghost," Xavier said, his voice raw. "I can feel that she's there, but she's not... she's not really there."

I should have felt guilty. Should have felt sorry. But I didn't. Couldn't.

"What about the twin bond?" Theo asked, looking at me. "Can you feel that?"

I focused on the connection between us. Usually, it hummed with energy, with emotion, with the sense of being part of something larger. Now, it was just... there. Present but hollow.

"I can sense it," I said. "But I can't feel it. Not the way I did before."

Theo reached for my hand, and when our skin touched, that white-gold light flickered between us but it was dim, weak. Like a dying candle.

"The twin bond is damaged too," Luna observed. "Without Thelma's emotional connection, the bond can't function properly. It needs both twins to be fully present, mind, body, and heart."

"So how do we fix this?" Xavier demanded. "There has to be a way to fix this."

Elena picked up the crystal containing Morgana, studying it carefully. "The curse was cast by the witch. Only by defeating her completely, destroying her magicz can the curse be fully broken."

"Then we destroy her," Theo said immediately. "Right now. We end this."

"It's not that simple," Elena said. "She's trapped, yes. But she's not defeated. Her magic is still active, still powerful. This prison is holding her body, but her consciousness, her will, those are still free to work magic from within."

As if responding to Elena's words, the crystal began to glow. A soft, sickly green light that pulsed like a heartbeat.

"Everyone back!" Luna commanded.

But it was too late. The crystal exploded in Elena's hands, not with physical force, but with magical energy that shot out in tendrils of dark light.

"She's trying to escape!" Xavier moved to shield me, but I stepped aside.

"I should feel afraid right now," I commented, watching the dark magic swirl around the room. "But I don't. That's probably bad."

"Thelma, focus!" Theo grabbed my arm. "The witch is breaking free!"

The tendrils of dark magic searched the room like seeking fingers, testing each of us. When they touched Luna, she gasped and staggered back. When they brushed Xavier, he snarled and his wolf surged forward, repelling them.

But when they reached me, they paused. Hovered. Then retreated.

"Why isn't it attacking her?" Theo asked.

"Because her heart is still partially cursed," Elena said. "The magic recognizes her as part of Morgana's spell. She's not fully human anymore. Not fully alive in the way the rest of us are."

The words should have horrified me. Instead, I just nodded. "That makes sense."

Xavier made a strangled sound, and through the bond, I felt his anguish double. He was losing me not to death, but to something worse. I was becoming a shell, a hollow version of myself.

The dark magic coalesced in the center of the room, forming a shape. For a moment, I thought Morgana was going to materialize completely. But instead, the magic shot out the door like a bullet.

"She's fleeing!" Luna shouted. "After her!"