"Lilith stays at the estate for now," Victoria said. "Under your protection and mine. I bring my coven inside your wards and we combine our defenses. When Thalia attacks again...and she will attack again, we face her together."
"And after?" Sebastian asked.
"After, we discuss Lilith’s options like rational people instead of standing on opposite sides preparing for war," Victoria said.
It was not perfect. It was not what Victoria wanted. She still believed the only way to truly save Lilith was to take her away from these wolves and sever the bonds completely.
But she also knew Thalia. Knew how dangerous she was. Knew that if Thalia got her hands on Lilith, everything Victoria was trying to prevent would happen anyway.
The enemy of my enemy, she thought. Even if I hate them.
Nicholas looked at his brothers. Some silent communication passed between them. Then he looked at Lilith.
"It’s your choice," he said. "Do we accept Victoria’s truce?"
Lilith looked at her aunt. At the Alphas. At the impossible situation they were all trapped in.
"Yes," she said quietly. "We accept."
Victoria nodded and gestured to her coven. "Lower your defenses. We’re going inside."
The witches and warlocks filed through the gates. The pack wolves watched them with obvious suspicion but did not attack.
Victoria walked up to Lilith and cupped her niece’s face in her hands.
"I will keep you safe," she promised. "From Thalia. From the curse. From anyone who tries to hurt you. I swear it."
"I know," Lilith whispered.
Victoria pulled her into a hug and felt Lilith collapse against her, all the strength finally draining out of her.
"I’m so tired, Aunt Victoria," Lilith said against her shoulder. "I’m so tired of being scared."
"I know, sweetheart," Victoria said, holding her tighter. "But you’re not alone anymore. We’re going to face this together."
She looked over Lilith’s head at the three Alphas watching them with carefully neutral expressions.
Temporary truce, Victoria reminded herself. Just until Thalia is dealt with.
And then she would make sure Lilith made the right choice.
Even if it meant taking that choice out of her hands entirely.
****
Thalia’s POV
The pain in Thalia’s hands was exquisite.
She sat in the center of her sanctum with her burned palms facing up on her knees, watching the corrupted flesh struggle to heal. The wounds from Lilith’s power.....pure ancestral Morvaine magic, untainted by the darkness Thalia had embraced, refused to close properly. Every time her body tried to knit the skin back together, white light flickered in the burns and tore them open again.
A reminder.
A humiliation.
An untrained child had done this to her.
Thalia’s sanctum existed in a space between worlds, not quite the mortal realm, not quite the spirit world, but something in between that she had carved out through fifteen years of dark rituals and blood sacrifice. The walls were made of shadow given form. The floor was smooth black stone that reflected nothing. And the air itself tasted of old magic and older pain.
It was perfect.
It was home.
And it was currently filled with the stench of failure.
"Mistress."
Thalia looked up to find Corvus standing in the doorway, her second-in-command, a warlock who had sold his soul for power decades ago and now served her out of mutual self-interest and fear.
"What?" Thalia asked, her voice sharp.
"The mercenaries you hired are demanding payment. They say the contract specified success and since we retreated..."
"Tell them they’ll get their gold when I say they get their gold," Thalia interrupted. "And if they complain, remind them what happens to people who displease me."
Corvus nodded and vanished.
Thalia returned her attention to her hands.
The burns were getting worse instead of better. She could feel Lilith’s magic embedded in the wounds like poison, pure power fighting against the corruption Thalia had woven through her own blood and bones.
It hurt.
Good.
Pain was useful. Pain kept her focused. Pain reminded her why she had spent fifteen years planning this moment.
Thalia closed her eyes and let the memories come.
*Twenty-seven years ago*
Thalia Morvaine was seventeen years old the first time she understood what their family’s gift truly meant.
She stood in her mother’s study at the Morvaine estate, listening to Elowen explain again why they could not use their bond manipulation abilities for anything beyond healing and guidance.
"Our gift is sacred," Elowen said, her voice patient but firm. "The Moon Goddess gave it to us to strengthen true bonds and heal broken ones. Not to create false connections or control others against their will."
"But we could," Thalia said. "We could make bonds where none exist. We could break bonds people want to keep. We could control every supernatural in the territories if we wanted to."
"And that," Elowen said, "is exactly why we don’t. Power without wisdom is tyranny, Thalia. And tyranny always ends in blood."
"So we just hide?" Thalia demanded. "We just let everyone fear us and whisper about us and hunt us when they get brave enough? We have the most powerful gift in the supernatural world and we’re wasting it!"
"We’re protecting it," Elowen corrected. "And protecting ourselves. The moment we start using our abilities to control others is the moment we become the monsters they already believe us to be."
Thalia had not believed her then.
She did not believe her now.
*Then fifteen years ago, the attack on the Morvaine estate happened on a Tuesday.*
Thalia remembered that detail with perfect clarity because she had been planning to leave on Wednesday. Had been packing her belongings in secret, preparing to walk away from the coven and their ridiculous principles and build her own power base somewhere her mother’s shadow could not reach.
But the hunters came early.
They broke through the wards at dawn with weapons blessed by priests and magic stolen from captured witches. They swarmed the estate grounds in waves....dozens of them, maybe hundreds, all of them screaming about cleansing the world of abominations.
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