The darkness enveloped me in gauze, dense and cloying. I was in an emptiness, weightless, where time folded in on itself. Whispers filled the void — familiar, some strange echoes of a past I didn’t recall. My limbs felt heavy, movable only in the realm of dreams, as if I were detached from the world.Then, pain.A sudden, searing pain shot through my body, pulling me back up to the surface. My lungs burned as I struggled to breathe; my perception returned in a rush. What I first felt was warmth — arms wrapped around me, strong and steady. A scent I knew. Safe. Familiar.Maxwell.“Lena.” His voice was gravelly, age raw with desperation. “Come back to me.”I attempted to get up, but my body was slow and weighted with fatigue and something more. Something wrong. My stomach roiled, and I pressed my hands on it as that deep, foreign emptiness began taking root in my gut.And then I remembered.The baby. The power. David’s spell sliced through me like a blade.No, I whispered, my voice so l
I was lost in the dark — engulfed and gasping.I was falling — plunging into an endless abyss, my screams torn away by the vacuum. The shadows danced around me whispering in voices I nearly recognized words falling through my fingers like sand. I didn’t know how long I was falling — seconds, minutes, years? Time didn’t exist here. Only weightless descent.And, just as suddenly as it started, it ended.I wasn’t falling anymore. My feet were on solid ground, but everything around me was…off. The heavens roared above, a mass of twisting black clouds going too quickly, too wrong. The land was sparse and cracked in all directions; the air was thick with the smell of ash. There was no sun. No moon. Just the crushing pressure of nothingness crushing down on me.I swallowed hard, my throat like dust in the desert. “Where am I?”A smooth-as-silk voice replied from behind me. “Somewhere between what was and what will be.”I whipped around, my body poised for a fight.And froze.David loomed bef
The world wasn’t standing still, but I was.Maxwell had not released me, his grip firm, steady, as if he were afraid I might vanish again. The sanctuary walls, though still pounding with the echoes of the power I had unleashed, cocoons of bone and muscle and bone, loomed in my periphery, my mind somewhere else, stuck between darkness and light, between what I had seen and what had yet to pass.I had chosen power.Now, I had to live with it.Maxwell’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Lena… you’re scaring me.”I met his gaze, and for the first time in ages, I wasn’t afraid of what he might see. “Good.”His brows knitted together; concern and another, too-complex-to-read emotion danced across his face. “You’re different.”I took a deep breath, pressing my palm to my chest. I was steady of heartbeat, but everything else inside me turned and roiled. “I feel different.”“Different how?”I hesitated. How could I describe the feeling of standing at the brink of an abyss, looking down into it,
Their breath was warm, feeding the air with blood and magic. Behind us was the sanctuary, an ancient monument to the power I was only beginning to comprehend. But the evening was charged with danger — David’s pack was close. I could sense them, their presence nagging at the back of my mind, their hunger curling in the air.Maxwell stood next to me, his body stiff, his breathing calm. He was ready for battle. We both were.My father stepped out from the shadows, his face stone. “They’ll be here soon.”I nodded, flexing my fingers. Power throbbed inside my skin, but it was no longer magic—it was something deeper, something primal. I had been spending my life repressing what I was. That was over.Maxwell exhaled slowly. “Lena, before this starts—”I looked back at him, hearing the hesitance in his voice. “What?”His jaw tensed. “You don’t need to do this by yourself.”I shook my head. “I do. You know I do.”“You think this is only about power?” His voice was sharp, but there was more—a t
The battle was over.David was gone. That sanctuary became a battlefield, just as it should have been a sanctuary, and instead, it lay silent beneath the weight of all we had lost. The war — the one that had shaped my life, the one that had molded me — was over.And yet, I felt no peace.I was on the balcony of my childhood house, looking out at the city that used to be my world. The skyline loomed ahead of me, twinkling lights blinking in the distance, cars moving like veins pumping life into the streets. To them, nothing had changed. They had no knowledge of the war waged in the shadows, the lives lost, the blood spilled.”They didn’t know me.The wind was pulling my hair, and it was cold against my skin, but I hardly felt it. My hands lay on my stomach — a habit, now, an unconscious need to shield the life inside me. My child. The sole piece of this ground that really mattered now.The door behind me creaked open, and I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Maxwell. His presenc
The silence hung between us, thick and stifling. Elias waited patiently as if he already knew how I would respond. As if he thought I should fall in line, that I would embrace the mantle of power the Council had so graciously put at my feet.But I wasn’t the girl they imagined. Not anymore.I crossed my arms and kept my face neutral. “You want me to lead? Lead what, exactly?”Elias smiled, but there was a calculating look in his eyes. “A new order, Miss Weber. The world is changing. Supernatural forces are growing bolder, more reckless. With the Blackwoods now gone, there is a vacuum. The Council believes that you hold the balance.”Maxwell scoffed beside me. “Balance? You mean control.”Elias fixed his piercing stare on him. “Control is balance. Would you prefer chaos?”My fingers dug into my arms. “Why me? You have your own enforcers. You have your rules and your traditions. Why come to me now?”Elias’s smile finally disappeared, and when he spoke again, his voice was smooth yet fir
The heaviness of my decision crushed my chest even after the words were out of my mouth. Maxwell’s hand was still in my hand, warm, steady, grounding. But his grip was my tension, his words unspoken.He exhaled slowly. “So, what now?”I turned to face him completely, looking in his eyes for the slightest hint of hesitation, of doubt. But there was none. Only quiet resolve.“Now,” I said, my voice steady even as inside I was swirling with chaos, “we go to them.”Maxwell’s jaw tightened. “Lena—”“I know what you’re going to say,” I interrupted, squeezing his fingers. “But you need to trust me.”His expression darkened. “That’s not the problem. The problem is them. The Council does not give power without receiving something in return.”I swallowed hard. “I’m aware.”“I was like, ‘Then what are we doing here?’ He retracted his hand and desperately ran his fingers through his hair. “You know how they operate. They do not see you as a human being but as a weapon. “They don’t want to follow
I heard my heart pounding inside my ears as I sat in the sterile, icy room, the walls closing in around me. Every breath I took felt heavier than the last, and my chest constricted under the weight of what I’d just consented to. The Council had witnessed my determination, and now was the time for no turning back.Maxwell had been unusually quiet since leaving their headquarters, lost in thoughts far away, no doubt fighting his internal battle between wanting to support me and the gut-curling fear of what we were about to encounter.I watched him from the corner of my eye while we sat in my family’s estate, the quiet between us heavy. The soft crackle of the fireplace was the only noise in the room, yet it did nothing to soothe the tempest within me.“You’re not saying anything,” I said, my voice breaking the tension.Maxwell didn’t look at me. Instead, he gazed into the flames, his face carved in sharp, unyielding shadows.“I don’t gotta say anything, Lena. He sounded flat, lacking em
The night air was thick with tension as I stepped into the courtyard. Maxwell stood waiting, his expression set in grim determination. Behind him, a handful of trusted allies—faces I had fought beside, bled with—stood in the shadows, waiting for my word.I exhaled slowly, steadying myself. “Tell me everything.”Maxwell nodded. “We’re going to the vault beneath the Blackwood estate. That’s where they kept her body, sealed away so no one could reach her. The Council thinks they’re the only ones who know how to break the enchantments surrounding it, but they’re wrong.”I narrowed my eyes. “How?”Maxwell smirked, but there was no humor in it. “Because I stole the key.”I blinked. “You what?”He pulled a small, ancient-looking talisman from his coat pocket. The sigils carved into it pulsed faintly, reacting to the magic in the air.“Wasn’t easy,” he admitted. “But let’s just say the Council isn’t as careful as they think they are.”I ran a hand through my hair. “You’re insane.”“Probably.”
I raked a hand through my hair, attempting to corral my thoughts onto some sort of a line. “Then we need a plan.”Maxwell grinned, but there was nothing funny about it. “Good. Because I already have one.”I crossed my arms, eyes narrowing at Maxwell. “Of course you do. Let’s hear it.”Maxwell let out a breath and looked at my mother, then closer. His voice fell to a near whisper, as if the walls had ears. “The Council expects you to obey their laws, to deliver her back into their watchful gaze. That’s where they have all the power. “We don’t allow them that opportunity.”I frowned. “And how do we avoid that exactly?”“We do it on our terms.”I gave a small laugh, without humor. “You make it seem so easy.”“It is.” Maxwell leaned closer, his eyes keen. “They want control of this, Lena. That’s their leverage. So we take it from them.”My mother’s expression was inscrutable, and her silence held as she processed what Maxwell had said. Then, finally, she spoke. “What you’re suggesting is
It was a quiet night, but inside me, a storm was raging. Sleep would not come, and with it, I was alone with my thoughts and the horror of what was to come. It was a momentary resort to my senses in the dimly lit study, a candle flickered on the desk, casting long shadows around the wide room.The house was silent. Everyone had either gone to bed or was pretending to be. I knew better. Maxwell was probably pacing in his room, his annoyance barely held in check. My father was awake, too, though he’d never say so. He never slept when things were in flux, and nothing was in greater flux right now than what tomorrow might hold.A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. I looked back, expecting to see Maxwell or my father; it was my mother. Her gaze was sharp but unreadable, and she entered without asking.“You need to be resting,” she replied.“So should you.”She closed the door behind her with a sigh. “I know what you’re thinking.“Do you?”She didn’t reply right away. Instead, she c
Outside, the wind was howling, rattling the wooden beams of the old safehouse, but inside it was suffocatingly quiet. We were supposed to have a plan — or at least the beginnings of one — but the weight of it lay heavy in my chest.”My mother, an enforcer. My mother, shattered and stitched back together into something else. That thought turned my stomach.I gazed around the faces around me—my father, Maxwell, Lilith, Jameson, and Bastian. Each came with a different flavor of wariness. Maxwell’s was the split and the gentle, the one that came accompanied by worry. Lilith was harsh, full of skepticism. Jameson was calculating, always on the lookout for the next move. Bastian just looked tired.And my father…He looked like a man who’d already mourned my mother once and was getting ready to do it all over again.I wouldn’t let that happen.I stood my ground and cleared my throat. “We move at dawn.”Lilith raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? That’s the grand plan?”I exhaled through my nose. “
The world around me blurred. The room, the firelight dancing in the stone walls, the heavy weight of my father’s words like a stifling fog spreading over me — none of it felt real anymore.She’s not your mother anymore.They broke her.They made her a weapon.I heard the words, but couldn’t process them. I didn’t want to.She was alive. I had seen her. I had touched her. Her voice had broken when she said my name, and her body had quaked when I held her. That wasn’t a mindless puppet’s response. That was real. That was her.And yet…My father had never been a liar, A survivor, a man who always kept an eye on the bigger picture, but not a liar.So , which truth was I meant to believe?“No, you’re wrong,” I whispered, my throat raw.My father didn’t react. He just stood there, shoulders squared, expression grim, as if he’d been waiting for me to say that.“Lena — ” Maxwell began, and I shook my head.“No.” I looked at my father, my hands balling into fists. “You don’t know her the way I
The torches flickered against the towering stone walls of my father’s estate, casting long, shifting shadows across the ground. The place looked the same as when I left—cold, imposing, untouched by time. But I wasn’t the same.I didn’t belong here anymore.Maxwell rode beside me in silence, his presence grounding me as we approached the front gates. Two guards stiffened at the sight of us, their hands twitching toward their weapons. But when their gazes landed on me, something in their postures shifted.Recognition. Uncertainty. Fear.One of them cleared his throat. “Miss Weber.”I reined in my horse, leveling him with a steady gaze. “Open the gates.”The other guard hesitated. “Your father—”“Will want to see me.”There was no room for argument in my voice.They exchanged a look before one of them finally turned and signaled the sentries above. The great iron gates creaked open, revealing the long stone pathway that led to the grand estate at the heart of the compound.Maxwell leaned
This was a matter of destroying them.I turned to the people standing before me—my people. Each of them had put everything on the line to stand with me and fight a fight that was no longer mine. And yet I could see it in their faces. The gravity of what we were about to do. The reality of it sinking in.Bastian blew out a breath and rubbed a hand over his face. “So you mean to tell me. Our objective is to infiltrate one of the most secure vaults ever built, steal their secrets, and then... what? Pray they don’t just kill us right away?”Jameson smiled, raising his arms behind his head. “I mean, that’s probably about right.”Soraya shot him a glare. “That’s not a plan. That’s suicide.”Maxwell moved next to me, his golden eyes fixed on the flames. “The Council’s greatest weapon isn’t their army. It’s the illusion of control. People don’t rebel against them, because they think it can’t be done. They think the Council is omnipotent, above all.”I nodded, my throat tight. “But if we can p
The atmosphere in the ruins was dense, cloaked in thoughts unsaid, expressions unread, and an unbreakable tension. We had decided, we had jumped, but the weight of it was sinking in like a rock pulling us under water.We weren’t simply in it for our lives anymore.We were declaring war.And war meant losses.Maxwell leaned against the broken window, arms crossed, gazing out at the dark horizon. His golden eyes had gone distant, his jaw set. He wasn’t speaking, but I could sense his thoughts. The way I could feel my heartbeat hammering on the other side of my ribs.I took a breath. “We need to start planning.”No one moved at first.Then Jameson scoffed. “You don’t waste time, huh?”I met his gaze. “We’re moving fast and not wasting time.”Lilith grinned and flicked a knife between her fingers as she reclined against the wall. “She’s right. The Council is regrouping already. We can’t just wait around and hope they’ll waver.”For the last few minutes, Bastian had been silent, and now he
The evening continued, weighed down by smoke and fatigue. None of us talked as we trudged more profoundly into the woods, deep breaths audible in the stillness. The fight was over, but the heaviness, the weight of it clung to me like a hand on my ribs, a fist.We had gotten away, but not because we were stronger. Not because we had won.We were free because he set us free.That idea was seared into my brain, repeating over and over again, only to contort into something that made me nauseous.Maxwell walked next to me, trudging slower than normal, his hand shoved against his injured side. He winced every couple of steps, but he would pretend he was fine when I looked.“Stop glaring,” he muttered.“I’m not glaring.”He huffed a laugh. “You have that look. The one in which you’re blaming yourself for things that aren’t your fault.”I was blaming myself. How could I not?I had led them into this. I had thought we were ready. That we could fight. That we had a chance.Instead, I had only b