“Run.”Fury appears in the doorway, ignoring the closed-door policy.Heat shimmers around him, melting frost that’s crept along the walls.“Take Tessa somewhere far away and hope the thing loses interest.”
“It won’t.”Tessa’s voice is quiet but firm.She steps away from me, moving to the map, and I hate the distance even though it’s barely three feet.“The mark connects us.Distance doesn’t matter.It will follow me anywhere, and it will burn through anyone in its path to get to me.”
“We give it what it wants,” Rooster suggests from behind Fury.“Controlled environment.Our terms.We lure it out and kill it.”
“You can’t kill it,” Prophet says.“Not in any conventional sense.It’s not corporeal.It’s a primordial force given consciousness and hunger.The original binding didn’t kill it, they locked it away, buried it so deep it took centuries for the seal to weaken.”
“Then we reseal it,” Blade says.
“The original seal required three sacrifices: vampire, shifter, and warden.All willingly given, all dying in the process.”Prophet’s eyes find Tessa.“The warden especially.Her bloodline was bound to the seal, became part of it.It’s why the devourer needs her, she’s the key to breaking what her ancestors created.”
Silence settles over the room, heavy and suffocating.
“No.”The word comes out of me before I can stop it.“Absolutely not.”
“We’re not sacrificing her.”Blade’s tone brooks no argument.“Find another way.”
“There might be one.”Prophet pulls out an ancient leather journal, pages yellow and brittle.“The original binding was done out of desperation, without full understanding of the forces at play.But what if we don’t reseal it?What if we redirect it?”
“Redirect a primordial force of ice and hunger?”Fury snorts.“To where, exactly?”
“Back to the void it came from.”Prophet traces symbols in the air, and they hang there, glowing.“The seal site is a thin place, a location where the barrier between worlds is weakest.That’s why they chose it.If we can open a controlled tear, we might be able to force it through.”
“Might?”I repeat.
“The theory is sound.The execution...”He trails off, spreading his hands.“It’s never been attempted.”
Tessa moves closer to the map, studying the marks Prophet has made.Her finger traces a line to a location deep in the wilderness, where mountains meet frozen tundra.
“This is where it has to happen,” she says.Not a question.
“Yes.The original seal site.It’s the only place where the boundaries are weak enough.”Prophet meets her eyes.“But Tessa, you need to understand—”
“I’ll do it.”
Three words.Delivered with such quiet certainty that the room goes silent.
“No,” I say again, this time with more force.
She turns to me, and the look in her eyes stops my protest cold.“This is my choice, Vex.”
“It’s suicide.”
“It’s survival.”She moves toward me, and even though I’m furious, even though every instinct screams to lock her away somewhere safe, I can’t stop myself from reaching for her.“If we do nothing, that thing will keep attacking until everyone I care about is dead.If I run, it follows, and more innocent people die.The only option is to face it.On our terms.At the seal site.”
“She’s right.”Blade stands, rolling his shoulders.“We’ve been on defense since this started.Time to take the fight to it.”
“Using her as bait,” I snarl.
“Using me as bait,” Tessa corrects.“With the entire club backing me up.With Prophet’s ritual.With you by my side.”Her hand finds my chest, right over where a heartbeat should be.“I’m not asking permission.I’m telling you what’s going to happen.”
The bond flares between us, and I feel everything she’s feeling, determination laced with terror, resolve wrapped in desperation, and underneath it all, a core of steel I hadn’t fully appreciated until this moment.
She’s not the frightened woman who stumbled into our world weeks ago.She’s a warrior choosing her battlefield.
“Does he trust her strength or not?”Prophet’s voice is soft, quoting Tessa’s earlier challenge.
I glance at him and freeze.
