She watched Maddie glow, watched Roan tremble, and realized that nothing in the world would ever be the same.
Lyric forced her voice steady. “You did it. You shook the whole damn kingdom.”
Maddie’s eyes were fierce, shining with possibility and promise. “Good. Maybe now we can get out of here.”
Roan pulled her close, his body a shield, his magic still twining with hers. Lyric felt the aftershocks ripple through the cell, through her own veins, and out into the world. She closed her eyes, whispering a prayer to Visata.Let Athena come. Let this be the spark that changes everything.
The light they both emitted softened a bit, but not completely, as if the fire inside her refused to dim. Despite the glow, the cold was still there, the threats still looming, but she knew—now, truly—that this was power. These two–and possibly other shamans would find mates as well–were necessary to the survival of the Damarian race.
Lyric watched as Maddie squeezed Roan’s hand, the bond humming between them like a promise. “I’m ready,” Maddie said, and for the first time, Lyric thought perhaps the female actually believed it.
Lyric smiled, weary and hopeful. “Then hang on, Madeline. Soon our world is going to find out about you.”
And somewhere in the depths of every kingdom, and far above, magic stirred—answering the call, rewriting fate itself.
The mansion shook—subtle at first, like a tremor deep beneath ancient stone, then rising, rolling, a low thunder that sent dust cascading from the gilded crown molding. Webs shuttered, their glistening thread reverberating off the stone. Athena didn’t move from her chair, but her heart stuttered. Her office was a cocoon of silk and shadow, the air thick with the scent of richwine and old secrets, but nothing here had ever made her feel small. Until now.
She pressed her palm flat against the ancient desk, feeling the vibrations in her bones, in the web that anchored her to every spider in her army. The mansion was alive with movement—her soldiers, in their truest forms, flooding the corridors. She saw through a thousand eyes at once, bodies flowing over marble and glass, hunting. Searching. Maddie. Roan. The names echoed in her mind, each syllable laced with awe and terror.
Aurelius, her mate, materialized in the doorway, features sharp with concern. His suit was immaculate, but his posture radiated tension, the kind that could snap necks or kingdoms. “Athena?—”
“I feel it,” she said, voice low, thrumming with disbelief and something dangerously close to admiration. “Didyoufeel it?”
He nodded, jaw set. “It’s like the world cracked.”
Athena’s fingers traced the edge of the forged ledgers on her desk. The pages were heavy, magic reverberating through each line of false numbers and manufactured debts. She’d known something was off—a current, a wrongness in the bookkeeping that had nothing to do with mortal greed. Her eyes narrowed, and she let her power unfurl, the Sight sliding over the ink, the paper, the hidden blood magic laced in the margins.
She saw the thread—subtle, but unmistakable. Magic, slick and sharp, twisted through the ledgers like a snake in tall grass. Not her magic. Not Aurelius’s. Not even Cassia’s. Athena closed her eyes and followed the thread, let it wind through the web of her senses, until it revealed its shape. Neru.
The realization hit like a lash. “Neru,” she said, as her eyes held her mate’s. “Why?”
Neru was control incarnate, his power old and wild, and his loyalty had always been to Cassia. The ledgers reeked of his touch, and of the Kingdom of Chaos. Athena’s lips curled in asilent snarl. The Kingdom of Silk had been betrayed by one of their own, something she honestly thought would never happen, and the web she thought she’d woven so tightly was riddled with holes. “Not just our own,” she continued as Aurelius watched her. “Wolfgang has been in bed with our betrayers. Cassia, Neru, her brother Dax, and Mei. Why would she do this?”
The revelations were lost in the tidal wave of power she continued to feel. Maddie. The name was a comet, blazing through the darkness. Athena reached for the connection, let her senses trace the echo of the magic, and found the bindings—Cassia’s work, as familiar as her own skin. But they were unraveling, burning away in a blaze of something older, something anathema to venom and silk.
Beside her, Aurelius’s eyes widened, pale as the moon. “That was Roan, wasn’t it? And the girl?—”
Athena tasted the venom, sour and bright, through the web that linked her to her mate. She shuddered, a visceral revulsion crawling up her spine. “Cassia’s power. But it’s breaking. That girl—Madeline—she’s not just a pawn. Roan’s connection to her . . . it’s rewriting the wards, the venom, the very laws of this house.”
She heard her spiders’ voices as a chorus in her mind—panic, excitement, reverence. The captives were moving. The magic that had shackled them now left a trail of broken silk and scorched stone in its wake. Maddie’s power was a wildfire, and Roan was fanning the flames.
Aurelius crossed the room, the old, iron resolve in his step. He grabbed the phone, fingers flying across the screen. The line crackled, then the traitor’s voice slithered through.
Athena watched her mate, the steel in his voice. “Wolfgang. It’s over. We know. The Kingdom of Fangs and the Kingdom of Claws know. There will be no leniency. You’ve chosen your fate.”
Wolfgang’s reply was desperate, thick with lies and sweat. “Aurelius, please. I negotiated amnesty. You can’t?—”
Aurelius cut him off with a sound that could have split mountains. “You negotiated nothing. There will be no mercy for traitors. You’ve helped bring Chaos into our home. You’ll answer for every drop of venom, every spilled secret, every deceitful web spun into a place that has been a safe haven for our kingdom for so long.”
Athena’s magic flared again, overwhelming, as her spiders screamed the location of the captives into her mind—images and emotions flooding her with certainty. She stood, her chair scraping back, the world narrowing to a single purpose.
“They’re in the tunnels” she said, her voice a blade. “Our warriors have found them.”
Aurelius’s eyes met hers, and for the first time in centuries, she saw the same awe she felt reflected back at her. Maddie and Roan had changed everything. The world they’d known was gone, burned away in a connection that was no doubt written in a prophecy, a rebellion and rebirth.
Athena strode from her office, her dress billowing around her, Aurelius at her side, the silk of her power alive and trembling. She felt fate twisting, the old web breaking apart, and for the first time in her long reign, she hoped it would be enough.
Outside, the mansion shuddered again—this time not with fear, but with the promise of war, and the wild, unbreakable hope of something new.
