My wings unfurled from my back, casting shadows over the ground. Eloise’s throat bobbed as she witnessed the true extent of them for the first time.
“I can squash you like a fly, Cora. Do not test me.”
Her power arced in a sizzling wave, and it fell across my face like a whip. My tongue snaked out, tasting blood. Indigo lifted her head and narrowed her gaze, her revulsion clear as she examined Eloise’s soul and confirmed what we already knew. My grandmother was rotten to the core.
Liz lifted her hand and made the first cut across her palm. My grandmother froze. “Eloise Roberts, I denounce you from the Roberts bloodline. I sever ties with you, and you alone.”
Eloise shook her head. “You wouldn’t dare,” she snarled.
Dayna sliced her hand in the same manner. “Eloise Roberts, I denounce you from the Roberts bloodline. I sever ties with you, and you alone. You are no mother of mine.”
Eloise growled, and a pulse of dark power crawled in from between the trees, taking advantage of the weaker wards.
Aunt Stella and Aunt Anita repeated the action, each dropping blood onto the freshly cut flowers at their feet.
Sophia was the final Roberts on the pentagram. Her silver hair shimmered in the moonlight as she pressed the blade to her palm without flinching. “Eloise Roberts, for every sin you have stitched into our name, for every drop of blood you’ve spilled in its pursuit of power, I sever you from the Roberts line. You are no longer a sister to me.” The last words struck like thunder. The pentagram burned white, then gold. Light exploded outward, rolling over the crowd in a shockwave that rattled the windows of both houses.
Eloise screamed, the sound splitting the air. Her features faltered, and I glimpsed beneath the glamor. Her eyes blackened, her veins pulsing with the foreign power she’d bartered for but could not wield. It consumed her from the inside out. No mortal was meant to house a god’s power.
“You think you can cast me out?” she hissed. “You willbegme to take you back when you realize I am the only one who can save us all.”
“We wouldn’t need saving if it weren’t for you,” I snapped while I scored my palm. “Eloise Roberts, I sever?—”
Her hands rose. The ground cracked, and lava burst through the earth and headed straight for me. I flung up a wall of water that hissed as it met her fire, the collision sending steam roaring through the night.
“Cora!” Hudson shouted from beyond the circle. Keverin’s snarl rippled through his chest as his beast fought to break free.
Eloise cackled. “Even with your family and your friends, you are no match for me.”
I held my ground. Power surged from the pentagram, feeding me through the link of our bloodline. Indigo’s voice rippled through me, ancient and hungry, coming out multilayered and utterly terrifying. “Eloise Roberts, I, the last of your line, sever all ties with you and rejoin my blood. You no longer have access to family or power. You are alone, adrift, and abandoned.” Idrove the blade into the center of the circle, releasing a blast of light that sent Eloise staggering back. The flowers burst into flames, joining the spilled blood and beginning the process of the severing.
Eloise laughed, wild and terrible. “Foolish girl. Did you think I came alone?” The air ruptured, and dozens of spectral forms spilled from the night, half-formed shadows with hollow eyes and screaming mouths. The remnants—souls Eloise had caged and twisted to her will.
They poured toward us, trailing the stench of burned ozone. The crowd scattered, screams echoing across the lawns. Hudson shifted mid-stride, his body fracturing into fur and fang as he met the first wave. Sebastian’s blade flashed beside him.
I threw out my arms and called to the river. Water answered, ripping through the broken wards like a living serpent, crashing into the remnants and scattering them like ash.
Eloise strode through the chaos untouched, her gaze fixed on me. “You can’t win, child. I carryhispower.”
I smiled, blood streaking down my cheek. She hadn’t realized yet that while she manipulated the remnants, I could command them. “That’s the difference, Grandmother. You carry borrowed power while I own mine. Yours can be taken. Mine cannot.”
“Like hell.” Her snarl split the night, and then she was on me, her hands crackling with black fire. Pain lanced through my ribs as she struck, sending me skidding across the dirt. My wings flared instinctively, catching me before I hit the ground. There was something holding me back from lashing out, a genetic quirk that made hurting family almost impossible.
Liz, Dayna, Stella, Anita, and Sophia stepped inside the pentagram and joined hands, their cut palms glowing gold. Their combined power surged through the spell, striking Eloise in the chest. She screamed as the light consumed her, her silhouettetwisting and warping until, with a sound like breaking glass, she vanished.
Silence fell. Shattered, smoking, holy silence. The pentagram pulsed once and dimmed. My aunts dropped to their knees, breath ragged. I stood in the center, heart hammering, tasting iron and salt on my tongue.
Hudson crashed through the circle, his claws half-shifted, his eyes wild as he reached me. “You okay?”
I nodded, though my vision swam. The first part of our plan had been accomplished. “It’s done. She’s severed.”
But even as the words left my mouth, the air around us shivered. A whisper curled through the smoke—Eloise’s voice, distant but unmistakable.
“You’ve cut me from your bloodline, little girl, but you can’t cut me from destiny.”
The moon dimmed, the temperature plummeted, and every flame on the grounds guttered out.
Hudson met my gaze as the last light died. “She’s still here?”
