Lilith.
Not as a presence anymore. Not as a whisper or a shadow lurking at the edges of my consciousness. She’shere.
Right here.
Rising through centuries of dormancy like a kraken breaking the surface of a black ocean, vast, terrible, and utterly and devastatingly powerful.
Her voice fills my head, layered and ancient, carrying the weight of ages I can’t even begin to comprehend.
“Finally.Finally.Let me out, daughter. Let me show them what happens when theydareto harm what isours.Burn them.Burn everything! Make the world remember why they feared my name. Make them understand that some bloodlines shouldneverbe provoked,” Lilith’s voice bellows, but I don’t hear her in my head. This time I see it in the faces of other monsters around me.
They hear her too.
The Crimson Dawn begs to be released. Not just my Bloodfire,her fire.The kind that doesn’t just kill. The kind that unmakes. That reduces armies to ash and turns civilizations to myths whispered around dying fires.
My hands shake, my power building until my bones ache with it.
One word.
That’s all it would take.
One moment of surrender, and I could obliterate Viktor’s entire army—every vampire, every witch, every demon-possessed human. I could paint the battlefield in crimson and gold and make the Coven of Crows themselves step back in recognition of true power.
I could save Crave.
I could save everyone.
All I have to do is let her in.
All I have to do is let any thread of my humanity go.
My knees threaten to buckle. My breath comes in short, sharp gasps that taste like copper and smoke. Through the chaos, through the violence, through the screaming anarchy of the battlefield around me, three voices cut through the vortex.
Oracle’s tea. His Phoenix flames wrapping around his words, a blessing and a warning…‘Every time you use your power, you burn a little more of who you were. Hold onto yourself, Sloane. Promise me you’ll hold on.’
Seraphine’s song, her Siren’s voice carrying truths I didn’t want to hear.‘Power without feeling is just violence. You’renot just a Blood Witch. You’re a nurse. You save people. Don’t forget that.’
Eden’s scream, her Banshee’s wail echoing with the weight of countless deaths she’s witnessed,‘When you stand at the edge, remember who pulled you back from it. Remember you’re not alone in this.’
And beneath it all, Crave’s presence through our bond. Bleeding out on the battlefield while Viktor stands over him, a conqueror about to claim his prize.
But still there.
Still fighting.
Stillmine.
The choice crystallizes in my mind with perfect, terrifying clarity.
I can let Lilith take control and save everyone, even if it means losing myself.
Or I can stay human and try to wield her power anyway, combining both halves of what I am, even if the pain of containing that much magic in a mortal form kills me.
My body decides before my mind catches up.
I choose both.
I’m not just Lilith’s heir.
