Not when I’m holding the woman who just proved that power isn’t about strength alone.
It’s about who you fight beside.
“The trial was rigged,” I say, and my voice carries no fear, no doubt, just cold certainty. “You conspired with Viktor. Gave him an Original-forged blade. Promised him my territory if he succeeded. You broke Coven law.”
Thanatos’ smile is sharp enough to cut reality. “Prove it.”
Suddenly, the air changes. Not abruptly, not all at once, but it thickens, heavily and resistantly, as if the world has suddenlyremembered it was never meant to host beings like this. Fog bleeds out of the shadows at the edges of the battlefield, not rising, not drifting, but spilling, curling low across the ground in slow, deliberate tendrils.
Somewhere in the distance, a crow caws.
Once.
Then again.
The sound carries unnaturally far, slicing through the silence left in Viktor’s wake. It echoes off ruined concrete and shattered wards, a funeral bell disguised as a birdcall.
The fog deepens.
Darkens.
Begins to move against the wind.
And then the pressure hits.
A weight settles over everything still standing, crushing and absolute, bending magic, bending will. Knees threaten to buckle, flames gutter, and even the morning sun seems to recoil.
Figures begin to take shape within the haze.
They don’t step forward.
They come into focus.
Nyx emerges first, darkness folding around her, a living cloak. Moros follows, eyes reflecting endings yet to come. Erebus bleeds into existence without sound or shadow, the space around him thinning, erasing itself.
And finally…
Khaos.
Reality warps at his edges, the ground fracturing as though unsure how to hold him.
The other four Originals.
Manifested not from nowhere, but from elsewhere, from whatever cosmic vantage point they’ve been watching from as this day unfolded.
My former siblings.
My judges.
My executioners…
If they decide I’m guilty.
The crow caws once more, and the world holds its breath.
But for the first time in millennia, I’m not afraid of their judgment.
Because I’m not standing before them alone.
