Her lips curve in something that might be a smile if smiles could cut. “No, you don’t. You left us, Draven. Walked away from your family, from your purpose, from everything we built together.” She tilts her head, and shadows coil and writhe around her, alive with intent. “And for what? To play house with mongrels and mortals? To pretend you’re something you’re not?”
“I left because I chose to be more than what you made me.” I feel my brothers tense behind me, ready to fight despite knowing how futile it would be. “I built something that matters. Something that protects instead of destroys.”
“Protection.” Thanatos’ voice is the sound of a final breath leaving lungs. “Isthatwhat you call it? Isthatwhat you were doing when you turned three humans in the middle of a city? When youexposedour world to mortal eyes and cameras for all the world to see?”
Ice floods my veins. “That wasn’t me!”
“We have footage,” Nyx says coldly, and with a wave of her hand, shadows coalesce into a screen of pure darkness. The video plays across it, grainy, shaky phone footage showingmein the center of a downtown street—my face, my vest with the Eternal Sins MC patch clearly visible. My fangs descended as I tear into human throats and force my blood down their dying throats.
Creating scions.
In public.
Breaking every law we have.
“That. Wasn’t. Me!” Each word comes out harder and sharper. “It’s an illusion, a shapeshifter. Viktor has someone who can project my image, make it look as if I’m breaking theLaw of Silencewhen I’ve spent centuries upholding it.”
“Convenient,” Erebus murmurs, his void-like presence rippling. “The accused claims the evidence is fabricated.”
“Itisfabricated!” My Bloodfire surges despite my efforts to control it. “Oracle saw it in his Fire of Truth. We have a necromancer who can read death residue. We have a technomancer who traced the illusion magic signature. Viktor is framing me to force your hand, to make you execute me so he can seize control of my territory and my scion network.”
Moros tilts his head, those all-seeing eyes boring into mine. “Interesting. The footage does carry traces of glamor magic. Subtle, but present…” He pauses. “However, that doesn’t absolve you of your other crimes, brother. The Blood Witch. The breaking of theLaw of Balance. Those violations arerealenough.”
“The girl was dying—”
“Then she should have died!”His words slam into me as a physical blow, and several of my brothers actually stagger. “TheLaw of Balanceexists for a reason, Draven. Humans die. That is their purpose, their function in the grand design. They live brief lives, and then they feed us. You don’tsavethem. You don’ttransformthem into something that violates the natural order.”
“There’s nothing natural about what we are,” I shoot back, my Bloodfire rising despite my efforts to control it. “We’re monsters, Thanatos. We feed on the living. We exist outside the normal flow of life and death. Don’t lecture me about natural order when we abandoned it the moment we rose from darkness.”
Moros speaks again, his voice layered with the echoes of every word he’ll ever speak. “I’ve seen this moment play out in seventeen thousand different futures, brother. In most of them, you die tonight. In some, your club dies with you. In a few, the Blood Witch destroys everything within a hundred miles, and the supernatural world is exposed completely.” He pauses, those all-seeing eyes boring into mine. “And in exactly three futures,you survive. But those three paths require something you’re not willing to give.”
“What?” I ask, though I already know the answer will damn me.
“Her,” Erebus says simply. “Give us the Blood Witch. Let me erase her from existence before she becomes what prophecy says she will. It’s theonlyway to maintain balance. Theonlyway to prevent the Crimson Dawn.”
My body locks down hard. Her fury crashes through the Heart Bind, white-hot and relentless, backed by a determination that feels unstoppable. And under it all, there’s love, deep, brutal, and strong enough to make my immortal heart ache.
“No.” The word comes out flat, final. “That’snotan option.”
Nyx’s shadows surge forward, and suddenly I’m surrounded by darkness so complete, I can’t see my own hands. Her voice comes from everywhere and nowhere. “You would sacrifice the balance foronemortal girl? You would risk exposure, risk war between our kind and humanity, riskeverythingfor a creature who’s existed for mere days?”
“She’s not a creature,” I snarl, and my fangs fully descend. “She’s a person. And she’smine!The Heart Bind—”
“Is irrelevant,” Thanatos interrupts. “Heart Binds can be broken. Painful, yes, but survivable. You’ve existed for thousands of years without her, Draven. You’ll exist for a thousand more after she’s gone.”
“Will I?”The question escapes before I can stop it, raw and honest. “Will I really? Because since the moment she walked into my life, I’ve remembered what it feels like toexistinstead of only endure. She woke something in me I thought had died centuries ago. Sono, Iwon’tgive her to you. Iwon’tlet you erase her. I don’t care what your prophecies say or what laws I’ve broken. She’smineto protect, and I’ll burn the world before I let you take her.”
Silence falls, heavy and absolute.
Then Khaos moves.
The First doesn’t walk, he is simply closer, and reality bends around him, space itself making room. When he lifts one pale hand, time seems to slow, and I feel the weight of his attention as physical pressure threatening to crush me flat.
He stares at me for five heartbeats.
Ten.
Fifteen.
