Chapter 329: So I Have To Die

"We didn’t have a choice," Lucian shot back. "She brought an army. Dark creatures and mercenaries. We were outnumbered five to one. If Lilith hadn’t....." He stopped.

"Hadn’t what?" Nicholas demanded.

"Hadn’t exploded with enough power to drive them all back," Lucian finished quietly.

"Her magic erupted. White light everywhere. It punched through Thalia’s shields like they were nothing. Sent her running."

Nicholas absorbed this. "How much power are we talking about?"

"Enough to level half the hall," Lucian said. "Enough to terrify everyone including herself. She’s upstairs right now convinced she’s going to accidentally kill someone."

"I need to see her," Nicholas said.

"There’s more," Lucian said. "Thalia admitted she was the one who called Lilith into the woods that night. The trance. She tried to take her then but Lilith’s power burned her even while unconscious."

Sebastian swore. "So we have Victoria threatening to take her by force. Thalia wanting to use her as a weapon. And a curse that’s feeding Lilith’s power while it kills her from the inside out."

"Welcome back," Lucian said dryly. "How was your trip?"

Nicholas didn’t answer. He was already moving toward the stairs.

He found Lilith in her bedroom sitting on the edge of the bed with her arms wrapped around herself. Agnes stood near the window keeping watch. Sera sat beside Lilith with one hand on her shoulder.

When Lilith looked up and saw Nicholas in the doorway, something in her expression cracked.

"You’re back," she whispered.

Nicholas crossed the room in three strides and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly, pressing her face against his chest and shaking like she might fall apart at any moment.

"I felt the attack through the bond," Nicholas said quietly. "Are you hurt?"

"No. But I could have been. We all could have been." Lilith’s voice was muffled against his shirt. "There was a witch. Thalia. She said she’s family. She wanted to take me."

"I know. Lucian told me."

"My power...." Lilith pulled back to look up at him with red-rimmed eyes. "It exploded. I couldn’t control it. What if I had hit Lucian instead of her? What if I had hurt the Betas?"

"But you didn’t," Nicholas said firmly. "Your magic protected the people you cared about. That’s instinct. That’s your power knowing friend from foe."

"But what about next time?" Lilith demanded. "What happens when my power gets even stronger and I lose control completely? What happens when I accidentally kill someone because I can’t..."

"That’s not going to happen," Nicholas interrupted.

"You don’t know that...."

"Yes I do." Nicholas cupped her face in his hands and made her look at him. "Because we’re going to figure this out. Together. No more secrets. No more half-truths. I’m going to tell you everything the witch told us about the curse. And then we’re going to make decisions as a team."

Lilith searched his face. "What did she say? Is there another way to break the curse?"

Nicholas looked at Agnes and Sera. "Can you give us privacy?"

Both women nodded and left without argument, closing the door behind them.

Sebastian came in a moment later, fully dressed now in clothes someone must have given him. He took up position near the window, his expression carefully neutral.

Nicholas sat down on the bed and pulled Lilith down beside him. Through the bond he could feel her fear and desperate hope all twisted together.

"The witch’s name is Morgana Ashford," Nicholas began. "She’s the same one who consulted with our father seven years ago. We found her. And she told us the complete prophecy."

"And?" Lilith’s hands were clenched so tight her knuckles were white.

"And Victoria was right," Nicholas said quietly. "The curse does transfer from us to you when the bonds complete. And breaking it does require a sacrifice."

He watched the hope drain from Lilith’s face.

"So I have to die," she said flatly.

"No," Nicholas said immediately. "That’s one option. But it’s not the only one."

Lilith looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"

Nicholas took a breath and told her everything. The full prophecy. The curse’s origin with their great-great-grandfather destroying the Moon Goddess’s sacred grove. The three impossible options laid out before them.

Option one: She dies willingly to break the curse immediately.

Option two: She surrenders all her magic....becomes completely human and the curse breaks. But then the supernatural bonds will slowly kill her over five to ten years unless they sever the bonds completely and lose each other.

Option three: They refuse to break the curse, go feral within a year, and likely kill everyone including her.

When he finished, Lilith was completely silent.

She sat there on the bed staring at her hands and Nicholas could feel her processing through the bond. Horror. Grief. Desperate calculation as she tried to find an option that didn’t exist.

"So no matter what I choose," she said finally, "someone loses."

"Yes," Nicholas admitted.

"If I die, the curse breaks and you live. If I give up my magic and we sever the bonds, we all survive but we lose each other. If I do nothing, you go feral and kill everyone."

"That’s what Morgana said."

Lilith laughed....high and broken. "Those aren’t choices. Those are just different flavors of tragedy."

"I know," Nicholas said quietly.

"What do you want me to choose?" Lilith asked, looking up at him. "What option would make you happy?"

"None of them," Nicholas said honestly. "I don’t want you to die. I don’t want you to give up your magic. I don’t want to lose you. But...."

"But if you had to pick," Lilith interrupted. "If you had to choose between me dying now or giving up my magic and severing the bonds.....which would you choose?"

Nicholas looked at Sebastian. His brother’s expression was anguished but determined.

"We would choose you alive," Sebastian said. "Even if it means losing you. Even if it means you have to give up your magic and we have to sever the bonds and live the rest of our lives knowing you’re out there somewhere without us."