Chapter 336: That Kind Of magic requires sacrifice

Thalia had been in the western tower when the first explosions rocked the main house.

She ran toward the chaos instead of away from it.

She found her mother in the central courtyard surrounded by bodies....hunters she had killed defending their home. Elowen’s hands were still crackling with power, her face streaked with blood and ash, her eyes wild with fury and grief.

"Run!" Elowen screamed when she saw Thalia. "Take your sisters and run! Get to the safe house!"

"I’m not leaving you...."

"GO!"

But before Thalia could move, before she could argue, before she could do anything, the hunters were there.

Twenty of them. Thirty. Too many to count.

They surrounded Elowen with blessed silver and iron chains. With weapons that burned through magic like acid. With the absolute conviction that they were doing the Moon Goddess’s work.

Thalia watched her mother fight.

Watched her kill a dozen hunters even as they drove blessed daggers into her body.

Watched her fall to her knees as the chains wrapped around her throat.

Watched her die.

And Thalia ran.

Not to save her sisters. Not to find safety. But to survive.

She fled to the underground chamber beneath the estate, the place where the oldest Morvaine grimoires were kept, where the darkest secrets lived, where magic that was never meant to be touched waited for someone desperate enough to use it.

The hunters never found her.

They burned the estate to the ground with her family inside it and declared the Morvaine coven destroyed.

And Thalia sat in the darkness beneath the ruins and made a choice.

She could die with her principles intact like her mother.

Or she could live and make sure no one ever had the power to hurt her again.

She chose life.

And she paid for it in blood.

***

Thalia opened her eyes and looked down at her scarred hands.

The burns from Lilith were just the latest in a long line of prices she had paid for power.

The rest of her body was covered in scars from the dark rituals she had performed over the past fifteen years. Scars from demon bargains and blood sacrifices, blood covenants and magic that should have killed her but did not because she was too stubborn to die.

She had made deals with entities that existed in the spaces between worlds. Had traded pieces of her humanity for knowledge and power. Had corrupted her Morvaine gift deliberately, twisting it into something her mother would have been horrified by.

And it had been worth it.

Every. Single. Sacrifice.

Because now she was strong enough to take what she wanted.

And what she wanted was Lilith.

Not to kill her. Not to hurt her. To use her.

Lilith was the last pure Morvaine witch. The last one whose bond manipulation abilities were untainted by darkness. And that purity made her infinitely valuable.

Because her plan did not just involve controlling individual bonds.

It involved controlling ALL bonds.

Every supernatural connection in existence. Every mate bond. Every pack bond. Every coven connection. Every alliance and loyalty and love that tied the supernatural world together.

All of it under her control. Hers to control, Hers to use as she want.

She would become a goddess. More than a goddess. She would be the spider at the center of the web, pulling strings that stretched across continents, making entire species dance to her tune.

And she needed Lilith to do it.

The ritual she had designed required a willing participant with pure Morvaine blood. Someone who could channel the ancestral magic while she wove her corruption through it. Someone who would serve as the conduit while she seized control of the power and bent it to her will.

Lilith would not agree willingly.

Which meant she needed to break her first.

Break her bonds. Break her spirit. Break her connection to everything she loved until she was desperate enough to do anything to make the pain stop.

Then she would offer her a choice.

Help me willingly and I’ll end your suffering.

Refuse and I’ll make you watch everyone you love destroy each other.

Either way, she would get what she wanted.

****

The door opened again and Corvus returned with three figures behind him.

Two demons, lesser ones, barely more powerful than the dark creatures Thalia had sent to the first attack, but useful nonetheless. And one witch...old, twisted, radiating the kind of corrupt power that came from centuries of dark magic.

"Mistress," the witch said, bowing low. "You summoned us."

"I did." Thalia stood, ignoring the pain in her hands. "The first attack failed because I underestimated the girl’s power and the Blackwood’s defenses. I won’t make that mistake again."

She walked to a table in the corner where a map of the Blackwood estate lay spread out. She had marked it meticulously, every ward, every weak point, every entrance and exit.

"The Blackwoods have allied with Victoria Morvaine," Thalia continued. "My dear cousin who thinks she can protect Lilith by hiding behind wolf teeth and righteous fury. They’ve combined their defenses. Woven their magic together. Made themselves stronger."

"Then how do we break through?" one of the demons asked.

Thalia smiled. "We don’t break through. We go around."

She pointed to a section of the map, the eastern woods bordering the estate.

"There’s a ley line running beneath the forest here," Thalia said. "Ancient magic. Older than the Blackwood pack. Older than my coven. It’s currently dormant but if we wake it, if we channel enough power through it, we can create a portal directly into the estate grounds. Bypass their wards entirely."

"That kind of magic requires sacrifice," the old witch said. "Blood sacrifice. A lot of it."

"Then we’ll provide it," Thalia said simply. "I don’t care how many lives it costs. I don’t care what we have to burn to make it work. We’re getting Lilith. And this time, we’re not leaving until we have her."