Chapter 337: What if she fights you?

She looked at each of them in turn. "Gather your forces. Everything you have. Every creature you can summon. Every dark thing that owes you a favor. We attack in three days."

"Three days?" Corvus asked. "Mistress, that’s not much time to...."

"It’s enough," Thalia interrupted. "Victoria’s deadline with the Blackwoods was temporary. They’re holding a fragile truce that will shatter the moment they disagree about Lilith’s future. I want to attack while they’re still pretending to work together. While they’re distracted by their own conflicts. While Lilith is confused and scared and doesn’t know who to trust."

She traced her finger across the map, marking the route their forces would take.

"We come from three directions simultaneously," Thalia said. "Split their defenses. Force them to choose what to protect. And while they’re busy fighting demons and dark creatures and corrupted magic, I slip through the portal and take Lilith."

"What if she fights you?" the old witch asked.

"Then I’ll break her," Thalia said simply. "I’ll break her bonds one by one. Make her watch her precious mates suffer. Make her feel every ounce of pain until she’s begging me to make it stop. And then I’ll offer her salvation."

She looked back down at the map, at the small mark indicating where Lilith’s room was located.

"My mother used to say that power without wisdom is tyranny," Thalia said quietly. "But she was wrong. Power without mercy is tyranny. And I have no intention of being merciful."

She looked up at her assembled forces.

"Three days," she repeated. "Get everything ready. When we attack this time, we’re not retreating. We’re taking what’s mine."

The demons and the witch bowed and left.

Corvus lingered. "And if the girl’s power is too strong? If she burns you again?"

Thalia looked down at her scarred hands and smiled.

"Then I’ll let her burn me," she said. "I’ll let her use every drop of power she has. Exhaust herself. Push her magic to its absolute limit. And when she’s empty and weak and can’t fight anymore...that’s when I’ll take her."

She rolled up the map and handed it to Corvus.

"Make copies. Distribute them to our forces. Make sure everyone knows their role."

"Yes, Mistress."

When Corvus left, Thalia was alone again.

She walked to the far wall where a mirror hung...not a normal mirror, but one that showed reflections of possible futures. She looked into it and saw herself crowned in power, standing at the center of a web of glowing bonds that stretched across the world.

Saw Lilith kneeling at her feet, broken and obedient, channeling pure magic while Thalia wielded it.

Saw the supernatural world bowing before her.

It was beautiful.

It was everything she had sacrificed for.

And it was so close she could taste it.

"Next time, little cousin," Thalia whispered to the mirror. "Next time you won’t be so lucky."

The mirror flickered and showed a different image...Lilith surrounded by the three Alphas and Victoria, all of them fighting to protect her, all of them willing to die for her.

Thalia’s smile widened.

Let them fight. Let them die. Let them think their love was enough to save her.

In three days, she would prove them all wrong.

***

Victoria’s POV

The room the Blackwoods had given Victoria was in the east wing, far enough from Lilith’s quarters to give the appearance of distance, close enough that Victoria could reach her niece in seconds if needed.

It was smaller than Victoria was used to. A single bed. A desk. A wardrobe. Functional but not comfortable. The kind of room you gave to someone you were tolerating, not welcoming.

Victoria did not care.

She had spread her research materials across every available surface, books and scrolls and loose pages covered in notes written in three different languages. Morvaine grimoires she had salvaged from the coven ruins. Texts on curses she had stolen from private collections. Prophecies she had copied from libraries that did not know she had been there.

Fifteen years of research. Fifteen years of trying to understand the forces that shaped their world.

And none of it had prepared her for this.

Victoria sat at the desk with a tome open in front of her....The Nature of Divine Retribution: A Study of Moon Goddess Curses, and tried to focus on the words. But her mind kept drifting to Lilith.

To the three impossible choices Morgana had laid out.

To the fact that no matter which path Lilith chose, she was going to lose her.

Death. Magic sacrifice. Watching the Alphas go feral.

Three different kinds of hell.

Her hands clenched on the desk.

There had to be another way. Had to be some loophole Morgana had missed or some angle they had not considered. Prophecies were never as absolute as they appeared. There was always wiggle room. Always some interpretation that opened a door.

She just had to find it.

Victoria pulled another book toward her....Bond Magic and the Laws of Transference, and started reading.

"When a supernatural curse transfers from one being to another via mate bond, the curse adapts to the new host’s magical signature. In cases where the new host possesses abilities the curse was not originally designed to interact with, unexpected mutations may occur..."

Victoria stopped.

Read the passage again.

Lilith had Morvaine magic. Bond manipulation abilities. Powers the curse was definitely not designed to interact with because the Blackwood curse predated the Morvaine gift by centuries.

What if the curse was mutating inside Lilith?

What if that was why her power was exploding every time she used it?

What if...

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts.

Victoria’s head snapped up, her hand instinctively moving toward the warding charm on her wrist. "Who is it?"

"Nicholas."

Victoria’s jaw tightened. She had been expecting this conversation eventually. The Alpha would want to discuss strategy. Would want to make sure their temporary truce held. Would want to ensure she was not planning to take Lilith and run the moment his back was turned.