Chapter 347: You Summoned A Demon Lord

Lilith’s head snapped toward the sound.

Thalia stood at the edge of the eastern woods, her red robes torn and bloody, her face twisted with absolute rage. The corruption in her magic was visible now, green energy shot through with black veins, pulsing with something that looked diseased.

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!" Thalia screamed at Lilith. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP ME RESHAPE THIS WORLD! AND INSTEAD YOU STAND WITH THEM?! WITH WOLVES WHO CURSED YOU AND A GODDESS WHO DEMANDS YOUR DEATH?!"

"I stand with people who love me!" Lilith screamed back. "Not someone who wants to use me!"

"LOVE?!" Thalia laughed....high and broken. "LOVE IS WHAT KILLED OUR FAMILY! LOVE IS WHAT GOT YOUR FATHER MURDERED! LOVE IS WEAKNESS!"

"No," Lilith said, and her voice was steady despite her tears. "Love is the only thing that matters."

Thalia’s expression shifted through rage to something that looked almost like grief.

"Then you’re a fool," she said quietly. "Just like your grandmother. Just like everyone who came before you."

She raised her hands and dark magic gathered around her....so much power it made the air itself distort.

"If I can’t have you willingly," Thalia said, "then I’ll take you broken."

***

Victoria felt Thalia’s power building and knew exactly what was coming.

A killing blow.

Not aimed at Lilith....Thalia still wanted her alive. But aimed at everyone around Lilith. At the Alphas and the pack and Victoria herself. At everyone Lilith loved.

Thalia was going to force Lilith to choose.

Watch everyone die. Or surrender.

"NO!" Victoria screamed.

She threw herself forward, gathering every ounce of magic she possessed.

Victoria’s green magic slammed into Thalia’s dark power.

The two forces collided in midair and exploded.

The shockwave knocked everyone within fifty feet to the ground. Victoria felt her wards shatter. Felt her protective charms dissolve. Felt magic tear through her body like broken glass.

But she held on.

Held the line between Thalia’s power and everyone behind her.

"AUNT VICTORIA, DON’T!" Lilith screamed. "YOU CAN’T HOLD THAT MUCH POWER!"

Victoria couldn’t. She knew she couldn’t. Thalia was stronger.....more corrupt, more willing to sacrifice everything for power.

But Victoria did not need to win.

She just needed to hold long enough for someone else to strike.

"NICHOLAS!" Victoria screamed. "NOW!"

Nicholas....who had been circling around through the chaos while Victoria held Thalia’s attention....charged from Thalia’s blind side.

Kael’s silver form was a blur of lethal intent. His blessed claws aimed for

Thalia’s throat.

Thalia spun at the last second.

Her magic lashed out and caught Kael mid-leap, slamming him into the ground with bone-crushing force.

Nicholas shifted back to human and didn’t get up.

"NICHOLAS!" Sebastian and Lucian both screamed.

Through the her power, Victoria felt his consciousness flickering. Felt him struggling to stay awake. Felt his absolute refusal to give up even when his body was broken.

"Pathetic," Thalia said, looking down at Nicholas’s prone form. "You really thought you could stop me? You’re just wolves. Cursed, desperate, dying wolves."

She raised her hand to deliver a killing blow...

Lilith saw Thalia raise her hand toward Nicholas and something inside her snapped.

Not broke. Snapped into place.

Every fragment of power she had been struggling to control. Every piece of magic the curse had been feeding. Every ounce of ancestral Morvaine gift that had been dormant her entire life.

All of it crystallized into a single burning certainty.

No one touches him.

Lilith’s power exploded outward.

Not wild this time. Not uncontrolled. Focused with absolute precision born from desperation and love and the mate bond screaming at her to protect.

White light blazed from her in a wave that made the Moon Temple Guardians’ power look dim. It slammed into Thalia with enough force to send her flying backward, away from Nicholas.

Thalia hit the ground and rolled, coming up in a crouch with her eyes blazing with shock and rage.

"HOW?!" she screamed. "YOU’RE UNTRAINED! YOU SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO...."

"I LOVE THEM!" Lilith screamed back. "THAT’S HOW! LOVE ISN’T WEAKNESS! IT’S STRENGTH! IT’S THE ONLY REAL POWER THAT EXISTS!"

Her magic pulsed with every word, not attacking, just present. Just there. A wall of light between Thalia and everyone behind Lilith.

Thalia stared at her with an expression caught between fury and something that looked heartbreakingly like envy.

"You really believe that," Thalia said quietly.

"Yes."

"Then you’re going to die believing a lie," Thalia said. "Because love doesn’t save anyone. It just makes losing them hurt more."

She raised her hands one more time....

And the entire battlefield lit up with silver light.

The Moon Temple Guardians had finished their banishing ritual and were now advancing on Thalia herself. Seven warriors in silver armor, all of them carrying weapons blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.

"Thalia Morvaine," the lead Guardian said. "You have violated the Divine Compact. You have summoned demons to the mortal realm. You have corrupted your sacred gift. You are hereby sentenced to banishment."

"You can’t banish me," Thalia said. "I haven’t broken any laws of the Compact...."

"You summoned a demon lord," the Guardian interrupted. "That alone is grounds for immediate banishment. Surrender now or be destroyed."

Thalia looked at the Guardians. At Lilith. At the combined forces of witches and wolves all watching her with weapons ready.

She was outnumbered. Outmatched. Her demon army was destroyed. Her allies scattered.

She had lost.

Thalia knew it. Everyone knew it.

"This isn’t over," Thalia said, looking directly at Lilith. "I will come back. I will find a way. And next time, little cousin....next time I won’t be so merciful."

She raised her hands and green smoke erupted around her.

"STOP HER!" someone screamed.

But it was too late. Thalia vanished in a burst of corrupted magic, teleporting to somewhere the Guardians could not immediately follow.

The battlefield went silent.

Bodies lay everywhere. The estate was half-destroyed. Wounded littered the grounds. And everyone who was still standing looked shell-shocked and exhausted and absolutely traumatized.

They had won.

Barely.

At devastating cost.

But they had won.

Lilith felt her knees starting to give out. She was about to hit the ground hard, all the adrenaline draining out of her at once. Through the bonds she felt Nicholas struggling to his feet. Felt Sebastian and Lucian both racing toward her.