Chapter 464: The Second Branch

"And walk right into a trap," Lilith said.

"Exactly," Elena confirmed.

Dorian looked impressed despite himself. "That might actually work. But Elena....you’d have to be bait. You’d have to put yourself in genuine danger. And if the trap fails...."

"Then he gets what he wants," Elena said. "And I go back to running. But I’d rather risk that than keep living like this. Always looking over my shoulder. Always hiding. Always afraid. So yes. I’ll be bait. We draw Keres in. And we end him."

"Three days," Sebastian said. Looking at everyone. "We have three days to coordinate with the second branch reinforcements. To prepare defenses. To create a trap for Keres. And to train Lilith as much as possible before this all comes crashing down."

"Three days," Lilith repeated. She looked at her hands. At the faint shimmer of dual magic constantly moving beneath her skin now. "Then we show them what happens when they threaten my family."

Her family. The Alphas. Victoria. Elena. The pack. Even the second branch witches coming to help.

All of them facing impossible odds. All of them choosing to fight anyway.

"We’ll win," Lucian said. His voice absolute. "Because we have something they don’t."

"What’s that?" Dorian asked.

Lucian looked at Lilith. "We have her. And she’s more powerful than any of them realize."

Lilith felt the weight of expectation settle onto her shoulders.

Three days to prepare for war.

Three days to become strong enough to face a vampire lord, hostile family members, and coordinated supernatural factions.

Three days to prove she wasn’t just a target or a weapon.

But a force to be reckoned with.

"Then let’s not waste time," Lilith said. "Dorian.....bring the reinforcements tomorrow. We’ll coordinate defenses and strategy. And we’ll show Keres and everyone else that Blackwood estate is not falling without a fight."

She looked at each of them. At the people who had become her family.

"Three days," Lilith said. "Then we end this."

***

Lilith’s POV

They came at first light, on foot, out of the fog on the northern road.

Callum found Lilith on the east terrace with a cup of tea going cold in her hands.

"Thirty-one at the gate," he said. "Dorian’s at the front. They’re not carrying weapons. Not any I can see."

"Witches don’t need to," Lilith said.

"No." His jaw tightened. "That’s what bothers me."

Sebastian and Lucian were already crossing the terrace toward her. Neither had slept much. Sebastian had a rolled map under one arm. Lucian was pulling on a jacket he hadn’t bothered to button.

"We meet them in the courtyard," Sebastian said. "Open ground, where everyone can see. Callum, double the wall watch, but keep them back from the gate."

"Yes, Alpha."

Sebastian turned to Lilith. He started to say something else, and she watched him stop. She watched him swallow whatever instruction had been on his tongue.

"Where do you want us?" he asked.

It was a small question. Four days ago it wouldn’t have been a question at all.

"Beside me," Lilith said. "Not in front."

Lucian’s eyebrows lifted. "Not in front."

"They need to see me stand there on my own. And they need to see I chose who stands next to me."

Lucian looked at his brother. Sebastian gave one short nod.

"Beside," Lucian said. "We can do beside."

***

The fog hadn’t burned off by the time the gates opened.

Lilith stood in the middle of the courtyard with Sebastian at her right shoulder and Lucian at her left. Victoria waited a few steps behind, leaning on a cane she would have denied needing a week ago. The black veins had crept up her throat overnight. Elena stood in the doorway of the main hall with one hand pressed to her bandaged side, watching.

Pack members lined the upper windows. No one made a sound.

Dorian walked in first. He had put himself back together since his last visit. The coat was pressed, the hair was smooth, the silver eyes were steady. Behind him came the witches, thirty of them, in grey and deep green travelling cloaks, walking in loose formation like people who had practiced doing it.

Dorian stopped ten feet from Lilith and inclined his head. "As promised."

"Thank you for coming," Lilith said.

"Don’t thank me yet." A small, dry smile. "Let me introduce the person who actually decides whether they stay."

A woman stepped out from the group. She was in her sixties, tall and straight-backed, with a white-blonde braid that fell to her waist and a walking stick of pale wood she didn’t lean on. Her eyes were black and very sharp.

"Ysolde Vane," Dorian said. "Eldest of the second branch."

Ysolde did not bow. She looked at Lilith for a long moment, taking her in from her boots to her face. Then her gaze moved to Sebastian, then to Lucian.

"Two," she said. "I was told three."

Lucian made a low sound in his throat.

"You were told right," Lilith said. Her voice stayed even. "There are three of them. One isn’t standing here."

A cool touch settled against her wrist, so light she might have imagined it. It came and went in a breath.

Ysolde’s eyes flicked to the spot where Lilith’s hand hung at her side. Something in her face changed, though only slightly.

"Dorian said as much," Ysolde said. "I wanted to hear you say it."

"Now you’ve heard it."

"So I have." Ysolde planted her stick on the stones. "Let me be plain, child, since we don’t have time for anything else. In fifteen years the second branch has buried a great many cousins. We’ve spent that time arguing over who we follow, whether we follow anyone, and whether the last of the direct line is a savior or a danger. Some of us have made up our minds." A glance back at her people. "Some of us came here to make them up."

"And you?" Lilith asked.

"I came to see if you’re worth the thirty lives I brought." She said it without cruelty, like a woman reading a price. "Show me what you carry."