Chapter 30: The Blood Binding

Ivy didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

The bloodied handprint on the window had vanished by morning, as if it were never there. But she knew it wasn’t a dream. Something—or someone—had come for her.

And now, the baby inside her stirred differently, as though it too had seen.

Downstairs, Killian and Aiden stood in silence. The tension between them was growing stronger by the day—an unspoken war over trust, over loyalty, over her.

“Say it,” Ivy demanded, descending the stairs slowly.

Aiden and Killian turned at once.

“Say what?” Killian asked, cautious.

“One of you was in my room last night.” Her gaze swept between them. “Or you let someone in.”

“No one entered that room, Ivy,” Aiden said. “I swear.”

“Then explain the bloody handprint on the window,” she snapped.

Both men exchanged glances.

“Someone is tampering with her dreams,” Killian said slowly. “No… not dreams. Visions. They’ve breached the threshold.”

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “Then it’s time.”

They drove deep into the forest. Ivy barely recognized the road, even though Killian said she’d been here once before—when she was taken.

A lone cabin stood near a frozen creek, with markings etched across its wooden walls. Ivy felt her skin tingle the moment they stepped closer.

Inside, an old woman sat near the fire, her silver hair cascading down like a veil. Her eyes were clouded but focused, her presence radiating something ancient.

“You’ve returned, Vessel,” the woman said. “And with less time than I’d hoped.”

“Who is she?” Ivy asked.

Killian bowed slightly. “She’s the Blood Witch of the Vale. The only one who can help you sever your link to Isla.”

The woman gestured for Ivy to sit. “Your bloodline was cursed the day Isla died. You carry her rage, her memories, her seed. If you birth her again, this world will burn.”

“And if I don’t?”

She looked at Ivy, gaze piercing. “Then you will die instead.”

The ritual required three things: a drop of Ivy’s blood, a bone fragment from Isla’s remains, and a sacrifice of someone tied to the Syndicate.

“I have her blood,” the witch said, lifting a sealed vial. “Hidden for centuries. The bone… was taken by traitors.”

Ivy looked to Aiden and Killian. “Then we get it back.”

Killian nodded. “It’s in a vault beneath the Syndicate's main base in Prague. I can retrieve it.”

“No,” Aiden said. “That’s suicide.”

“Do you have a better plan?” Killian snapped.

Ivy stood. “I’ll go.”

“Absolutely not,” they both said in unison.

“I’m done being protected like some fragile object,” she said. “This is my fight.”

Aiden turned away, jaw clenched. He knew she was right.

Killian’s phone buzzed.

He looked down and froze.

“What is it?” Ivy asked.

He turned the screen to show them all.

A message from an unknown number.

“She’s already ours. You’re just catching up.”

Attached was a video.

It played: a dark room, torches flickering.

A crib.

Inside it… a baby.

Not born.

But growing.

Accelerated.

Mutated.

Cloned.

And the face was almost Ivy’s.

“Ivy,” Aiden said quietly. “There’s something I haven’t told you.”

Killian stepped between them. “Not now—”

“No,” Ivy said. “Now.”

Aiden sighed. “When I called that contact weeks ago, she gave me the truth. The twin growing inside you—one of them—isn’t human anymore. They injected it with a serum coded to Isla’s blood.”

“But there’s more,” Aiden added reluctantly. “The cloning wasn’t authorized by the full Syndicate. It was done by one of our own.”

Ivy’s heart pounded. “Who?”

Aiden looked at her, sorrow in his eyes.

“My brother. Killian.”

Ivy froze.

“What?” Her voice trembled.

Killian didn’t deny it.

“Explain. Now.”

Killian stepped forward, his voice low. “I thought I could create a controlled version of Isla. A vessel I could erase after delivery. Something to end the prophecy without killing you.”

“You used me,” she whispered.

“I tried to protect you,” he said. “The moment I realized what the Syndicate planned, I turned. I swore I’d keep you safe.”

“But it’s already too late, isn’t it?” she said. “The other baby… it’s already real. Already them.”

Suddenly, the cabin’s windows burst inward. Smoke filled the room.

“DOWN!” Aiden shouted, shielding Ivy as masked figures stormed in.

Killian fought two off, his blade swift and clean.

The witch began chanting, her voice rising above the chaos.

“Take her!” one of the masked figures shouted. “We only need the Vessel!”

Ivy reached for the dagger beside the fire and struck one of them in the leg.

Aiden grabbed her hand. “Go—now!”

Killian threw a flash bomb, momentarily blinding the attackers. They slipped through the back exit and into the trees.

They didn’t stop running until they reached the edge of the forest.

“Where now?” Ivy gasped.

“To the vault,” Killian said.

“No,” Aiden said. “We have to regroup—”

“I have the map,” Killian interrupted. “And we don’t have time. They’ll deliver the clone by the Blood Moon.”

“But if we take the bone fragment now…” Ivy looked between them. “We end it before she’s born.”

They nodded.

But as Ivy turned, she stopped in her tracks.

A woman stood ahead, her face cloaked—until she pulled it down.

“Ivy,” the woman said.

Ivy staggered back. “No… That’s not possible.”

The woman looked exactly like her.

But older. Cold. Cruel.

“I’m what you could be,” she said.

“Who are you?” Ivy whispered.

The woman smiled.

“I’m the mother who chose power.”