LOGINLilith POVWaking up was harder than it should have been.Lilith opened her eyes to afternoon sunlight streaming through the window and felt like she was trying to drag herself out of quicksand.Everything was heavy. Her limbs. Her head. Even her eyelids felt like they weighed more than they should.But she was awake.Alive.For now.Lilith pushed herself upright slowly...careful, testing her body's limits and immediately felt the bonds flare to life.Not painful. Not overwhelming. Just present in a way they had not been before.She could feel Nicholas somewhere in the estate. Feel his steady presence like a beacon. Feel the careful control he was maintaining over emotions that wanted to spiral.Could feel Sebastian closer. In the hallway maybe. Or just outside the door. His anxiety bleeding through the connection like static.Could feel Lucian pacing somewhere below. Restless energy and barely contained panic making the bond between them pulse erratically.They knew she was awake.Al
"Like what?""Lilith's blood," Elena said. "Collected before she dies. It has to be fresh, no more than a day old when the ritual begins. You'll also need something that belonged to her. Something she valued. A piece of her essence bound to a physical object."Victoria thought about the necklace Elena had given Nicholas. The crystal that had kept Lilith alive for three days."The necklace," Victoria said. "Would that work?""Possibly," Elena said. "If there's enough of her magical signature still embedded in it. But you'll need more than that. You'll need Components from all three Alphas as well""Why?""Because the soul bond is what's holding Lilith between life and death," Elena explained. "To resurrect her properly, you need to strengthen those bonds. Make them physical as well as magical. The Alphas' components will serve as anchor points, ways for her soul to find its way back to her body."Victoria was taking mental notes, cataloging everything Elena was telling her."What else?
Victoria and Elena walked back toward the estate in silence.The morning sun was warm on Victoria's face but she felt cold all the way through to her bones.One Alpha would have to be sacrificed.That was the price of resurrection. That was what it would take to bring Lilith back if the transformation failed.And Victoria would have to be the one to make it happen.They reached the edge of the tree line and Victoria stopped walking."Wait," she said.Elena turned to look at her.Victoria took a breath. "You said I need death magic. That I need to make deals with entities in the Underworld. But I don't..." She stopped. "I don't know how to do that. I've never attempted anything like this before."Elena's expression was grave. "That's because what I'm describing is forbidden magic. The kind of thing most witches spend their entire lives avoiding. The kind of thing that gets you exiled from covens and marked as dark.""I don't care about being marked dark," Victoria said. "I care about h
Seven days.Victoria absorbed this. "And you can perform the resurrection? You have that kind of power?""I can provide the life magic needed to restart her body," Elena said. "But resurrection requires more than just life magic. It requires death magic to pull the soul back from wherever it's gone. And Victoria...." She paused. "I don't have death magic. I can give life but I can't reverse divine death. For that, you would need to find someone who does."Victoria felt her blood run cold. "Where do I find death magic?""The Underworld," Elena said. "Make deals with entities that exist in the spaces between life and death. Demons. Death gods. Ancient spirits. They have the power you would need. Victoria thought about Lilith lying in that bed. Thought about watching her die. Thought about having seven days to save her or lose her forever."I would pay anything," Victoria said."Would you?" Elena challenged. "Even if it meant corrupting your magic? Even if it meant becoming something da
Victoria POVVictoria had not slept.She sat in the chair beside Lilith's bed watching her niece sleep and felt the weight of the impossible choice pressing down on her chest until she could barely breathe.Dawn light was beginning to filter through the window, pale and grey and doing nothing to warm the cold dread that had settled into Victoria's bones.Lilith looked peaceful.Her breathing was steady. Her color had improved from the deathly pale she had been when Elena first stabilized her. The convulsions had stopped. The bleeding had ceased.She looked like she might actually survive this.But Victoria knew better.In two days, Lilith would attempt Elena's transformation ritual. She would try to pull the curse inward and make the death magic her own. And either it would work,,,Or Lilith would die.Victoria pressed her hands to her face and tried to breathe through the panic.She had spent fifteen years preparing to save Lilith. Fifteen years researching and planning and gathering
Elena stood and moved to Lilith's bedside. She placed her hand over Lilith's heart...gentle, not invasive....and closed her eyes."The curse is here," Elena said. "Coiled around your heart. Feeding on your magic. Growing stronger every day. Right now it's trying to kill you. But what if instead of fighting it, you claimed it? Pulled it into your core and made it part of your power instead of something foreign eating you alive?"She opened her eyes and looked at Lilith directly."You would become something that's never existed before," Elena said. "A witch who can wield death magic and life magic simultaneously. Someone who can manipulate bonds and curses with equal skill. A bridge between the living and the dead.""That's impossible," Victoria said. "No one can wield opposing magics. They cancel each other out or drive the caster insane.""No one with a normal magical signature can wield opposing magics," Elena corrected. "But Lilith doesn't have a normal signature. She has three soul
POV : LILITHThe darkness was different here.Not the cold, suffocating black of the dungeon. Not the crushing nothingness of unconsciousness. This darkness was soft. Warm. It smelled like the inside of her childhood home....woodsmoke and dried lavender and something else she had no name for, somet
I barely had time to catch my breath before Sebastian was pulling me up again, his large hands gripping my waist with bruising force."Not done with you yet," he rumbled, positioning me on my hands and knees on the center of the massive bed. "Need to feel that tight pussy again."My arms were shaki
Lilith's POVShe couldn't sleep.This was becoming a pattern.Not the bad kind of sleeplessness....not the three-am-staring-at-bills kind she'd lived with for years in the apartment. This was different. Restless. Her body too warm underneath the blankets, her mind turning over and over without lan
"Ours," Nicholas said. Simple. Final. "Not a transaction. Not a contract. Ours.""That's not an arrangement. That's a.....""We know what it is," Sebastian said. Something moved in his dark eyes. "We're not pretending otherwise."She looked at her hands. At the towel wrapped around her. At the room







