Chapter 108 The Fifth Sibling
KAEL
I hit the wall so hard my ribs cracked. Pain exploded through my chest. Through the void churning inside me.
Daemon hadn't even touched me. Just gestured. Just thought about throwing me and reality obeyed.
"Pathetic." He circled the vault like a predator. "You trapped my sister. You. A diluted Shadowborn who barely understands what he is. A half-trained time-walker playing with powers beyond her comprehension. And a three-thousand-year-old failure who couldn't even keep her own daughter alive."
Isolde attacked from behind. Silent. Precise. Blade aimed for his spine.
He caught it without looking. Snapped it with two fingers. Then grabbed her throat.
"I remember you. You helped cage Morvenna the first time. Helped your siblings betray their own mother." He lifted her off the ground. "Tell me, does guilt taste better after three millennia? Or does it just rot differently?"
"Let her go!" I forced myself up. Void energy crackling around my hands. "Your fight's with me. Leave her—"
Daemon laughed. Actually laughed. "My fight's with everyone who thought they could imprison the First Darkness like common criminals." He threw Isolde. She hit Morvenna's prison hard enough to crack her skull. Slumped. Unconscious. Maybe dead.
The prison flickered. Nyx's repairs held. Barely.
"Interesting. The child did better work than expected." Daemon moved to the crystal. Ran his fingers across it. "She transformed erasure into binding. Clever. Weak. But clever."
"Stay away from that." Nyx tried to stand. Couldn't. "I'll stop you. I'll—"
"You'll what? Fight me? You can barely stand." He knelt beside her. "But I feel your power. Recognize what you are. Time-walker born from impossible circumstances. Reality-breaker who doesn't realize her full potential."
He touched her forehead. She screamed.
I moved. Fast as I'd ever moved. Void exploding from me in waves. I hit him with everything. Centuries of contained darkness. Decades of suppressed rage. Every drop of power I'd been afraid to use.
It did nothing.
He stood there. Letting it wash over him. Bored.
"Done?" He asked. "Good. My turn."
Reality inverted. I was suddenly everywhere and nowhere. Existing in all moments simultaneously. Seeing every timeline. Every possibility. Every future where we lost. Every past where we never stood a chance.
Then I was back. On my knees. Vomiting blood.
"See what happens when you challenge someone who's mastered both time and void? Who spent three thousand years learning while you played king?" Daemon turned back to Morvenna's prison. "Now. Let's free my sister and get started on the fun part."
"Wait." A voice from the doorway. Female. Familiar. Wrong. "Before you do that, you should know something."
Sera stepped into the vault. Not as ghost. Not as consciousness. As body. As flesh. As alive.
Impossible. She was dead. Had been dead for six months. Existed only in the blood bond as fragmented consciousness.
"Mother?" Nyx's voice was small. Confused. "How are you, you're not—you can't be—"
"I'm not. Not really." Sera moved closer. Each step deliberate. Wrong. Like a puppet remembering how to walk. "I'm a projection. A construct. Built from time magic and blood magic and desperation. I have maybe five minutes before I collapse. So let's make them count."
She looked at Daemon. Smiled. "Hello, brother. Long time."
Brother?
"Sera?" My voice cracked. "What are you—"
"I wasn't entirely honest about my past. About my family. About what I am." She kept moving toward Daemon. "My mother wasn't just vampire nobility. She was First Darkness. Morvenna's youngest daughter. Which makes me—"
"Shadowborn royalty. True bloodline. Not diluted. Not weakened." Daemon's eyes narrowed. "I thought you died. Thought my niece perished in that execution."
"I did die. Just not that death. Not then." Sera's form flickered. Unstable. "I've been dead six months. Existing as echo in a blood bond. But echoes can be shaped. Can be given temporary form. Can be used for one last play."
"Mother, what are you doing?" Nyx tried to crawl toward her. "You can't fight him. You're barely real. You're—"
"Buying time. Literally." Sera's smile was sad. "Daemon. You want Morvenna free. Want your sister back. I understand that. I'd do anything for my daughter too. But freeing her won't fix what's broken. Won't heal what hurts."
"Don't presume to know what I want, niece." His voice was cold.
"I know because I've seen it. Through time. Through connection." She gestured to Nyx. "She showed me futures. Showed me what happens when Morvenna gets free. Showed me that you don't actually want her ruling again. Don't want the old world restored. You just want your sister to acknowledge you. To see you. To value you."
Silence fell. Heavy. Dangerous.
"You know nothing." But his voice wavered. Just slightly.
"I know you were the youngest. The fifth. The one they forgot about when they divided the kingdom. The one Morvenna loved least because you reminded her of weakness. Of vulnerability. Of the human she used to be before she became First Darkness." Sera moved closer. "I know because my mother told me. Before they executed her. She said her brother my uncle, was the kindest of them all. The one who tried to stop the betrayal. Who argued for mercy. Who got exiled for his compassion."
"Mercy got me nothing. Compassion made me weak. Love left me alone for three thousand years while my siblings ruled and fell and forgot I existed." Daemon's power flared. Time bent. "So yes, I want Morvenna free. Want her to see what I became without her. Want her to regret choosing power over family."
"Then you're making her mistake. Choosing isolation over connection. Choosing strength over love." Sera's form was fading. Time running out. "Don't be what she was. Be what you could have been. Be the uncle my daughter deserves instead of the monster my grandmother created."
"Your daughter tried to erase my fragments from existence. Tried to destroy pieces of Morvenna's consciousness I'd been protecting. Hiding. Keeping safe until I could reunite them with her." His eyes went black. "Why should I show her mercy when she showed me none?"
"Because she's learning. She's choosing differently. She's becoming what we should have been." Sera looked at me. At Nyx. At the family she'd died for. "Give her that chance. Give all of us that chance. Don't repeat the cycle. Don't become the villain because you were hurt by one."
Daemon was silent. Calculating. Deciding.
"Five minutes is up." He said quietly. "Your projection ends in three... two... one..."
Sera's form collapsed. Dissolved. Gone.
The bond went dormant again. Leaving just silence. Just loss. Just the memory of her standing there fighting for us one more time.
"That was brave. Foolish. But brave." Daemon looked at Nyx. "Your mother loved you enough to manifest from death itself. To burn her last energy pleading for mercy." He tilted his head. "I wonder. Do you deserve that love? Have you earned it?"
"No." Nyx's voice was broken. "I haven't. I've made mistakes. Hurt people. Become what she wouldn't want. But I'm trying to be better. Trying to choose connection over power. Trying to—"
"Enough." He raised his hand. "I've decided. I won't free Morvenna. Won't destroy you. Won't end this kingdom today."
Relief flooded through me. "Thank you. Thank—"
"But." His smile was terrible. "I'm not leaving either. I'm staying. Watching. Waiting to see if you actually change or if you just make pretty speeches. Waiting to see if your daughter becomes what Sera hoped or what I expect."
"What do you expect?" Nyx asked.
"Another First Darkness. Another tyrant. Another monster who thinks power equals protection." He moved to the door. Paused. "Prove me wrong. Show me Sera's faith wasn't misplaced. Show me the Shadowborn bloodline can be something other than tragedy."
He vanished. Simply gone. Leaving us in ruins. In silence. In the aftermath of a battle we'd barely survived.
"Did that actually happen?" Nyx's voice was small. "Did Mother really—"
"She manifested. Used her last energy to save us. To reach someone even I couldn't reach." I crawled to Isolde. Checked her pulse. Still alive. Barely. "She's always saving us. Even dead. Even gone. She's still the strongest of us all."
"We have a problem." Cassian unfroze. He'd been trapped in stopped time the entire fight. "That being Daemon he's staying? Watching? What does that mean?"
"It means we have a judge. An observer. Someone deciding if we deserve to exist." I helped Isolde up. "And if we fail. If Nyx becomes what he expects. If we can't prove we're different from the First Darkness..."
"He'll free Morvenna himself. He'll let her destroy everything because we proved him right." Nyx finished. "No pressure."
"No pressure." I agreed. "Just everything riding on us not failing. Not falling. Not becoming monsters."
"I'm already partway there." Her voice cracked. "What if I can't come back? What if the power's already changed me too much?"
"Then we help you. We pull you back. We refuse to let you fall." I pulled her into a hug. "That's what family does. That's what Mother died teaching us. That's what we do."
Through the bond, I felt Sera's presence. Dormant. Spent. But proud.
She'd bought us time. Bought us a chance. Bought us hope.
Now we just had to not waste it. Something that whispered in the void's voice and promised power I should never have.
And it was only just beginning to wake up.