Chapter 26 Seven Days to Save Her

Chapter 26 Seven Days to Save Her
Dante's POV

We had seven days to save Lily, and I had no idea where to start.

"Victoria," Maya said, pacing my living room at dawn. "We need to find her. She knows about the contract. She must know how to break it."

"The Keeper of Lost Wishes doesn't just tell people where she lives," I said, scrolling through every supernatural contact Elena had left behind. "She finds you when she wants to be found."

"Then we make her want to find us." Maya stopped pacing, determination blazing in her eyes. "We make noise. Big, magical noise that she can't ignore."

"Like what?"

"Like me painting something so powerful it shakes the entire supernatural world." She grabbed her phone. "I need supplies. Canvas, paint, everything. If Lily's wish magic is valuable enough for collectors to hunt, then my painting gift must be too. Let's remind everyone why."

I loved her fire. Loved her refusal to give up. But I also felt her fear through our bond—the terror of losing Lily, the guilt over a contract she didn't make, the desperate hope that we could fix this.

"Maya." I caught her hands. "We will save her. I promise you that."

"You can't promise that."

"Yes, I can. Because I'm magically bound to protect this family now. If collectors come for Lily, they go through me first." I pulled her close. "And I'm a lot harder to kill than I look."

She pressed her face against my chest. "I'm scared, Dante. What if we fail? What if—"

"We won't fail. We can't. Lily needs us." I tilted her face up. "Together, remember? We do this together."

"Together," she whispered.

My phone rang. The Council leader.

"Dante, we have a problem. Victoria sent us a message. She's accelerating the collection timeline."

My blood ran cold. "What?"

"Instead of seven days, you have seventy-two hours. She claims Maya's painting gift is destabilizing reality—every time Maya creates something with emotion magic, it ripples through other dimensions. Victoria wants to contain the gift before it causes permanent damage."

"She wants to steal Lily's wish magic before Maya can stop her," I said flatly.

"Exactly. And there's more. Victoria isn't working alone. She has three collectors with her—the ones you fought on the bridge. They're trained specifically to extract magical gifts from children."

Maya grabbed the phone from me. "Then we stop them. How?"

"You can't. Not directly. Victoria exists outside normal space and time. She's untouchable unless she chooses to manifest physically." The Council leader paused. "But there is one place she has to appear. One moment when she's vulnerable."

"Where?" I demanded.

"The original wish location. Wherever Maya's mother made the wish fifteen years ago, Victoria has to return there to collect. It's part of the contract—wishes can only be fulfilled where they were made."

Maya's face went pale. "The hospital. My mother made the wish at the hospital where I was born, right after she had me. I found her journal years ago. She wrote about making a desperate wish to keep me safe."

"Then that's where Victoria will come," the Council leader said. "Rosewood Falls Hospital, seventy-two hours from now, at the exact time of Maya's birth. That's your window."

She hung up.

Maya looked at me with terrified eyes. "Seventy-two hours. Three days. That's all we have."

"Then we use every second." I grabbed my jacket. "We need help. Allies. Every supernatural being who owes me a favor from three thousand years of creating love matches."

"You said your memories were gone."

"Most of them. But the bonds I created? Those are permanent. Written into the universe itself." I pulled up my contact list—names I didn't fully remember but knew instinctively mattered. "I'm calling in every debt, every favor, every friendship I ever made. If Victoria wants Lily, she'll have to fight an army."

We spent the next twelve hours gathering allies.

A witch I'd matched with her soulmate in 1847. A werewolf whose parents I'd brought together during World War II. A vampire who owed me for reuniting him with his lost love after a century apart.

One by one, they agreed to help. Some because they owed me. Some because they had children too and understood. Some just because the idea of Victoria stealing a six-year-old's magic made them furious.

By midnight, we had forty-three supernatural beings ready to fight.

"This might actually work," Maya breathed, looking at our assembled army in the town square.

"It has to work." I kissed her forehead. "Go home. Get some sleep. Tomorrow, we prepare."

But as Maya left, my phone buzzed. Unknown number.

I answered. "Hello?"

"Hello, Dante." Victoria's voice was cold, ancient, powerful. "Impressive gathering. Forty-three allies, each one bound by love magic you created. Very touching."

"If you're calling to gloat—"

"I'm calling to negotiate. You want to save Lily? Fine. I'll make you a deal."

I went very still. "What deal?"

"Come to the hospital now. Alone. Let me test you. If you can withstand what I show you—if you can face the truth about Maya's mother's wish without breaking—I'll give you a way to save Lily." She paused. "But if you fail, if you break under what I reveal, then I collect Lily immediately. No waiting. No second chances."

"Why would I agree to that?"

"Because without my help, you lose in seventy-two hours anyway. This way, you at least have a chance." Her voice softened slightly. "I'm not a monster, Dante. I'm a Keeper. I maintain balance. And right now, the balance is very wrong. Maya's painting gift is tearing holes between dimensions. If I don't contain Lily's wish magic before it combines with Maya's art magic, the damage will be catastrophic."

"You're lying."

"Am I? Ask yourself—why did the collectors come the same day you were bound to this family? Why did the Valentine magic activate permanently right after Lily made her second wish? The magic is spiraling out of control, and Maya is the epicenter."

I looked toward Maya's house, seeing lights on in her studio. She was painting, probably preparing for the fight.

"One hour," Victoria said. "Come alone to the hospital. Or in seventy-two hours, I take Lily and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

She hung up.

I stood in the empty square, torn between two impossible choices.

Go to Victoria and risk everything on a test I didn't understand.

Or wait and face her with our army, knowing we might still lose.

Through the bond, I felt Maya's determination as she painted. Her love for Lily burning bright and fierce.

I made my decision.

I texted Maya: Going out for supplies. Be back soon. I love you.

Then I walked to the hospital, alone, to face whatever truth Victoria wanted to show me.

The hospital was dark, abandoned years ago after a new facility was built across town. I pushed through the rusted doors into the lobby.

Victoria waited by the old reception desk, looking exactly like she had in the video—timeless, powerful, holding a glowing book.

"You came." She sounded pleased.

"I came. Now tell me—what's the test?"

She opened the book. "I'm going to show you the full truth about Maya's mother's wish. Every detail. Every consequence. Every price that was paid and will be paid." She looked at me with ancient eyes. "Most people break when they see it. The weight of what love costs, what desperation demands, what mothers sacrifice. Can you handle that truth and still want to save Lily?"

"Yes."

"We'll see."

She touched the book.

Reality shattered.

I saw everything.

Maya's mother, dying in a hospital bed from complications of childbirth. The doctors saying Maya might not survive. The mother's desperate wish: Let my daughter live. Let her grow up safe and loved. I'll pay any price.

Victoria appearing, young and beautiful then, offering a contract. Your daughter's life and protection, guaranteed. In exchange, when your granddaughter is born, I take her magical gift.

The mother agreeing without hesitation. Signing in blood.

Maya surviving. Growing up. Every close call, every dangerous moment—Victoria's magic subtly guiding her to safety. Marcus's worst abuse stopping just short of physical harm because the contract demanded Maya's protection. The magic working exactly as promised.

But then I saw the price.

Every time Victoria's magic saved Maya, it drained life from someone else. A stranger in another town dying suddenly. A child getting sick. An old man's heart stopping. Hundreds of small deaths over fifteen years, all to keep Maya alive.

The weight of it crushed me. All those people dead so Maya could live. So she could have Lily. So I could fall in love with her.

"Do you see?" Victoria asked softly. "Every wish has a cost. Maya's mother paid in future magic. But the universe demanded more. It always does."

I stared at her, horror and understanding warring in my chest.

"If you save Lily by breaking this contract," Victoria continued, "all those deaths were for nothing. The cosmic balance will demand repayment. And the price will be Maya's life. She'll die within a year, painfully, paying back every life her survival cost."

My world stopped.

"So choose, Dante." Victoria held out the glowing contract. "Save Lily and lose Maya. Or let me take Lily's gift, honor the contract, and keep Maya alive. You can't have both."

I looked at the contract, at Victoria, at the impossible choice she was forcing me to make.

And I realized with terrible clarity: there was no right answer.

Whatever I chose, I lost someone I loved.