Chapter 12 Lady Morgana's Anger
MORGANA'S POV
The moment Sebastian and that human girl stepped onto the balcony, I felt it—the second blood seal activating beneath the stone.
Perfect.
I'd spent three weeks preparing this spell with Celeste. The foolish woman thought I was helping her kill her stepdaughter for revenge. She had no idea I'd designed the seal to destroy Sebastian too. Once they were both dead, the court would be mine.
Two hundred years I'd waited for him. Two hundred years of standing at his side, managing his court, performing the rituals he was too broken to care about. And he chose her? A worthless human who'd known him for barely two weeks?
I moved to the balcony's edge, keeping my face calm even as rage burned in my chest. Below, the human army filled the courtyard—thousands of them, screaming for Aria's freedom. Idiots. They had no idea their "rescue mission" was a trap.
"Aria Thornwell!" a man shouted from the army's front. I recognized him from Celeste's descriptions—Marcus, the former fiancé. Weak. Pathetic. "We've come to save you from these monsters!"
Beside me, Sebastian's hand tightened on Aria's. Through their bond—that disgusting Sanguine connection—I could feel their emotions bleeding together. Love. Hope. Trust.
It made me sick.
"They think I need saving," Aria murmured, staring at the army. Her voice shook. "They don't understand."
"Then make them understand," Sebastian said quietly. "Show them what you showed me."
I almost laughed. Did he really think a human girl could stop a war with words? The blood seal would activate the moment she tried to use her power. She'd die screaming, and Sebastian—bound to her through their bond—would follow. Clean. Simple. Final.
But then Aria stepped forward to the balcony's edge, and I felt something shift in the air.
Her healing gift flared to life—golden light rippling from her hands. But she wasn't attacking. Instead, she reached out through the bond she shared with Sebastian, then... pushed. Her power expanded like a wave, washing over the crowd below.
Impossible.
Sanguine healers could share emotions through bonds, yes. But never with this many people at once. Never with this much strength. The strain should have killed her instantly.
Yet there she stood, eyes glowing gold, sharing her life force with thousands. The army below gasped as they felt what she felt—her fear, her determination, her love for the vampire at her side.
And worse, they felt Sebastian too. His centuries of loneliness. His grief. His desperate hope that maybe, finally, he'd found something worth living for.
"Stop her!" I hissed at Elder Cain.
But the old fool was crying. Actually crying, tears running down his ancient face as he felt what the bond showed him—the truth about the Winter Feast, the curse, the lies we'd built our power on.
My blood seal pulsed, ready to strike. Just a few more seconds...
Then Aria's knees buckled.
Sebastian caught her instantly, terror flooding his face. "Aria!"
"I'm okay," she gasped, though blood trickled from her nose. "Just need... a moment..."
She wasn't okay. The power drain was killing her, just like I'd planned. But not from my spell—from her own gift. The foolish girl was burning herself out trying to save people who'd never appreciate it.
In the courtyard, the human army stood frozen, confusion replacing their anger. Some had dropped their weapons. Others were embracing the vampires who'd come out to guard the palace.
It was working. She was actually stopping the war.
Unacceptable.
I pulled a crystal from my robe—the activator for the blood seal. One word, and both Sebastian and Aria would die. The court would see it as a tragic accident, the price of forbidden bonds. No one would ever know I'd helped.
"Morgana, don't." Dante's voice came from behind me, sharp with warning. "This has gone far enough."
I spun to face him, keeping the crystal hidden in my palm. "You're really going to side with them? They've destroyed eight centuries of tradition for a human!"
"Maybe that tradition needed destroying," Dante said quietly. His eyes—so like his dead sister's—were filled with pain. "Maybe we've been monsters long enough."
Traitor. They were all traitors.
I turned back to the balcony, raising the crystal. One word. That's all it would take.
But Aria's eyes met mine, and I froze.
She knew. Somehow, impossibly, she knew about the seal.
"Lady Morgana," she said softly, her voice carrying despite her weakness. "I know you loved him. I know you waited for him. I'm sorry."
Sorry? She was sorry?
My hand shook with rage. "You know nothing about love! You're a child playing with forces you can't understand!"
"You're right," Aria agreed, and her honesty caught me off guard. "I don't understand how you could love someone for two hundred years. I've only known Sebastian for two weeks. But I do know that love isn't about owning someone. It's about wanting them to be happy, even if it's not with you."
"Happiness," I spat. "What would a human know about—"
Pain exploded through my chest.
I looked down in shock. A blade—Sebastian's blade—protruded from my heart. But Sebastian was still on the balcony, holding Aria.
Then who...?
"I'm sorry, Lady Morgana." Roslyn's voice whispered behind me. Sebastian's niece. The girl I'd dismissed as irrelevant. "But I couldn't let you kill my uncle. Not when he's finally found a reason to live."
The crystal slipped from my fingers, shattering on the stone. The blood seal's power scattered harmlessly into the air.
I fell to my knees, ancient magic failing as my life drained away. Through fading vision, I saw Celeste in the courtyard below, screaming with rage as her plan crumbled.
Then I saw Sebastian. He'd crossed the balcony and knelt beside me, his face filled with something I'd never seen directed at me before—pity.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
I wanted to spit at him, to curse him with my dying breath like that blood witch had cursed him centuries ago. But instead, I found myself telling the truth.
"Because you were all I had," I whispered. "For two hundred years, managing your court, performing your rituals... it gave me purpose. Without you, I'm nothing."
"You were never nothing," Sebastian said, and he actually sounded sad. "You were brilliant, powerful, respected. You just couldn't see it because you'd tied all your worth to someone else."
My vision darkened. "Will she make you happy?"
Sebastian glanced back at Aria, who was watching with tears streaming down her face. "She already has."
I closed my eyes. After 632 years, I was finally dying. And my last thought, surprisingly, wasn't hatred.
It was relief.
But as darkness took me, I heard something that made my blood freeze in my veins.
Celeste's voice, amplified by magic, shrieking across the courtyard: "If I can't have her dead, then I'll take everything else! The treaty is void! The barriers will collapse at midnight! Every monster in the shadow realms will pour into both our worlds!"
My eyes shot open, fighting death for one more moment. "No," I gasped. "Celeste, you fool—you don't understand what you're releasing—"
But it was too late. I felt it—the ancient wards that kept the shadow realms sealed beginning to crack. Celeste had found my backup plan, the spell I'd prepared in case the blood seal failed.
She'd activated the Void Gate.
And in three hours, when midnight struck, every nightmare that vampire and human alike had spent centuries hiding from would be free.
Sebastian's face went white as he felt it too. "What has she done?"
I tried to answer, tried to warn him about what was coming, but death finally claimed me.
My last sight was Sebastian and Aria running for the stairs, racing against a clock that would doom them all.
Three hours until midnight.
Three hours until the end of everything.