Chapter 37 The Alliance
ARIA'S POV
The portal exploded outward, sending Elena and me crashing into the wall.
"What was that?" Elena gasped, scrambling to her feet.
Before I could answer, the healing house doors burst open. A girl who looked about sixteen strode in like she owned the place—dark hair, ice-blue eyes that reminded me painfully of Sebastian, and a grin that spelled trouble.
"Well, well," she said, looking between me and the still-shimmering portal. "Morgana's getting bold, isn't she? Threatening messages through illegal dimensional magic. Someone's desperate."
"Who are you?" I demanded, stepping protectively in front of Elena.
The girl's grin widened. "I'm Roslyn Thorne. Sebastian's niece."
My heart stopped. "That's impossible. Sebastian's entire family died eight hundred years ago."
"Not all of us." Roslyn walked past me like we were old friends, examining the fading portal with interest. "My father was Sebastian's oldest brother. When the coup happened, my mother was pregnant with me. She hid, gave birth in secret, and spent decades keeping me safe. I've been watching the vampire court ever since, waiting for the right moment to reveal myself."
She turned to face me, and her expression was suddenly serious. "I think my uncle breaking an eight-hundred-year tradition for a human girl is that moment. Don't you?"
Elena made a strangled sound. "This is insane. First dimensional threats, now secret relatives?"
"It gets better," Roslyn said cheerfully. "Want to know what Morgana's really planning? Because I've been spying on her for months."
Before I could respond, Sebastian materialized in the doorway, Kieran right behind him. His eyes locked on Roslyn, and the shock on his face would have been funny if the situation weren't so terrifying.
"Celeste?" he whispered, his voice broken.
"No, Uncle Sebastian." Roslyn's voice gentled. "I'm Roslyn. Your brother Marcus's daughter. But I have his eyes, don't I? And Aunt Celeste's smile?"
Sebastian staggered. I rushed to his side, and he gripped my hand so tightly it hurt. Through our bond, I felt waves of grief, hope, and fear crashing together.
"How?" he managed.
"My mother kept journals," Roslyn said softly. "She wanted me to know my family. To know you weren't the monster the court claimed. When I heard you'd broken the Winter Feast for Aria, I knew—you were finally ready to fight back."
Kieran stepped forward, his ancient eyes studying Roslyn carefully. "You have Marcus's bearing. His gift too?"
"Shadow walking," Roslyn confirmed. "That's how I've been watching Morgana without being caught." Her face darkened. "And what I've learned is worse than you think."
"Morgana said the dimensional merge would happen again," I said quickly. "That breaking our bond only delayed it."
"She's telling the truth." Roslyn pulled out a small crystal that glowed with dark energy. "This is a fragment of the original curse that bound Sebastian. Morgana's been studying it for decades. She discovered something the blood witch who cast it never told anyone—the curse wasn't just about the Winter Feast ritual. It was anchoring something much bigger."
Sebastian's hand tightened on mine. "What do you mean?"
"The dimensions didn't start merging by accident," Roslyn explained. "The blood witch knew Sebastian would kill everyone who murdered his family. So she created a fail-safe. If Sebastian ever broke free from the curse—if he ever stopped performing the ritual—reality itself would begin to collapse. The dimensional merge was the curse's final revenge."
The room went silent.
"You're saying I caused this?" Sebastian's voice was hollow. "By saving Aria, I doomed everyone?"
"No!" I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me. "Don't you dare. This isn't your fault."
"Aria's right," Roslyn said firmly. "The curse was the problem, not you breaking it. And there's a way to fix this permanently—but it requires something dangerous."
"What?" Elena asked.
Roslyn's expression turned grim. "We need to find the blood witch's original spell source. The place where she cast the curse. If we can destroy it at its root, we can stop the dimensional collapse completely."
"And where is this place?" Kieran demanded.
"The Frozen Catacombs," Roslyn said. "Deep below the vampire realm, where the oldest laws are carved. It's been sealed for eight hundred years because it's too dangerous—the magic there is unstable, ancient, and deadly."
Sebastian shook his head. "Even if we could get in, which we can't, the catacombs are a maze. People who enter don't come out."
"I can guide us," Roslyn said quietly. "My father's journals included maps. He explored the catacombs as a young vampire. But there's a problem—Morgana knows about this too. She's already planning her own expedition."
"Why would she want to destroy the curse?" I asked. "She's the one who's been using it to control Sebastian."
Roslyn's smile was sharp and cold. "Because she doesn't want to destroy it. She wants to claim it for herself. If she reaches the spell source first, she can rewrite the curse entirely. Make herself the anchor instead of Sebastian. She'd have the power to control the dimensional merge—to decide which realities survive and which ones die."
Horror washed over me. "She'd have power over everything."
"Exactly." Roslyn looked at each of us in turn. "So we have a choice. We can hide here and hope the dimensions don't tear themselves apart in the next five years. Or we can go into the most dangerous place in the vampire realm, race Morgana to the spell source, and pray we survive long enough to destroy it."
"Some choice," Elena muttered.
Sebastian was quiet for a long moment. Then he straightened, and I saw the ancient vampire lord emerge—cold, calculating, and absolutely deadly.
"We go," he said. "We end this curse once and for all."
Roslyn nodded. "Good. Because I already told Dante we're going. He wants to help."
"What?" Sebastian's eyes flashed dangerously. "The vampire who tried to overthrow me?"
"The vampire whose sister died because of these same ancient laws," Roslyn corrected. "He has as much reason to want this curse gone as you do. And we're going to need all the help we can get."
She pulled out a larger map, spreading it across the table. The Frozen Catacombs looked like a nightmare of twisting passages and cryptic symbols.
"We leave tomorrow at midnight," Roslyn said. "Any later and Morgana will beat us there."
As we began planning, my phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number.
Found something about your mother's bloodline. Meet me at the old church. Come alone. -M
My blood ran cold. M could only be Marcus—my pathetic ex-fiancé who'd betrayed me.
But why would he have information about my mother?
I looked up to find Roslyn watching me with those unsettling Thorne eyes.
"Something wrong?" she asked sweetly.
And I realized with growing dread that I didn't know if I could trust Sebastian's long-lost niece.
Or what secrets about my own bloodline were still waiting to destroy us.