Chapter 46 The Void Awakens
SEBASTIAN'S POV
The darkness pouring from Aria's body wasn't natural. I'd seen death magic before—this was something older, something that made my ancient blood scream in warning.
"Let her go!" Celeste's power slammed into me like a physical wall, breaking the curse's hold.
I tore myself away from Aria's throat, staggering backward. Her blood was on my lips, glowing faintly gold. Wrong. This was all wrong. The ritual should have created a bond, should have transformed her.
Instead, she collapsed to the stone floor, her skin turning ashen.
"Aria!" I dropped beside her, my hands shaking as I tried to find a pulse. There—faint, but there.
For the first time in centuries, I felt warmth flooding through my veins. Color touched my pale cheeks. Her blood was changing me, making me more human with every second.
But she was dying to give me that gift.
"What have you done?" Morgana shrieked, rushing forward. The other vampires were breaking free from Celeste's spell, chaos erupting around us.
But I couldn't focus on them. Only on Aria. On the girl who'd somehow made my dead heart beat again.
"Your blood," I whispered in wonder, even as terror gripped me. "It's warm."
"Of course it is, you fool!" Celeste grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at her. "She's human! Alive! And she's dying because someone corrupted the ritual!"
The rift behind us pulsed, growing wider. Through it, I could see swirling darkness and hear whispers in languages I didn't recognize.
"Close it!" Kieran shouted, rallying the guards. "Don't let anything through!"
But it was too late.
A hand—pale, clawed, impossibly long—reached through the rift. Then another. Something was pulling itself into our world.
"The Void Realm," Celeste breathed in horror. "Someone opened a gateway to the Void Realm."
The creature that emerged made every vampire in the room freeze in primal terror. It was humanoid but wrong in every way—too tall, too thin, with eyes that were nothing but empty black holes. When it opened its mouth, the scream that came out shattered windows and sent weaker vampires to their knees.
"What is that?" Elena screamed from where the guards still held her and my other sisters.
"A Void Walker," Celeste said, her voice shaking. "Ancient demons that feed on life force. They were sealed away millennia ago. If one is loose—"
The creature's head swiveled toward Aria. Toward the golden light still faintly pulsing from her body.
And it smiled.
"No!" I threw myself over Aria as the Void Walker lunged. Its claws raked across my back, and the pain was unlike anything I'd felt in centuries. It wasn't just physical—it was eating my soul.
Celeste unleashed a blast of blood magic that sent the creature staggering. "Sebastian, you have to complete the bond! It's the only way to close the rift!"
"She'll die!" I shouted back.
"She'll die anyway if that thing drains her!" Celeste's eyes were desperate. "Trust me! The bond will save her!"
But how could I trust anything anymore? My sister had been alive for eight hundred years, lying to me. Morgana had somehow corrupted the ritual. And now a demon from the Void Realm was trying to eat the only person I'd loved in centuries.
The Void Walker recovered, moving faster than should be possible. It grabbed one of the guards and drained him in seconds—the vampire aged centuries in heartbeats, turning to dust.
"It's feeding!" Kieran yelled, his sword doing nothing against the creature's shadowy form. "Every death makes it stronger!"
More hands were reaching through the rift now. More Void Walkers trying to enter our realm.
Morgana stood frozen, her face a mask of shock and horror. "This wasn't supposed to happen," she whispered. "It was just supposed to interrupt the bond, to prove Sebastian was dangerous—"
"You did this?" Fury unlike anything I'd ever felt flooded through me. "You corrupted the ritual knowing it could kill Aria?"
"I didn't know about the Void Realm!" Morgana backed away, fear finally breaking through her composure. "The blood witch I hired said it would just fail, that you'd drain her completely and the court would turn against you!"
Another blood witch. Of course. Morgana had found someone to counter Celeste's magic.
The first Void Walker lunged for my sisters. Elena screamed, throwing herself in front of Sarah protectively.
I made my choice.
Gathering Aria's limp body in my arms, I bit my own wrist until blood flowed. "Drink," I commanded, pressing it to her lips. "Please, Aria. Drink and live."
Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused and dying. Through our broken bond, I felt her confusion, her fear, her fading warmth.
"Trust me," I whispered, echoing her words from what felt like a lifetime ago. "One more time. Trust me."
Aria's lips parted. She drank.
The effect was instantaneous. Golden light exploded from both of us, brighter than before. The bond snapped into place properly this time—not draining, but sharing. My immortality flowing into her. Her humanity flowing into me. Two lives becoming one.
The Void Walker shrieked as the light hit it, its shadowy form burning away. The other creatures trying to emerge through the rift screamed and retreated.
But the rift wasn't closing. If anything, it was growing larger.
Celeste rushed to us, her hands glowing with power. "The bond is formed, but it's not enough! The rift needs to be sealed from both sides!"
"What does that mean?" I demanded, holding Aria as her body convulsed with the transformation.
Celeste's expression broke my heart before she even spoke. "It means someone has to go through. Someone has to close it from inside the Void Realm."
"No," I said immediately. "There has to be another way."
"There isn't." Celeste looked at the rift, at the darkness still pouring through. "I created this curse. I spent eight hundred years watching you suffer because of my choices. This is my chance to finally make it right."
"Sister, don't—"
She kissed my forehead like she used to when we were children. "Protect her, Sebastian. Protect all of them. Be the king I always knew you could be."
Then Celeste turned and ran straight for the rift.
"NO!" My scream echoed through the throne room.
But she was already through, her power blazing as she fought the Void Walkers on the other side. I saw her raise her hands, saw blood magic unlike anything I'd witnessed pour from her.
The rift began to shrink.
"I love you, little brother," Celeste's voice echoed as if from a great distance. "I always have."
The rift closed with a sound like reality tearing.
And my sister was gone. Again. For real this time.
I knelt there, holding Aria's transforming body, and felt something I hadn't allowed myself in eight hundred years.
I wept.
Around us, the throne room slowly fell silent. The Void Walkers were gone. The rift was sealed. But the cost—
"Sebastian." Aria's voice was weak but alive. Her eyes opened fully, and I saw they'd changed—still brown, but with flecks of gold now. The Sanguine bond making her something new.
"I'm here," I said, helping her sit up. "You're safe."
"Your sister—"
"Is a hero." I couldn't look at where the rift had been. Couldn't accept that I'd lost Celeste twice.
Morgana dropped to her knees, her face ashen. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't know the blood witch would open the Void Realm. I just wanted to stop the bond, to prove you were making a mistake—"
"Guards," Kieran said coldly. "Take Lady Morgana to the dungeons. She'll stand trial for treason."
As they dragged Morgana away, still protesting, I heard footsteps approaching.
My stepmother Celeste—the human one—emerged from the crowd with a smile that made my blood freeze.
"How touching," she said. "The vampire lord weeping over his lost sister. But I'm afraid we have a more immediate problem."
She gestured, and more guards appeared. Not Sebastian's loyal warriors, but vampires I didn't recognize.
"You see," Celeste continued, her smile widening, "while you were all distracted by the Void Walkers, my associates were busy. Prince Dante sends his regards."
The guards surrounded us, weapons drawn.
We'd stopped the Void Realm invasion.
But Dante's coup had just begun.