Chapter 25 The Theft of Forever
ARIA'S POV
The crystal pulled harder, and I screamed. It felt like my soul was being ripped out through my skin.
"Stop!" Elena lunged at Celeste, but Dante caught her easily, holding her back.
"Fascinating," Celeste said, watching the golden light stream from us into her crystal. "A completed Sanguine bond contains the essence of both vampire and human nature. Whoever possesses it gains the best of both—immortality, strength, healing, and the ability to walk in sunlight. Everything."
"You're my stepmother," I gasped. "How can you do this?"
"Stepmother?" She laughed coldly. "Oh, Aria. I was never your stepmother. That was just a role I played."
Her face began to shift, changing like the Beast had. But instead of becoming monstrous, she became beautiful—inhumanly beautiful. Ancient and perfect.
"My real name is Lilith," she said. "I'm the original vampire. The mother of all bloodsuckers. And I've been searching for a completed Sanguine bond for three thousand years."
The First Curse gasped. "That's impossible. You died. We all saw you die!"
"You saw what I wanted you to see," Lilith corrected. "I faked my death and went into hiding, waiting for the right moment. Waiting for two idiots to actually complete the bond so I could steal it."
"The Winter Feast," Sebastian choked out. "You created it. You cursed me."
"Not directly," Lilith admitted. "But I did manipulate the blood witch who cursed you. Made sure she worded it perfectly so you'd be forced to kill brides for centuries. All that death, all that fear—it was preparing the bloodlines. Strengthening the Sanguine gift in humans. Making sure that when the right healer finally appeared, she'd be powerful enough to complete the bond."
She smiled at me. "And then I married your father, became your stepmother, and made sure you'd be chosen for the Winter Feast. I've been planning this for twenty-five years, Aria. Since the day you were born and I sensed your gift."
I wanted to throw up. Everything—my father's death, Marcus's betrayal, my selection as a bride—all of it planned. All of it a trap.
"Why go through all this?" Kieran demanded. "If you're so powerful, why not just take what you want?"
"Because Sanguine bonds can't be forced or stolen—normally," Lilith explained. "They have to be given freely, created through genuine love and sacrifice. That's what makes them so powerful. But there's a loophole." She held up the crystal, now glowing brilliantly. "If you let the bond complete naturally and then steal it immediately after, before the couple's soul-merge finishes, you can claim all that power for yourself."
The crystal pulsed, and I felt our bond tearing. Sebastian reached for me, but the distance between us felt like miles.
"No," I whispered. "Please, no."
"Don't beg," Lilith said. "It's unbecoming. Besides, you should feel honored. Your bond will make me a goddess. I'll be able to reshape both worlds however I want. No more hiding. No more pretending to be weak. I'll rule everything."
"And doom everyone in the process," Celeste—the real Celeste—said, struggling against whatever power held her. "A stolen Sanguine bond is unstable. It'll explode within a year, taking half the planet with it!"
"Then I'll have a year of absolute power," Lilith said cheerfully. "Worth it."
The crystal cracked, unable to contain all the power it was absorbing. Lilith cursed and grabbed it with both hands, trying to hold it together.
That's when I saw our chance.
Through our breaking bond, I felt Sebastian's thought: Now. While she's distracted. Everything we have left.
We locked eyes. One last moment of understanding. One last choice.
Together, we didn't try to fight the pull of the crystal. We surrendered to it—but we also grabbed it. Flooded it with all our remaining power at once.
The crystal exploded.
Lilith screamed as the backlash threw her across the room. The stolen power scattered, and I felt our bond snap back into place—stronger, fiercer, impossibly bright.
"Impossible!" Lilith shrieked, her perfect face twisted with rage. "You should be empty! You should be dead!"
"We are bonded," Sebastian said, pulling me to my feet. "Truly bonded. You can steal our power, but you can't break what we are to each other. We'll always find our way back."
Lilith's eyes blazed. "Then I'll just kill you both and start over. Find a new pair. I have eternity."
She raised her hands, and the temperature dropped fifty degrees. Ice formed on the walls. The ground cracked.
"No, you don't," the First Curse said. She was glowing with her own ancient power now, and she looked furious. "You imprisoned me, Lilith. Three thousand years ago, you framed me for your crimes and sealed me behind that gate. And I've been waiting all this time for revenge."
"You can't touch me," Lilith snarled. "I'm the original. The first. The strongest."
"Were the strongest," the First Curse corrected. "But you've been hiding for millennia, letting your power stagnate. While I've been imprisoned, growing stronger every year, feeding on the pain of all those Winter Feast deaths you orchestrated."
The two ancient beings faced each other, power crackling.
"Everyone run," Kieran said urgently. "When they clash, this palace is going to—"
The explosion cut him off.
Reality itself seemed to tear as the First Curse and Lilith collided. The palace shook. Walls crumbled.
Sebastian grabbed me and Elena, and we ran. Behind us, the study collapsed into rubble.
We made it to the courtyard just as the entire west wing exploded in a pillar of golden and black light.
"Is everyone okay?" I gasped.
"Define okay," Elena muttered, helping Dante—the real one—stand up. "We just found out the evil mastermind has an evil mastermind."
"Where's Celeste?" Sebastian asked urgently. "My sister—"
"I'm here," she called, stumbling out of the wreckage. "But we have a bigger problem."
She pointed at the sky.
The explosion had torn a massive hole in reality—a swirling vortex of darkness and stars. And through it, things were coming. Dozens of them. Hundreds.
Shadow creatures like the Beast, but smaller. Hungrier. And they were pouring into our world like locusts.
"What are those?" I breathed.
"The things from beyond," the First Curse's voice echoed, though I couldn't see her. She and Lilith were still fighting somewhere in the collapsing palace. "The creatures that existed before creation. When you opened the gate, when the Beast emerged, you weakened the barrier. And now, thanks to Lilith's stolen power exploding, you've torn it completely."
A shadow creature swooped down, and Kieran barely got his sword up in time. It dissolved when he struck it, but two more took its place.
"How do we close the vortex?" Sebastian shouted.
"You can't!" Lilith's voice screamed from the rubble. "Not without a completed Sanguine bond channeling massive amounts of power! And there's only one of those left!"
She meant us.
Sebastian and I looked at each other. Through our bond, I felt his understanding. His acceptance.
"We have to do it," I said quietly. "We're the only ones who can."
"It'll kill us," he said.
"I know."
We'd just fought so hard to be together. To survive. To build a future.
And now, to save both worlds, we had to give it all up.
"There has to be another way," Elena said desperately.
But we all knew there wasn't.
Sebastian took my hands. "I love you."
"I love you too."
We began channeling our power toward the vortex, preparing to seal it shut. Preparing to die doing it.
Then a young voice shouted: "WAIT!"
Roslyn appeared—actually appeared, not as a memory or a ghost but solid and real. And she wasn't alone.
Behind her stood dozens of people—vampires and humans together. All glowing with faint golden light.
"We're Sanguine descendants," Roslyn said breathlessly. "All of us. Scattered bloodlines, dormant gifts. Celeste found us and woke our powers. We're not as strong as you two, but maybe—"
"If we combine our power," an elderly human woman finished, "we can share the burden. Close the vortex together."
Hope surged through me.
"It might work," the First Curse said, materializing beside us. She was bloody and exhausted. "If you have enough of them. Fifty, maybe sixty Sanguine-blessed working together could generate enough power."
"We have seventy-three," Roslyn said proudly.
Sebastian squeezed my hand. "Then let's save the world. Together."
We formed a circle—vampires and humans, old and young, all holding hands. All channeling our gifts together.
The golden light rose like a sunrise.
The shadow creatures began to shriek and dissolve.
The vortex started to close.
We were doing it. We were actually—
Then Lilith appeared in the center of our circle, bloody but alive.
"If I can't have the power," she snarled, "then no one can."
She plunged a blade into her own chest.
And as the mother of all vampires died, her death curse activated—the final trap she'd prepared centuries ago.
Every vampire in the circle began to scream.
Their Sanguine gifts were turning inward, burning them alive from the inside.
"NO!" I shouted.
But it was too late.
Half our circle was dying.
And without them, we didn't have enough power to close the vortex.
The shadow creatures poured through faster.
We had seconds before they overran everything.
"Aria," Sebastian gasped, his skin cracking with golden fire. "You have to... choose. Save the vampires... or close the vortex. Can't... do both."
I looked at him—my love, my bond, my heart—burning alive.
Looked at the vortex that would destroy both worlds if left open.
And I had no idea what to do.