Chapter 197
Kara
"You're too late," Elena spat in my mother's voice, and hearing Celeste's gentle tone corrupted like that made something violent unfurl in my chest. "Diana's already begun the ritual. She'll transfer into your body before dawn, and there's nothing you can—"
Her words cut off in a scream as the white serpent launched itself from my arm. I didn't have time to react, didn't even fully process what was happening before my mother's consciousness in snake form struck Elena's throat—the exact spot where a werewolf's scent glands were most concentrated, where blood magic and biological identity intertwined.
The effect was instantaneous and terrifying. Black smoke began pouring from Elena's mouth and nose, writhing in the air like a living thing. The smoke tried desperately to force its way back into Celeste's body, but the white serpent's venom was already working, its magic recognizing the rightful owner and rejecting the invader.
Elena—or whoever had been wearing my mother's body—let out one final, inhuman shriek before the smoke dissipated into nothing. Celeste's body collapsed to the floor, convulsing as the serpent maintained its hold, pumping more of its essence into her bloodstream.
"Kara!" Blake's shout snapped me out of my frozen horror. "The other one!"
I turned just in time to see Leo lunging for the door, Connor's stolen body moving with trained precision. But the silver serpent was faster. It shot from my arm like a missile, fangs bared, and caught Leo mid-stride. Just like with Elena, black smoke erupted from Connor's mouth as the foreign consciousness was violently expelled.
The process was brutal to watch. Both bodies writhed on the floor, caught between the death of their invaders and the return of their rightful souls. The serpents maintained their grip, their scaled forms beginning to shimmer and fade as their magic completed its purpose.
"What's happening?" I gasped, watching in horror and hope as the snakes started to dissolve. "Are they—"
"Returning home," Dmitri finished, his voice breaking. He dropped to his knees beside Celeste's convulsing form, hands hovering over her but not touching, clearly terrified of disrupting the process. "The serpent form was always temporary, a container for their consciousness. Now that they're back in their own bodies, the magic is releasing them."
Connor and Celeste's bodies went still. For one terrible moment, I thought we'd been too late, that ten years in serpent form had been too long, that their souls had been too damaged to survive the transfer. Then Connor's chest rose with a shuddering breath, and Celeste's eyes fluttered open.
But they weren't the eyes I remembered. Connor's gaze was unfocused, confused, like someone waking from a decade-long nightmare. Celeste's face was slack with incomprehension, her mouth working soundlessly as she tried to remember how to form words.
"Dad?" The word broke from my throat before I could stop it. "Mom?"
Celeste's eyes found mine, and I watched recognition slowly dawn in their depths. Her hand lifted—trembling, weak, the muscles atrophied from years of disuse—reaching toward my face.
"Kara," she whispered, and her voice was my mother's voice, rusty and uncertain but unmistakably hers. "My baby. You're so... you grew up..."
The tears came then, hot and unstoppable. I tried to move toward her, but Blake held me back, his instincts correctly identifying that my parents were in no condition to support any weight, even mine.
"We need to move," Asher said, his voice gentle but urgent. "This building won't hold much longer, and Diana—"
As if summoned by her name, a sound erupted from the depths below us that made my blood run cold. It was Diana's voice, but magnified a hundredfold, carrying a rage that transcended mere anger into something primal and terrifying.
"YOU DARE?!" The words shook the walls, sent new cracks spider-webbing across the ceiling. "YOU DARE STEAL WHAT IS MINE?!"
"She knows," Cole said unnecessarily, already moving to help Jasper support Anna. "She knows we took the serpents and reversed the transfers. She's going to bring this whole place down on our heads."
Dmitri was trying to help Celeste to her feet, but her legs wouldn't support her. Ten years without using her own muscles had left them weak as a newborn's. Connor was in slightly better shape—he managed to sit up, at least—but his coordination was shot, his movements jerky and uncontrolled.
"Blake," Asher commanded, "you've still got Kara. Cole, take Scarlett. Dmitri, help Celeste. Jasper—"
"I've got Connor," Jasper said firmly, already moving to support his friend. "Come on, buddy. Time to get out of here."
"Kara." Connor's voice was stronger than Celeste's, though still rough from disuse. His eyes found mine, and I saw tears tracking down his face. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry we left you. I thought... we thought if we stayed away, if we let Victoria tell everyone we were dead, Diana wouldn't have any reason to come after you. We were wrong. We were so wrong."
"Later," I managed, my own voice thick with tears. "Apologies and explanations later, Dad. Right now, we run."
The building gave another massive shudder, and this time I heard the unmistakable sound of the main support structure beginning to fail. We had minutes at most.
Our group moved as fast as we could manage, which wasn't nearly fast enough. Anna was crying openly now, every step sending fresh agony through her broken leg. Sol had gone grey with blood loss, her breathing shallow and rapid. Connor and Celeste could barely walk, their decade-imprisoned bodies betraying them at every turn.
And behind us, getting closer with every second, I could hear Diana's fury manifesting as raw destruction. The woman—if she even was a woman anymore—was tearing her own sanctuary apart in her rage at losing her prizes.
We'd just reached the main stairwell when the eastern wing collapsed entirely. The sound was apocalyptic—thousands of tons of concrete and steel crashing down, the screech of rending metal mixing with Diana's inhuman shriek of rage.