Chapter 60 The Impossible Choice
Kaelen's POV
"Let you die?" Lyra's voice breaks. "Are you insane?"
"Listen to me." I hold Stella's thrashing body, feeling her transformation accelerating. Through our bond, I feel Lyra's terror, her refusal to accept what I'm saying. "The convergence needs three bridges. Me, you, and Stella. But if one bridge is broken—if I die—the power can't be controlled by the First. It'll be wild. Pure. And in that moment, before the gate closes, we can use it to reverse Stella's transformation."
"But you'll be dead!"
"Yes." The word hurts more than four centuries of loneliness ever did. "But Stella will be human again. Alive. Safe."
Cole grabs my arm. "There has to be another way! Some other—"
"There isn't!" I roar, and Stella's vampire eyes flash in response to my anger. "I've lived eight hundred years. I've seen empires rise and fall. I've survived things that should have killed me a dozen times over. But your sister?" I look at Lyra. "She's thirteen. She deserves a chance to live. Really live. Not as a monster."
Through the bond, I feel Lyra's heart shattering.
"I can't," she whispers. "I can't lose you. Not after everything—"
"You have to." I meet her eyes, letting her feel everything through our connection. The love I was too afraid to admit. The peace she gave me after centuries of ice. The hope that maybe, just maybe, I was worth saving. "Because I love you. And love means choosing the other person's happiness over your own survival."
Footsteps echo from the cathedral behind us. Marius's followers are coming.
"We need to move," Cole urges. "Now. Decide later."
I adjust my grip on Stella, whose vampire strength is growing by the second. "There's a safe house. Three blocks north. We go there, and then—"
Stella breaks free.
Her newborn vampire speed catches me off-guard. She slams into Lyra, fangs extended, ready to kill.
I move faster than thought, grabbing Stella and throwing her against the alley wall. Not hard enough to hurt her, but enough to stop the attack.
She snarls at me, completely feral.
"Stella, please!" Lyra's crying now. "It's me! It's Lyra! You know me!"
For one second, recognition flashes in Stella's red eyes. My sister. She's trying to say it, trying to fight the hunger.
Then the vampire takes over again, and she lunges.
I catch her mid-air, pin her arms. "Cole! Silver chains! Now!"
"I don't have—"
"Find some!" I'm struggling to hold Stella without hurting her. She's stronger than she should be. The transformation is wrong. Accelerated. "Lyra, get back!"
But Lyra doesn't run. She steps closer, reaching for her sister.
"Stella, I know you're in there. I know you're fighting. And I need you to hold on just a little longer. Please."
Stella's thrashing slows. Not much. But enough.
"That's it," Lyra whispers. "That's my strong girl. Remember who you are. Remember our apartment. Remember how you help me count my blood donor payments. Remember your dreams of being a teacher."
Stella's eyes flicker. Red to brown. Brown to red.
Fighting.
"We're going to save you," Lyra promises. "I don't know how yet. But we will. Because you're my sister, and I don't give up on you. Ever."
The moment breaks when the cathedral doors explode outward.
Marius stands in the entrance, backlit by green and gold light. Behind him, dozens of his followers pour out.
"Run!" I shout.
Cole leads the way, running north through dark alleys. I carry Stella, who's gone still—either from exhaustion or control, I can't tell. Lyra runs beside me, her hand finding mine even while we're fleeing.
The Veil District at night is full of dangers. I see outcasts watching from shadows, criminals eyeing us, things that aren't quite vampire or human. But nothing stops us. Nothing dares.
Because they can feel it. The power building between the three bridges. The convergence approaching.
We're not just running from Marius.
We're running toward destiny.
Finally, we reach the safe house—a boarded-up building that looks abandoned but isn't. Cole kicks open a hidden door, and we stumble inside.
I lay Stella on an old mattress. She's unconscious again, her breathing shallow.
"How long until sunrise?" Lyra asks.
I check the window. "Two hours. Maybe less."
"And the convergence?"
"Tonight. When the blood moon rises at midnight."
Lyra sinks down beside her sister, touching Stella's pale face. "So we have until midnight to figure out how to save her without you dying."
"Lyra—"
"No." Her voice is steel. "I didn't survive three years alone, I didn't fight this hard, I didn't fall in love with an eight-hundred-year-old vampire just to watch him die. We find another way."
Through the bond, I feel her determination. Fierce. Absolute. Beautiful.
"I don't think there is another way," I say quietly.
"Then we make one."
Cole clears his throat. "Uh, guys? We have a bigger problem."
He's looking out the window, his face pale.
"What?" I cross to him.
He points.
Outside, surrounding the building, are hundreds of figures. Vampire enforcers. Council soldiers. Ancient vampires. All standing perfectly still.
Waiting.
And at the front, smiling that terrible smile, is someone I thought was dead.
Seraphine.
My dead fiancée from four hundred years ago.
Alive. Whole. Real.
She waves at me through the window.
Then speaks, her voice carrying through the glass like we're standing face to face.
"Hello, my love. Did you miss me? Because I have so many questions about why you marked a human when you were supposed to be mourning me forever."
Her eyes flash red.
"Now come outside so we can talk. Or I burn this building down with everyone you love inside."