Epilogue
EVELYNN
“Will you stop running?” Lucian yells behind me as I tear through the trees, the forest streaking past in a blur of shadow and moonlight.
I skid to a halt just as his arm hooks around my waist, hauling me back against him.
His eyes glow with wicked amusement, lips curving into a slow, knowing grin.
“It’s been four weeks,” he murmurs, fingertips tracing the edge of my jaw. “Will you ever get used to this?”
“Nope.” A soft laugh escapes me, breathless. “I’ve never felt so alive. And yet,” I glance at him. “I’m dead.”
“Come. Everyone’s waiting.” His voice gentles as he laces his fingers through mine, and together we sprint through the forest toward the compound.
Dread coils in my chest. The last four weeks have been peace, recovery, and learning what it means to be a vampire; how to control my strength, my hunger, my desire.
Silas had dragged us aside more than once, chastising us like hormonal teenagers.
Apparently, we were compromising the structural integrity of the compound.
I mean, sure, I’d found rubble in my hair more than once, but the place was ancient. That wasn’t our fault.
Lilith’s truck is parked outside. My smile grows as we enter the court. Everyone is already seated. Even her. “Take your time,” Silas mutters, irritation thick in his tone.
“Shut up. They’re happy,” Lilith snaps, venom dripping from the words. Silas grits his jaw and leans back. Lucian stands at the head of the table, never releasing my hand.
Viktor steps forward, opening an ancient, dust-worn book.
“You’ve had your break,” he says. “While you were enjoying yourselves, I was searching for answers. And I found them.” My stomach tightens.
“We never understood why those blades worked on Anathema,” Viktor continues.
“How a weak mortal could defeat a being so far beyond her.” I glance at Lucian, bracing for the blow.
“Anathema is gone,” Viktor says. “The blades Evelynn wielded were forged by the purest hands, in the holiest of places. The only weapons capable of destroying true evil.” He taps the page.
“Only a mortal of purest soul willing to fight on behalf of a monster may end it.”
My lips part. “But Lucian had already... defiled me.”
A ripple of laughter circles the table. “Yeah,” Silas mutters. “Didn’t we know it?” Lilith smacks him upside the head.
“You still saw good in us,” Viktor says gently. “Your body was no longer pure, but your heart was.”
Lilith steps forward, placing both blades on the table. “I believe these belong to you.”
My fingers trace the ornate metal, a shiver racing through me. “So that’s it?” I ask. “No Anathema? No Dominion?”
Lucian exhales slowly. “Not exactly.”
“There is still a Dominion,” Cain adds. “Just with a new leader.”
Lucian’s gaze flicks to Lilith. Her jaw tightens, pain flashing across her face before she schools it away.
“Morbius,” Cain says.
My pulse spikes. “Who is Morbius?”
Silas’s hands curl into fists. “My brother.”
Silence crashes down around us. And for the first time since my death, I feel it again; not dread, not fear, but war.
The End