Chapter Twelve
The dawn broke red over New York, staining the skyline in fire.
Saffron stood on the rooftop terrace of their building, every muscle in her body taut.
They had chosen to meet the fight here in the open air, to keep the battle away from the heart of Fated Ink and force whatever came to face them under the wide sky.
The wards around the building vibrated, threads of gold and silver woven tight, but she felt the tremor ripple through them thirty minutes ago.
The first crack. The first sign the Council had found its opening.
She had called to the others and they were already in place on the roof, their circle braced against the inevitable assault.
Her breath caught. “They’re coming in,” she whispered.
The words had barely left her mouth when the wards shuddered and split.
Power tore down the barriers in a roar that rattled the windows below.
Across the street, shadows uncoiled from the alleys, demonic shapes twisting and clawing toward the building.
The air filled with a stench of sulfur and decay.
“Positions!” Ursula barked, already summoning flame into her palms. Willow flanked her, light sparking bright around her body. Isaac and Nolan shifted just enough that their wolves hovered close, snarls rumbling in their throats. Jacob steadied himself beside them, his gaze locked on the horde.
Only Liam and Brielle were absent—Brielle still recovering and Liam doing his shift to protect her. The circle was thinner without them, but they had no choice.
The first wave hit. Demonic forms clambered up the walls and leapt onto the rooftop terrace, black claws tearing through the wards.
Saffron thrust her hands outward, golden fire lashing across the open space as the creatures poured in.
Their shrieks split the air as they burned, but more pressed forward. Too many.
The rooftop gave them space, but it also gave the enemy an opening. From every corner of the city, the shapes converged, climbing, leaping, wings tearing against the wind. Above them, the sky bled red and gold, dawn rising fast.
On the far side of the terrace, Adrian Veynar appeared. He strode through the smoke, immaculate even amid chaos, his eyes black fire. His laughter cut across the battle. “You thought you could resist me with parlor wards? Today ends you, little High Priestess.”
“Not while I breathe,” Saffron snarled. She lifted the Druid Stone high. Power crackled along its surface, jagged and alive.
The Stone flared—then recoiled. It burned against her palm, refusing her touch. She gasped, clutching it tighter, trying to force the bond. “Damn you,” she whispered.
Nolan and Isaac fought shoulder to shoulder, bodies bloodied, muscles trembling from the effort of holding the line.
The coven’s circle flickered weakly at first, each witch straining to hold back the tide of demons.
Then the stairwell door banged open—Brielle staggered onto the rooftop, her face bruised but her eyes alight with fury.
Liam followed, his wolf already half-shifted, a snarl ripping free as he leapt into the fray.
The circle snapped stronger the instant they joined, light blazing, wards biting deeper into the creatures.
For a few desperate minutes the tide turned, demons cut down faster than they could rise.
From the shadows beyond, Caleb Blackmore stepped onto the rooftop, his smirk cutting through the chaos. “Well, well. My Brielle. I always knew you’d come running back. I’m going to enjoy taming my bitch one more time.” His voice dripped malice, each word meant to brand her as his possession.
Brielle straightened despite the bruises mottling her face, purple fire sparking across her palms. “Newsflash, Caleb—hell will freeze before I’m ever yours again.” With a snap of her wrist, she hurled a violet bolt at him. Flames crackled against the rooftop, forcing him back with a snarl.
Adrian roared, his voice shaking the stones beneath their feet, and he drew deeper from the Council’s dark well. More shapes poured onto the rooftop, wings and claws blotting out the dawn. The circle buckled, and Saffron felt the weight of choice press on her chest.
She stepped out of the ring, her golden wards flaring up around her. Her mates’ voices rose in panic calling her name, but she turned to them, her eyes shining with tears and determination.
Something inside her broke. She saw the exhaustion in their faces, the devotion in their stares. She knew. She had always known.
“I love you,” she said, voice fierce and clear over the chaos.
Isaac staggered at the words, Nolan’s blade paused mid-swing. “Saff—”
She didn’t let them finish. With one swift motion, she drew her blade across her left wrist. Blood welled hot and red. She lifted it above the Stone, letting it stream across its jagged surface.
A golden shield erupted around her, locking her in. Isaac and Nolan slammed against it, shouting, but they could not break through. Ursula’s scream echoed as she hurled flame at the barrier, but nothing penetrated.
Adrian’s face twisted. “No!” He launched himself at her, his body shifting, monstrous horns and claws ripping through the fine suit. His skin turned gray and black, demonic veins glowing. He pounded against the shield, snarling. “You cannot stop me!”
Saffron held the Stone high, blood soaking its surface. She chanted, her voice ringing with power.
“By my blood, I break the curse.
By my will, no dark converse.
Chains unbound, the night dispersed.
Light shall rise where shadows nurse.”
Saffron felt a wave of nausea roll through her as she watched the blood pumping through her wrist.
“By my life, I end its hold.
By my heart, let truth unfold.
Darkness sundered, light retold.
Freedom claimed, in fire bold.”
She staggered slightly and saw that the stream of blood was slowing. She had to go quicker.
“By dawn’s light in the east, I free the bound.
Chains once forged shall now be drowned.
Rising sun shall cast them down.
Peace restored where hate was found.”
The Stone pulsed, silver veins igniting like lightning. The chant tore through the terrace, shaking the building beneath them. Adrian screamed as fire licked up his body, peeling away his human guise, searing through his demon flesh.
The Councilors on the far rooftop faltered. Caleb Blackmore’s eyes narrowed, but he stepped back, retreating with the others. They knew what was coming. They would not die with Adrian.
Saffron’s shield blazed brighter. The Stone drank in her blood, absorbing every drop, feeding its awakening. Her arms shook, her knees buckled, but her voice did not waver.
“I free those locked by the curse!
I end the chains that bound them!
By the blood of the High Priestess,
No Council shall ever bind them again!”
Adrian’s scream cut through the city. Flames consumed him, body and soul unraveling as the Stone’s light devoured his essence. He reached for her, claws scrabbling against the shield, before he crumbled into ash. The demons howled as they burned away, vanishing into smoke.
Silence fell. The dawn broke fully, sunlight blazing over the eastern horizon. The wards shimmered, then settled into peace.
The Stone dimmed in Saffron’s hands, its hunger sated. She swayed, the strength draining out of her. Her mates broke through the fading shield just as her knees gave way.
“No, no, no,” Nolan begged, catching her against his chest. His hands pressed against her wound, slick with blood. “Stay with us, kitten. Please.”
Isaac’s voice broke, raw and ragged. “You can’t leave us, Saff. Not now. Not ever.”
She smiled weakly, her lips pale. “I told you ... I love you. Always.”
Her body went limp, the last of her life spent in the Stone’s awakening. She died in their arms, the dawn blazing gold across the city, her sacrifice the price of their freedom.
****
The moment Saffron’s body went limp in their arms, the world cracked apart.
The rooftop, once alive with battle, fell into a silence broken only by the witches’ screams. Ursula and Willow dropped to their knees, keening their grief.
The smell of blood and smoke hung heavy, but all Isaac could taste was despair.
His wolf roared inside him, a hollow, furious sound, and beside him Nolan threw his head back on a scream, his own grief echoing into the morning sky.
Isaac felt the bond slipping away. The invisible tether that tied them to Saffron frayed, snapping strand by strand until only emptiness remained. His chest caved in with the loss.
This is the end. Our mate is gone.
Nolan’s face was streaked with blood and ash, his eyes wild. He clutched her body tighter, rocking as if he could keep her here through sheer force of will. “Don’t do this to us, kitten. Please. Don’t go where we can’t follow.”
Isaac pressed his forehead to hers, his tears falling onto her cooling skin. “Like hell we won’t. We will join you,” he promised hoarsely. “We’ll follow you into death. We won’t let you walk there alone.”
Brielle’s broken voice cut through the grief. “No. You can’t. You have to live—for her. Live for her memory.”
Nolan’s head snapped up, his voice raw. “You don’t understand the bond. There is no life without her. Not for us.”
The women cried openly, Ursula choking out, “She was everything. Our sister. Our heart.”
Willow clutched at her chest, her body shaking as she wailed, “We can’t lose her again! Not like this!”
Jacob’s voice cracked as he stepped forward. “And what of us, brothers?”
Liam, his arms shaking with rage, shouted, “What of us losing you? We just got you back. We’ve finally lived again as brothers—and now you’d throw that away? You think we can watch you die, too, and survive it?”
Isaac’s eyes, dark and ancient, snapped to them. The look he gave—hard, raw, and older than both their lifetimes—cut them off. His voice was low, but the weight of it silenced the roof. “If this were Willow lying here, would you do any less? Would you let her walk into the dark alone?”
Jacob’s lips trembled. Liam’s fists clenched, but the fight left them. They bowed their heads, their grief swallowing their anger. The only answer was silence—and their tears.
Isaac turned his gaze skyward, his fury rising anew. He raged at the heavens, his voice a snarl. “Is this what you wanted, Moon Goddess?” he bellowed. “We sacrificed everything. Gave everything! Centuries of loyalty, of pain, of sacrifice—and this is how you repay us?”
Nolan’s roar joined his, thick with fury. “You took her from us! After everything—we gave our lives, our souls, and you still take her away!” His curses filled the rooftop, echoing across the city, raw grief turned into rage.
The witches wept around them, their hands clutching each other for strength.
Ursula’s sobs tore through the air. Willow’s hands shook as she rocked back and forth, whispering prayers through her tears.
Isaac’s heart felt like it had been carved from his chest, every beat a reminder of what was gone.
This is it, he thought numbly. This is the end of us.
Then Willow gasped, her voice sharp. “Your tattoos—look!”
Isaac blinked through tears and glanced down. The handfasting tattoos Ursula had inked onto their left forearms burned bright, golden light streaming from them like fire under the skin. Nolan swore, staring at his own. The glow was growing stronger.
A voice filled Isaac’s mind—not the cruel silence he expected, but the steady, sorrowful tone of the Moon Goddess herself. “Complete the handfasting. Bind yourselves fully to her. The bond is not yet broken.”
“Handfasting?” Nolan rasped, eyes wild. “How the fuck do we do that? She’s dead.”
“Her spirit lingers,” the Goddess answered. “Complete the circle. Call her back. Blood and love brought her to the Stone—let love and bond return her to you.”
Isaac looked at Nolan, and Nolan looked back. No hesitation. They moved as one. “We have to complete the handfasting,” Isaac snapped. “We need something to tie the three of us together.”
Brielle tore the belt from her robe and thrust it toward them, her hands shaking. “Here, use this. Do it. Now.”
They placed their left hands against Saffron’s left. Her skin was cold, but the tattoos on their flesh seared hot, demanding connection. Nolan tied the belt around their wrists, binding them together in the ancient pattern—over once, under twice, around thrice, the knot pulling snug with each pass.
Ursula’s voice rose in chant, the old words spilling into rhyme.
“By cord and by heart, by fire and by flame,
By bond unbroken, we speak her name.
In circle made, no soul shall part,
Three made one, one made heart.”
Isaac felt heat begin to rise between their joined hands, a thrum that built with each word, searing through his skin as though the Goddess herself stoked a forge within him.
“By blood and by vow, by night and by day,
By every promise we will not betray.
Through shadow and sorrow, our spirits stay,
Bound as one, we cannot fray.”
Nolan’s voice broke, pleading into the air, tears streaking down his face. “Come back to us, kitten. Please, for the love of all that we are—come back.”
“By soul and by star, by heart and by breath,
By flame that endures beyond even death.
The circle stands, unbroken and true,
By this bond we call to you.”
The air thickened, charged with power. The tattoos on their arms flared, light searing upward until a matching design etched itself into Saffron’s skin. Golden knotwork burned into her left arm, alive with fire.
They stared, astonished, as the marks glowed across all three of them. The bond pulled taut again, snapping back into place with a force that stole Isaac’s breath.
For a heartbeat, the world held still. Then Saffron’s eyes flew open and she gasped.