Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Serenity
"Noelle," I sobbed, my hand pressed over my heart as if I could physically hold the pieces together. My daughter's name fell from my lips like a prayer, like a plea to a god who'd never answered me before.
Joy stepped beside me, her face set with grim determination. Shadows swirled around her feet, responding to her will. "Let me try."
She held up her hands toward the door. "Open," she commanded, her voice layered with ancient Unseelie power.
Shadows moved—sliding out from underneath the slot machines, seeping from beneath the blackjack tables, crawling across the casino floor like black ribbons unwinding from Christmas presents. They converged on the door, dozens of tendrils of pure shadow weaving together like dark tinsel.
But rather than slamming against the barrier like we had, rather than trying to break through with force—
The shadows slipped inside the cracks I had made.
They poured into every fracture, every hairline split, worming their way through the magical barrier like water finding its path. I watched as they spread on the other side, filling the gaps, searching for weaknesses.
There was a moment of resistance. The magical seal fighting back, trying to repel the intrusion.
Then—
A loud POP exploded through the hallway, like a champagne cork or a gunshot.
The door swung open as if by magic; the barrier completely shattered.
Beyond it, moonlight flooded the secret room through the skylight above.
And there, in the center on a stone altar—
My daughter.
I gasped, my eyes adjusting to the flickering candlelight filling the room. My heart turned stone cold. Prudence stood over her, ceremonial blade raised, her face twisted with fury at the interruption.
“Prudence, stop!”
“Because I deserve to be head of the Moon Coven, but I’ll never be as strong as Tinker Bell.” Her eyes shone with power. “With this sacrifice, I’ll be the high priestess.”
Tinker Bell was laid out on the floor near the altar, unconscious. Blood matted her white hair. But her chest rose and fell—she was alive. Barely, but alive.
Prudence had been the traitor all along. She'd framed Tinker Bell perfectly.
"NO!" Angelo roared and launched himself through the doorway—
But he bounced back violently, as if he'd slammed into an invisible wall. He crashed into Enzo behind him, both of them hitting the hallway floor.
Another barrier. A second one, inside the room itself.
My scream ripped from my throat before I knew it. No! I threw myself toward the door, but the power crackled against my palms, repelling me. Another barrier. I could feel it—cold, unyielding, mocking. “Noelle!” I pressed harder until my hands burned. Nothing. I couldn’t get to her.
Out of the shadows in the corner, a figure materialized. Tall, impossibly beautiful, with dark hair and eyes that held centuries of cruelty.
Balthazar.
My blood burned with fear. He was here. Actually here, not in a dream, not in hell—here.
"You're too late, Serenity.” He gestured to Prudence, who stood frozen by the altar, the knife still raised over Noelle.
Black candles surrounded the altar in a circle, their flames casting dancing shadows across the walls.
"I'm about to give Prudence exactly what she wants—leadership of the Moon Coven.
And all it cost her was betraying everyone she knew.
" He smiled coldly. "And helping me drain Tinker Bell's considerable power, of course. "
I tried to move, but the air itself solidified around me—cold bands tightening over my limbs, anchoring me where I stood. Magic. Dark, old, suffocating. My body refused to obey, but my heart wouldn’t stop screaming her name.
"Why my daughter?" I demanded. "Why Noelle? She's innocent. She's just a baby!"
Across the room, another figure stepped out of the darkness and into the candlelight. He reminded me of Balthazar—the long dark hair, the open shirt revealing a chiseled chest, a rock-star wannabe. But unlike Balthazar, his eyes were cold, glowing gold like molten metal.
Vex.
The demon from my nightmare. The one who'd killed that wolf child in Lafayette.
He was heartbreak wrapped in perfection—handsome enough to make you forget to breathe. But the moment our eyes met, I felt it. The wrongness. Evil clung to him like silk threads on a spider’s web, glimmering, beautiful, deadly.
He looked at Noelle on the altar with something like hunger.
"Because her soul is powerful, little Nephilim.
A soul fueled with both vampire blood and angelic blood—royal bloodlines on both sides.
" His golden eyes gleamed in the candlelight.
"That kind of soul, properly harvested under the Full Cold Moon, can open any supernatural cage. Break any binding. Shatter any prison."
Balthazar's smile widened, triumphant and terrible. "Even mine."
Balthazar reached down, his hand hovering over Noelle's tiny body on the altar. She was so small, so helpless, wrapped in white cloth.
“No!” The scream ripped out of me before I could think. Power burst under my skin, wild and unstable, begging to be unleashed. He couldn’t touch her. I wouldn’t let him.
"Too bad," he murmured, almost wistfully. "She truly is a beautiful child."
Noelle's little fist reached up—innocent, trusting—and her tiny fingers wrapped around his hand.
Light burst from her tiny body, pure and searing, flooding the room in a wash of white fire. Angelic light touched Balthazar's skin and began to spread, slowly turning golden as it crawled up his arm.
Balthazar froze. His eyes widened—not with triumph, but with something else. Something I never expected.
Wonder. Memory. Loss.
The golden light reached his chest, and for just a moment, his cruel expression cracked. Something ancient and buried flickered across his face—not redemption, not salvation, but a glimpse of what he'd been before the fall. Before the darkness consumed him.
"I..." His jaw tightened, the muscles in his neck straining as if the words cost him. "I remember..."
"NO!" Vex snarled, seeing the hesitation. "She's weakening him! Prudence—kill the child! NOW!"
My breath caught. For one heartbeat, everything froze—the flicker of candles, the sound of my pulse. Then the terror hit, sharp and absolute. “Don’t you dare!” The power burst out of me before I could stop it.
"Yes," Balthazar said slowly, as if waking from a dream. The golden light faded slightly but didn't disappear completely. "The deal. Kill the child and—"
He looked down at Noelle. At her dark eyes watching him without fear. At her tiny hand still holding his finger with complete trust.
The air thickened around me, heavy and cold. He was going to kill her—I saw it in his eyes. “Don’t you dare.” My power stirred under my skin, sharp and hungry, begging to be unleashed.
A flicker crossed his face—brief, almost human. Not love. Not goodness. But something... protective.
"No," he said quietly.
My heart skidded to a stop. What did that mean? I didn’t understand. Was he refusing to kill her—or refusing to finish it? Was he going to save my baby?
"What?" Vex's golden eyes blazed with fury.
"I said no." Balthazar's voice grew stronger, more certain. He didn't release Noelle's hand. "Not this one."
"We had a DEAL!" Vex roared. "You get free, I get the soul—"
"Find another soul," Balthazar said coldly.
The demon was still there—the cruelty, the darkness.
But underneath, just barely, a fracture ran through the darkness, letting something else bleed through.
"This child..." He looked at her again, and pain flickered across his face.
"She reminds me of someone I lost. Long ago. "
"Balthazar," Prudence frowned, the blade trembling in her hands. "Please. You promised me power. The coven. Everything—"
"KILL HER!" Vex commanded.
Pain detonated inside me, raw and merciless. Not when I lost my mother. Not even when Angelo nearly died had it cut this deep. It was like something inside me shattered clean in two.
Prudence raised the blade, desperation and greed warring on her face. She had to choose—lose everything she'd worked for or murder a baby.
Greed won.
The blade began its descent toward Noelle's chest—
I screamed, throwing my head back, reaching out even though I couldn’t touch her. “Noelle!” Her name tore from my throat, helpless and raw, as if sheer will alone could stop the blade.
And Balthazar moved.
Fast. Impossibly fast.
His hand shot out and caught Prudence's wrist, stopping the blade an inch from Noelle's heart. His grip was crushing—I could hear bones cracking.
Prudence screamed, a high, broken sound.
I felt no mercy for her. None. She deserved every ounce of pain she’d earned.
"I said," Balthazar's voice was deadly soft, his eyes black with demonic fury, "no."
He wasn't good. Wasn't redeemed. He was still a demon, still dangerous, still dark.
But in this moment—because of my daughter's innocent touch—he chose to protect instead of destroy.
A Christmas miracle. Small. Imperfect. But real.
Balthazar’s roar shook the chamber, a sound that was more thunder than voice. He seized Prudence and hurled her across the room. She hit the stone wall with a sickening crack; the blade flying from her grasp and clattering to the floor.
Vex dove for it.
“No!” The scream tore from my throat, raw and feral. I slipped on the blood-slick stone, scrambling to rise as panic clawed at my chest.
“You will not touch this child.”
Balthazar’s voice boomed like the toll of a funeral bell. He swept Noelle into his arms, holding her close against the storm of dark magic swirling through the chamber. His hand lifted, power pulsing beneath his skin. “Zypharak.”
The word echoed through the chamber, like thunder. Black lightning crackled from his fingertips, wrapping Vex in chains of shadow that burned and hissed. The demon’s scream curdled the air as the ground beneath him opened like a maw, swallowing him whole into a churning abyss.
Then—silence.
The pressure in the room broke, leaving a hollow stillness that rang in my ears.
Angelo lunged across the altar, faster than thought, his snarl echoing off the walls.
I pushed off my knees, wings flaring wide, heart hammering in my throat. “Give her to me! Balthazar, please—she’s my daughter!”
Joy’s shadows surged forward, coiling around Balthazar’s arms like serpents, but he didn’t resist. He only looked down at Noelle, brushing his thumb over her sweet face.
When his eyes met mine, something in them cracked—something I’d never seen in him before. Grief. Or perhaps love.
“I will protect her,” he said softly. “Always. No demon will ever harm her.”
He smiled, small and aching, and for one impossible second he looked almost human.
“But the rest of you…” He flicked his hand. “Not so much.”
The ground trembled. Shadows swirled around his feet, rising in a cyclone of darkness. He held up his hand, freezing Angelo in place.
Balthazar looked at me one last time. His mouth shaped a word I couldn’t hear over the roar—maybe my name, maybe Noelle’s, maybe a prayer. Then the shadows consumed him, pulling him into the void.
And just like that, he was gone.
Only the scent of smoke and the faint echo of his promise lingered.
Angelo snatched Noelle off the altar, pressing her against his massive chest.
I flew over to his side and stretched out my arms. “My baby. Oh god, my baby.”
He placed her in my arms, and the world steadied. Noelle blinked up at me and cooed—soft, curious, utterly unafraid. I choked on a sob as my fingers traced her tiny cheek. She was unharmed. Perfect. Safe.
Angelo glared over at Prudence who struggled to get up. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“No, please, mercy. I delivered your baby safely.”
Was she insane? She tried to murder her for her own selfish gains.
Angelo flashed his fangs. “And offer her as a sacrifice. My baby.”
The vampires formed a line in front of the door, blocking any escape.
I held Noelle close to me. All I wanted to do was to go home, but I had to know Prudence would never harm my baby again.
Angelo headed toward her. He wanted blood.
I had no intention of telling him to stop. Prudence had threatened our family.
Tinker Bell moved on the floor and struggled to stand, one hand pressed against her bleeding side. "Angelo, let me handle this."
"She's not leaving here alive," he said over his shoulder.
"Agreed." Tinker Bell hobbled toward Prudence, her face twisted in pain and fury. "You have a family to protect, Angelo. Wayward witches are my problem."
Prudence shook her head wildly, scrambling backward. "No, stay away from me!"
"You wanted my power? Now you're going to have it." Tinker Bell held out her hand. "Seraphel."
Prudence screamed, a sound that echoed off the stone walls and seemed to go on forever. Her skin turned ashen then gray, stretching tight across her bones like parchment pulled too thin. Her hair whipped behind her as if caught in an invisible wind, the strands thinning, falling away in clumps.
I pressed Noelle's face against my shoulder, shielding her from the sight. But I wished I could block out the sounds—the wet tearing, the crackle of disintegrating flesh.
Prudence's eyes sank deep into her skull, disappearing into black hollows. Her mouth gaped open in a silent shriek as her flesh began to dissolve—first translucent, then peeling away like ash caught in flame. Muscle and sinew disintegrated, revealing bone beneath.
My stomach lurched. She deserved this. She tried to murder my daughter. But watching it happen...
Within seconds only a skeleton remained, swaying on its feet for one terrible moment before crashing onto the floor. The bones clattered against the stone then crumbled. In a final breath of wind, the entire pile collapsed into fine gray dust that scattered across the chamber floor.
Silence fell.
I exhaled shakily, my wings trembling. Nothing remained of Prudence but a dark stain on the stone and the memory of her screams.
Justice. Brutal, terrible justice.