Chapter 263

Elijah

Twenty-three minutes and still no signal from Agnes.

I paced along the edge of the tree line, my eyes never leaving the entrance to the facility. Every nerve in my body was on high alert. Richard’s warriors were positioned in strategic locations throughout the forest, all of them waiting for either Agnes’s signal or my command to attack.

Through our mate bond, I could feel Agnes was still alive. The connection was faint—too far away to communicate through our Mindlink—but it was there. A steady pulse that told me her heart was still beating. If she’d died, I would have felt it instantly. My wolf would have gone mad with grief.

But alive didn’t necessarily mean safe. She and Thea could be injured, captured, or worse.

I was still fucking furious that Agnes had insisted on doing this—on taking our daughter into that hellhole. What kind of father agrees to such a thing? What kind of mate?

But even as I thought it, I felt my wolf bristle uncomfortably. No matter how much I hated it, somehow, my wolf knew that it had to be this way. It was fate, whether we liked it or not.

I didn’t understand it, couldn’t comprehend how or why this was meant to happen, but I knew it was true. Something bigger than all of us was at play here, some cosmic force driving Agnes and Thea toward that facility. And who was I to argue with fate?

Still, it didn’t stop me from worrying. What was Agnes planning to do in there? How would she kill her stepmother without getting herself or Thea killed in the process? The woman was bound to be heavily guarded, surrounded by loyal thralls who would likely die to protect her.

And even if Agnes managed to get close enough, even if she could summon enough fire to burn her stepmother to ashes, what then? Would they escape? Would they survive?

“Thirty minutes,” Richard muttered, glancing at his own watch. “We need to move.”

Before I could respond, a commotion erupted from somewhere to our right. Shouts and growls echoed through the trees, followed by the sound of a struggle. Richard and I exchanged a quick glance before taking off toward the noise.

We found the source of the disturbance about fifty yards away. One of Richard’s guards had someone pinned to the ground—a woman who was thrashing and snarling against his hold.

“Get off me!” she shouted. “I need to talk to Elijah!”

Lena.

Rage surged through me at the sound of that voice. This was the woman who had infiltrated my home, gained our trust, become part of our family—only to betray us. She had killed James, my Beta, my friend, right under our noses. She had stolen the Lunaris Stone and handed it directly to Agnes’s stepmother.

And now she had the fucking audacity to show up here?

I stormed forward, shoving past Richard’s warriors. Before anyone could stop me, I grabbed a fistful of Lena’s hair and wrenched her head up from the forest floor.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I snarled. “Last time I saw you, you had killed my Beta and stolen the one thing that might have given us an edge.”

To my surprise, Lena didn’t fight back. She went completely still in my grip, her eyes meeting mine without flinching. Then, slowly, deliberately, she tilted her head to the side, baring her throat to me.

The gesture was a sign of submission, an offering. She was giving me the opportunity to kill her. To tear out her throat and be done with it.

“Do it,” she whispered. “I’ll let you. But I’ll also die with information you need to know.”

For a moment, I was tempted. Goddess, I was tempted. This woman had betrayed us in the worst possible way. She deserved to die for what she had done to James alone.

But if she had information that could help…

I growled in frustration and released her hair, although I signaled for Richard’s warrior to maintain his hold. “Talk. Fast. And if I even think you’re lying, I’ll finish what I just started.”

Lena nodded. “I know about Agnes and Thea. I know they’re inside the facility. And I know what her stepmother’s planning.”

“How?” Richard demanded.

“Because I helped her plan it,” Lena admitted. “At least, part of it. Before I…” She trailed off, her eyes dropping briefly before meeting mine again. “Before I met all of you.”

“Why should we believe anything you say?” I spat. “You’re a fucking liar, Lena. You’ve been playing us from the start.”

“Not everything was a lie,” she said quietly. “But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that Agnes and Thea are in serious danger. The stone is nearly operational. Once it is, her stepmother will use it to turn Agnes into a thrall, regardless of whatever deal they may have made. The same goes for Thea, if she has the elemental gene.”

I exchanged a glance with Richard. “We already know this. It’s why we’re here.”

“What you don’t know,” Lena continued, “is that there aren’t just four types of elementals. There’s another type, one that’s been kept secret for centuries. Not even Agnes’s stepmother knows about it.”

Despite my fury, I found myself intrigued. “What are you talking about?”

“Fire, water, earth, air—those are the known elemental types,” Lena explained. “But there’s a fifth type. Extremely rare, incredibly powerful. These elementals can control blood.”

A chill ran down my spine. “Blood?”

Lena nodded. “They can manipulate it in any way they choose. Make it congeal, boil, evaporate. They can control the blood inside a living person’s body. Stop hearts. Burst vessels. They have power over life and death itself—they can also keep hearts beating, purify blood.”

My eyes widened. “That’s how you killed James. And Elise.”

“Yes,” she admitted, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of what I could have sworn was regret in her eyes. “I gave them both hemorrhages. Painless, at least. They didn’t suffer.”

Richard growled behind me, furious, but didn’t attack her like I thought he would. “You’re saying you’re this… blood elemental?”

“I am. I’m actually over a century old, the last of my kind,” Lena said. “My village was right here, in this territory. We lived in peace until a strange illness swept through, one that not even our natural abilities could hinder. We needed the stone to increase our powers and save our people, but another village hid it, called us witches and refused to help, even when we were dying—and the blood elemental gene dying off with us.”

I blinked, recalling the note we’d found in that old village that day. The people had claimed to hide the stone from a group of witches who were trying to steal it to make themselves immortal.

They never mentioned mysterious illnesses or a fifth type of elemental.

I wanted to call bullshit on the whole story, but something in Lena’s eyes stopped me. A weariness that I hadn’t noticed before. The eyes of someone who’d seen too much, lived too long.

“So what?” I demanded. “You killed my friend, stole the Stone just to give away to a madwoman who would only use it for the exact thing the other village accused you of, and now you expect us to just welcome you back with open arms because you’ve decided to share your life story?”

“No,” Lena said firmly. “I don’t expect forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. What I did was unforgivable. I came because I need to help Agnes.”

“Why the sudden change of heart?” Richard asked.

Lena hesitated, then admitted, “Because I made a mistake. I went into your home with a single purpose—to find the Stone and bring it back to Agnes’s stepmother. I didn’t expect to… to care. About any of you. But I did. You were kind to me. You treated me like family.”

“So you killed our friend and betrayed us?” I snarled.

“I was scared!” Lena shot back. “You don’t understand what she’s capable of. What she can do to people who disobey her. I thought I didn’t have a choice.”

“There was always a choice,” I said coldly.

“You’re right,” she agreed, surprising me. “And I made the wrong one. I can’t change that now. But I can try to help you save Agnes and Thea before it’s too late.”

I studied her face, looking for any sign of deception. But all I saw was desperation and what appeared to be genuine remorse. Tears shimmered in her eyes, and despite myself, something small and angry inside of me softened just slightly.

“You three were the only true family I’ve had in a hundred years,” she whispered. “And I blew it, and I’m fucking sorry for what I did. I know it doesn’t change anything, but I am.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Richard asked, when I remained silent.

Lena took a deep breath. “I can get inside the facility. I know the security protocols, the guard rotations, who is truly loyal to her stepmother and who isn’t. I can find Agnes and Thea and help them.”

“How?” I demanded.

“The Stone draws power from elementals,” she explained. “It can’t create energy on its own—it can only channel it. That’s why her stepmother has been collecting child elementals, to use as batteries until they come of age. But there’s a flaw in the design.”

“What flaw?”

“Children only work because they don’t have enough power to cause any harm to the stone. Therefore, if an elemental of sufficient power feeds the wrong kind of energy into the Stone, it’ll overload. Shatter.”

I frowned. “And you think Agnes can do this?”

“Not alone,” Lena said. “She’s powerful, but she’ll need help. If I can reach her, the two of us together—fire and blood—might be able to overload the Stone and destroy it completely.”

“At what cost?” Richard grunted.

Lena’s expression darkened. “It would take everything we’ve got. The backlash could wipe not just our powers completely, but everyone’s powers within miles, potentially making the elemental gene completely extinct. But it would save everyone else in that facility. And it would stop her stepmother for good.”

I grit my teeth, considering. “And why should I believe you’re willing to risk your life for this?” I demanded. “After everything you’ve done?”

“Because I’ve got nothing left to lose,” she said simply. “And everything to make up for.”

I stared at her for a long moment, my mind racing. I didn’t trust her—couldn’t trust her after what she’d done. But if there was even a sliver of a chance that she could help Agnes and Thea…

“If you betray us again,” I growled, “if anything happens to my mate or my daughter because of you, I’ll hunt you down. I’ll make you suffer in ways you can’t even imagine. And then, when you’re begging for death, I’ll deny you even that mercy. Do you understand me?”

Lena nodded. “I understand.”

I exchanged a glance with Richard, who gave me a slight nod. I turned back to Lena.

“Alright. But this is the last time I’ll ever trust you.”