The first explosion shattered the stillness. Stone and dust rained from the upper balconies as red alarm lights flared across the estate. Aurelia stumbled back from the training yard, shielding her eyes. The protective wards Kane had set along the walls flickered, then failed entirely.
"Inside!" he ordered.
But the command came too late. Shapes poured through the ruined gate wolves and soldiers both, their armor carrying the mark of the old packs. At their head walked Lysandra, hair unbound, eyes glinting like sharpened emeralds.
"Kane D'Lyric," she called, her voice echoing off marble and iron. "You promised peace. I'm here to collect on the lie."
Kane drew his sword. "You brought them to their deaths."
"No," she said. "I brought them to yours."
Aurelia stepped forward before she realized she was moving. "Lysandra, stop!"
Her sister's gaze softened for only a heartbeat. "You shouldn't be here, Ria. They're using you."
"I decide who uses me."
Kane's soldiers formed a line behind him. The courtyard trembled with the growl of shifting wolves, claws striking stone. Through the chaos, Aurelia could feel the bond pulsing, wild and uncontrollable. Each heartbeat of Kane's flared through her own, feeding the power coiled beneath her skin.
Lysandra noticed. "You feel it, don't you? That tether isn't love, it's a leash. Break it, and you're free."
Aurelia shook her head. "You don't understand"
"I understand perfectly," Lysandra snapped. "You were the Council's experiment. His bond was the chain."
The accusation sliced deeper than any blade. Aurelia looked to Kane, searching for denial, but his silence was answer enough.
"Tell me she's wrong," she said.
Kane's jaw tightened. "It doesn't matter where it began. Only what we do with it now."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one that keeps you alive."
The ground cracked beneath her feet as her control faltered. Energy surged outward in a ring of crimson light, knocking both armies back. Trees bent toward her; the air shimmered.
Kane's voice cut through the roar. "Aurelia! Focus!"
She tried, but the power kept growing, fed by anger, grief, and the memory of everything she'd lost. Lysandra raised a hand in defense; the blast sent her sprawling but unbroken.
When the light faded, the courtyard was a ruin. Smoke curled from shattered columns, and every eye turned toward the girl standing in the center of the wreckage.
Lysandra rose slowly. "You see? They fear you already."
Aurelia's hands shook. "I don't want their fear."
"Then come with me," her sister said. "Help me end this empire. We'll burn the Council, free the packs, and no one will ever own us again."
Kane's voice was low but steady. "She'll die before they let that happen."
"Maybe she'd rather die free," Lysandra countered.
The world narrowed to the three of them blood, bond, and choice.
Kane stepped forward, sword lowered. "Lysandra, leave now. I'll grant you safe passage."
"Your mercy means nothing." She raised her hand, signaling the attack.
The yard erupted again. Steel met claw, and the air filled with the metallic scent of blood. Aurelia moved without thinking, intercepting a strike aimed at Kane. Power leapt from her fingertips, a whip of red light that sent the attacker flying.
Kane caught her by the shoulders, breath ragged. "You fight with me, then?"
"For now," she said.
He almost smiled. "Good enough."
They fought back to back, seamless despite the chaos. Every movement felt connected, guided by the pulse between them. Around them, the estate burned marble splitting, banners falling.
The flames climbed the stone walls, licking the carved wolf statues until their eyes seemed to glow. The air trembled with the clash of steel and the roar of shifting bodies. Aurelia's pulse beat in rhythm with Kane's: a shared thunder that blurred thought and instinct into one.
Across the courtyard, Lysandra cut through the smoke like a wraith. The soldiers around her moved with inhuman coordination, their weapons marked by the same crimson sigils Aurelia had seen on the trees in the forest. These weren't just rebels they were remnants of the Council's hidden army.
Kane's voice reached her over the din. "She's using the old rites. She'll bring the barrier down for good!"
"Then stop her!" Aurelia shouted.
He caught her arm. "If I leave you"
"I can hold my own."
The look he gave her was half warning, half belief. Then he turned and vanished into the melee.
Aurelia pushed forward through the smoke, searching for her sister. When she found her, Lysandra stood at the center of a glowing circle of runes, arms lifted, blood trailing from a cut across her palm. The sigils pulsed brighter with every drop.
"Don't," Aurelia said.
"It's the only way," Lysandra replied, voice shaking but resolute. "The Council's control ends tonight."
"This power will kill you!"
"Better that than live as their experiment."
Aurelia stepped into the circle. The light flared, hot enough to burn the edges of her vision. "Then let me share it."
Lysandra froze. "You'd die for him?"
"For you," Aurelia said. "For both of us."
The bond surged, answering the truth in her words. Red light spiraled from her mark, weaving through the runes until the circle cracked. The magic howled wild, ancient, unbound. Kane appeared at the edge of the courtyard just as the blast struck. He dove forward, pulling both sisters to the ground as the shockwave ripped through the estate.
Silence followed, thick and ringing. The once-grand gates lay twisted. Half the mansion smoldered. Only the three of them remained upright amid the ruin.
Lysandra coughed, pushing herself up. "It worked. The barrier's gone. They'll come now the packs, the Council, everyone."
Kane's eyes swept the devastation. "You've started a war."
Lysandra smiled weakly. "Good."
Aurelia rose unsteadily. "There has to be another way."
Kane's hand found hers, steadying her. "There isn't. Not anymore."
The contact sent a tremor through both of them. The bond, weakened by exhaustion, still burned faintly between their palms. She could feel the truth of what he wasn't saying that every enemy on the continent would come for them now, and the only thing holding them together was that fragile connection.
Lysandra looked at their joined hands and shook her head. "You can't save each other. The Council will use that bond to track you."
"Then I'll use it first," Aurelia said. Her voice surprised even herself; it was calm, commanding. "If they want power, I'll show them what real power looks like."
The wind shifted, carrying the scent of blood and smoke away. In the distance, horns echoed signals from the outer watchtowers. Reinforcements or executioners, she couldn't tell.
Kane turned to her. "We have minutes before they're on us. You have to choose: run with her, or fight with me."
Lysandra's gaze softened. "Come with me, Ria. We can end them all."
Aurelia's heartbeat hammered in her throat. She looked at her sister the last piece of her old life and at Kane, the man who had both cursed and saved her. The bond pulsed once, deep and resonant, demanding a decision.
"I choose neither," she said. "I choose to end the Council's hold on all of us."
Lysandra's eyes widened. "You don't have the strength"
"Maybe not alone."
She reached out; Kane caught her hand without hesitation. Power leapt between them, light surging from their joined marks until the air itself hummed. The red glow spread through the cracks in the courtyard, racing outward toward the forest, a signal flare that would call every pack, every exile, every creature still bound by the Council's chains.
Lysandra stumbled back, shielding her face. "What have you done?"
Aurelia's voice was a whisper and a vow. "I've lit the match."
Above them, the crimson moon flared one final time before the clouds swallowed it whole.
When the light faded, the estate stood in eerie quiet. Kane still held her hand. "You just declared war," he said.
"I know."
"Then we fight it together."
Aurelia nodded once. In the distance, the first answering howls rose hundreds of them, carrying through the night like a promise.
Lysandra vanished into the smoke, her figure dissolving among the shadows. Kane and Aurelia stood alone in the ruins, bound by power, hunted by gods and monsters alike.
The empire of blood had fallen silent, but the war for its crown had only begun.