Chapter 384: Lilith Is Dead

The room went silent.

Absolute. Complete. Devastating silence.

Then Sebastian made a sound like an animal being gutted.

Lucian punched the wall hard enough to crack the stone.

And Nicholas....

Nicholas just stood there frozen. Staring at Lilith’s body. Not moving. Not speaking. Not breathing.

Victoria took a breath and forced her voice to stay steady.

"Preserve her body," Victoria said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"What?" Nicholas said.

"Preserve her body," Victoria repeated. She moved toward the ritual circle, stepping carefully over the destroyed salt lines. "Keep it cold. Don’t let it decay. I’ll be back in two days."

"Back from where?" Sebastian demanded. "Victoria, she’s DEAD! What are you...."

"I can bring her back," Victoria interrupted.

The statement hung in the air like a bomb.

"What?" Nicholas said again.

Victoria knelt beside Lilith’s body and placed her hand over Lilith’s still heart. The skin was already cooling. Already beginning the process of death.

But resurrection was possible. Difficult. Dangerous. Forbidden.

But possible.

"I’ve been preparing a backup plan," Victoria said. "In case the transformation failed. Resurrection magic. It’s dangerous and forbidden and will probably corrupt me. But it will bring her back."

"How?" Lucian asked, and his voice was hollow.

"I can’t explain right now," Victoria said. She pulled a spelled container from her bag and carefully collected a sample of Lilith’s blood, still fresh, still carrying her magical signature. "I need to move fast. I have seven days to resurrect her or the soul bonds will dissolve and we’ll lose her permanently."

"Seven days?" Sebastian said. "What are you talking about?"

"Soul bonds persist beyond death," Victoria explained quickly. "Even though Lilith is dead, the bonds are still holding her soul in the space between life and death. She’s not fully gone yet. But in seven days, even the bonds won’t be strong enough. She’ll slip into whatever comes after and we’ll lose her forever."

She stood and looked at the three Alphas.

All of them were breaking. All of them looked like they wanted to tear the world apart.

But they were listening.

"Preserve her body," Victoria repeated. "Use ice magic. Stasis spells. Whatever you have to do. Keep her from decaying. I’ll be back as soon as I can with everything I need to bring her back."

"Where are you going?" Nicholas asked, and his voice was dangerous.

"To do things I’ll regret," Victoria said honestly. "To make deals I shouldn’t make. To cross lines I can’t uncross. To become someone you’ll probably hate. But I will bring her back. I promise you that."

She turned toward the door.

"Victoria, wait..." Elena started.

"Take care of them," Victoria interrupted, looking back at Elena. "Keep them functional. Keep them from doing anything stupid. I’ll be back in two days with everything we need."

She did not wait for a response.

Victoria opened a portal, green energy swirling, the destination coordinates already locked in her mind, and stepped through.

Leaving the Alphas with Lilith’s body.

Leaving Elena to pick up the pieces.

Leaving everything behind to execute the most desperate plan of her life.

***

Nicholas stood frozen as Victoria’s portal closed.

Stood frozen as Elena began quietly crying.

Stood frozen as Sebastian collapsed beside Lilith’s body and Lucian destroyed another section of wall.

Through the bond...

Nothing.

The connection that had been constant since the moment he marked Lilith was gone. Severed. Dissolved into nothing.

She was dead.

His mate was dead.

The girl he loved was lying motionless in a destroyed ritual circle with blood staining her white robes and her chest completely, terribly still.

Nicholas felt Kael howling inside him.

Felt the wolf demanding they shift. Demanding they fight. Demanding they do something...anything...to fix this.

But there was nothing to fix.

Nothing to fight.

Lilith was dead and no amount of power or pack magic or desperate determination could change that.

Nicholas took one step toward her body.

Then another.

His legs felt like they were made of stone. Each movement required conscious effort. Each breath hurt.

He dropped to his knees beside Lilith and carefully....so carefully lifted her into his arms.

She was limp. Heavy in the way that dead things were heavy. Her head lolled against his shoulder. Her hands hung loose at her sides.

Blood was still wet on her face. Still warm.

Nicholas wiped it away with shaking hands.

"I’m sorry," he whispered. "I’m so sorry. I should have...I should have found another way. Should have protected you better. Should have..."

His voice broke completely.

The bond was gone.

The connection that had made Lilith his mate...that had tied their souls together....was completely, absolutely severed.

She was just a body now.

Just cooling flesh and stopped heartbeat and everything Nicholas loved contained in a shell that would decay if he did not follow Victoria’s instructions.

Preserve the body, Victoria had said.

Nicholas looked at Sebastian and Lucian.

Both of them were breaking in their own ways. Sebastian crying silently with his face pressed against the wall. Lucian standing in the rubble of the stone he had destroyed with his hands bleeding and his eyes empty.

"We need to preserve her body," Nicholas said, and his voice sounded dead even to his own ears.

"She’s gone," Lucian said. "The bond is gone. She’s GONE."

"Victoria said she can bring her back," Nicholas said.

"Victoria is insane," Lucian said flatly. "Resurrection is impossible. It’s forbidden magic that doesn’t work. We just watched Lilith die, Nicholas. She’s not coming back."

"She has to come back," Sebastian said, his voice muffled. "She has to. I can’t....I can’t do this without her."

Nicholas looked down at Lilith’s face.

Peaceful now. No more pain. No more fear. Just still and quiet and dead.

"Victoria said seven days," Nicholas said. "We preserve the body for seven days. We give her a chance to try. And if it doesn’t work...." He stopped.

He could not finish that sentence.

Could not imagine what came after if resurrection failed.

Could not conceive of a future where Lilith stayed dead.

Through the empty space where the bond used to be, Nicholas felt nothing.

Just hollow absence.

Just the terrible certainty that the most important part of him had been ripped away.

"Seven days," Nicholas said again. "We give Victoria seven days."