Chapter 396: Victoria Found Thalia

Victoria reached for the door.

And stopped.

Something felt wrong. Too easy. After everything she had been through....the searching, the fighting, the corruption....finding Thalia should not be this simple.

She examined the door more closely.

And saw it.

Wards. Powerful ones. Woven into the wood and stone so subtly she had almost missed them.

Wards designed to do what exactly?

Victoria extended her magical senses carefully.

The wards were....

Traps.

Designed to trigger if anyone except Thalia tried to open the door. Designed to kill or maim or trap whoever was foolish enough to try.

Of course Thalia would protect her hiding place.

Of course she would not make it easy even after Victoria had found her.

Victoria stepped back and looked at the building.

She could try to break through the wards. But that would take time and energy she could not spare. Would probably alert Thalia to her presence in a way that put Victoria at a disadvantage.

Or....

Victoria pulled out the communication mirror.

But instead of calling Elena, she activated a different function. One she had prepared specifically for this moment.

A message spell. Targeted. Designed to reach Thalia directly.

Victoria spoke into the mirror:

"I’m here. Outside your hiding place. I know you’ve been expecting me. So stop playing games and let me in. We need to talk."

She sent the message and waited.

For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then the door opened.

Not violently. Just.....opened. Like someone had unlocked it from the inside.

And standing in the doorway....

Thalia.

The woman standing in the doorway was Thalia.

And she was not.

Victoria stared at her cousin and felt fifteen years of grief and rage and desperate hope collide in her chest.

Thalia looked different from the last time Victoria had seen her....during the attack on the Blackwood estate, when Thalia had been surrounded by dark creatures and corrupted magic, when she had been trying to take Lilith by force.

That version of Thalia had been wild. Desperate. Barely recognizable beneath the corruption.

This version was controlled.

Thalia stood in the doorway of her Underworld sanctum wearing robes that looked like they had been woven from shadow itself. Her dark hair was longer than Victoria remembered, falling past her shoulders in waves that seemed to move on their own. Her face was the same....sharp features, intelligent eyes, the Morvaine bone structure they both shared.

But her eyes were different.

Before the massacre, Thalia’s eyes had been brown. Warm. Human.

Now they were black. Completely black. Like looking into the void.

Demon corruption. The kind that came from making too many dark bargains. From trading pieces of your humanity for power until there was barely anything human left.

"Victoria," Thalia said, and her voice was exactly as Victoria remembered. "You found me. I’m impressed. I thought it would take you at least three days. You managed it in two."

Victoria did not move. Could not move. Just stood there staring at the cousin she had mourned for fifteen years. The cousin she had performed death rites for. The cousin who had apparently been alive this entire time.

"I thought you were dead," Victoria said, and her voice came out broken.

"I know," Thalia said. "That was intentional."

The casual cruelty of it hit Victoria like a physical blow.

"I mourned you," Victoria said. "I found what I thought was your body in the ruins. I performed the death rites myself. I buried you next to Mother and...." Her voice cracked. "I spent fifteen years believing you died in that fire."

"And I spent fifteen years building power you could never imagine," Thalia said. She stepped aside and gestured into the sanctum. "Come in, cousin. We have much to discuss."

Victoria hesitated.

Every instinct screamed at her to run. To get away from this creature wearing her cousin’s face. To refuse whatever trap Thalia was laying.

But she needed Thalia’s help.

Needed access to the Underworld entities only Thalia could reach.

Needed the knowledge of death magic that Thalia had spent fifteen years gathering.

Victoria stepped through the doorway.

The interior of the sanctum was exactly what Victoria expected from someone who had corrupted themselves with demon magic.

The walls were made of solidified shadow. The floor was black stone that absorbed all light. The air tasted like blood and ash and things that should not exist.

And everywhere....evidence of dark rituals. Altars stained with old blood. Circles carved into the floor. Jars containing things Victoria did not want to identify.

This was where Thalia had been hiding. This was the sanctuary she had built while Victoria searched the mortal realm like a fool.

Thalia closed the door behind them and walked to a table in the center of the room. She poured two glasses of something that looked like wine but smelled like smoke.

"Drink?" Thalia offered.

"No," Victoria said flatly.

Thalia shrugged and took a sip from one glass. "Suit yourself. Though you look like you could use it. You’re bleeding, by the way. The gatekeeper gave you trouble?"

Victoria looked down at her arm where the demon’s claws had torn through her robes. The wound was still bleeding sluggishly. Her ribs still ached from being thrown. Her throat was bruised from being choked.

"I handled it," Victoria said.

"I can see that," Thalia said. She studied Victoria with those black eyes. "You used blood magic. I can feel it on you. The corruption spreading through your magical channels. Making you into something you were never meant to be."

"I did what I had to do," Victoria said.

"Just like I did," Thalia said quietly. "Funny how that works."

Victoria felt rage spike through her exhaustion. "Don’t compare what you’ve done to what I’m doing. I’m trying to save someone I love. You’re..." She stopped. "You’re trying to control the entire supernatural world."

"Am I?" Thalia asked. "Is that what you think this is about?"

"Isn’t it?" Victoria challenged. "You wanted to weaponize our gift. Mother said no. You disagreed. And then the hunters came and..." She stopped.

Thalia’s expression was unreadable. "And then what, Victoria? Finish the thought."