Chapter 397: I Felt It When She Died

"And then you used the attack as cover to fake your death," Victoria said. "You let me think you died. Let me mourn you. While you spent fifteen years making demon deals and corrupting yourself so you could come back strong enough to do what Mother never let you do."

Thalia was quiet for a long moment. Then she laughed.

Not a kind laugh. Not amused. Just bitter and sharp and absolutely humorless.

"Is that what you’ve been telling yourself?" Thalia asked. "That I orchestrated everything? That I wanted the family dead so I could rebuild the coven in my own image?"

"Didn’t you?" Victoria demanded.

"No," Thalia said flatly. "I wanted power, Victoria. I wanted to stop hiding what we were. I wanted to use our gift the way it was meant to be used instead of cowering behind principles that got our family hunted. But I never wanted them dead."

"Then why did you fake your death?" Victoria asked. "Why let me think...."

"Because I WAS dead!" Thalia interrupted, and for the first time Victoria heard real emotion in her voice. "The girl who walked into that estate the day before the attack died in the fire along with everyone else. What crawled out of the ruins was something different. Something that understood the only way to survive in this world is to be stronger than everything trying to kill you."

Victoria felt her chest tighten. "What are you talking about?"

Thalia set down her glass and looked at Victoria with those black eyes.

"You want to know what really happened fifteen years ago?" Thalia asked. "You want to know the truth about the attack?"

"Yes," Victoria said.

"Then sit down," Thalia said. "Because this conversation is going to take a while."

Victoria sat.

Thalia remained standing, pacing slowly around the room like a predator circling prey.

"The hunters came at dawn," Thalia began. "I saw them break through the wards. Saw them swarm the estate like locusts."

"I was in the western coven," Victoria said. "With the younger witches. We were trying to come up with....."

"While I was in the main coven," Thalia interrupted. "With Mother. With the elders. With everyone who thought they could negotiate with fanatics who wanted us dead."

Victoria remembered that. Remembered Elowen insisting they could reason with the hunters. Could make them understand that the Morvaine coven was not a threat.

It had been a fatal mistake.

"Mother tried to talk to them," Thalia continued. "Even as they surrounded the courtyard. Even as they raised blessed weapons and screamed about abominations. She tried to reason with them."

"And they killed her," Victoria said quietly.

"Eventually," Thalia said. "But not before they made her watch them slaughter everyone else first. The elders. The healers. The children who had barely manifested magic. All of them. Cut down like animals while Mother stood there in chains begging for mercy they would never give."

Victoria felt tears burn behind her eyes. She had known the attack was brutal. Had seen the aftermath. The bodies. The blood.

But hearing Thalia describe it....

"Where were you?" Victoria asked. "When they were killing everyone?"

"Hiding," Thalia said, and there was shame in her voice. "Like a coward. I ran to the underground chamber. The one where the old grimoires were kept. Where the darkest magic lived. I ran and I hid and I listened to my family die above me."

"Thalia...."

"Don’t," Thalia interrupted. "Don’t try to comfort me. Don’t tell me I did what I had to do. I know what I did. I chose survival over dying with my principles intact. And I’ve been paying for it ever since."

Victoria looked at her cousin and saw something she had not expected.

Guilt.

Buried deep beneath the corruption and the darkness. But there. Real.

"What happened after the hunters left?" Victoria asked quietly.

"I stayed underground for two days," Thalia said. "Waiting to make sure they were really gone. When I finally came up, the estate was ash. Everything burned. Everyone dead."

"I found remains," Victoria said. "In the main house. I thought they were yours."

"They were someone’s," Thalia said. "I don’t know whose. The fire burned too hot to identify anyone. But I knew if I wanted to survive....truly survive....I needed everyone to think I was dead too."

"Why?" Victoria demanded. "Why not find me? Why not...."

"Because you would have tried to stop me," Thalia said simply. "You would have seen what I was planning to do and you would have said the same things Mother always said. That power without wisdom is tyranny. That our gift was meant to heal, not control. All the principles that got our family killed."

"Our gift is meant to heal...."

"Our gift is meant to survive!" Thalia shouted. "And the only way to survive is to be strong enough that no one dares attack you! To have enough power that when hunters come with blessed weapons and righteous fury, they die before they can touch you!"

Victoria flinched at the fury in Thalia’s voice.

"So you spent fifteen years making demon deals," Victoria said. "Corrupting yourself. Becoming exactly the monster the hunters believed we were."

"Yes," Thalia said. "And I would do it again. Because Victoria, I’m alive. I’m powerful. And no one will ever hurt me the way they hurt our family. Ever. Again."

The conviction in her voice was absolute.

Victoria looked at her cousin....at the black eyes and shadow robes and corrupted magic, and felt grief wash over her.

This was not the Thalia she remembered. This was something else. Something that wore her cousin’s face but had burned away everything that made her human.

"I didn’t come here to judge you," Victoria said quietly. "I came here because I need your help."

"I know," Thalia said. "Lilith is dead. You want to resurrect her. And you need access to Underworld entities that only I can reach."

Victoria’s breath caught. "How do you...."

"I felt it when she died," Thalia interrupted. "Two days ago. The surge of power as the curse rejected her transformation attempt. The bonds breaking. The moment when pure Morvaine magic was extinguished from the world." Thalia turned to face Victoria fully. "I’ve been waiting for you to come."