Aurora’s P.O.V
Maggie turned to Jade, her hands trembling as if she didn’t even know which way to hold them, then back at me, her eyes glossy with pain.
“Aurora,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I can’t choose. Don’t ask me to, please. I can’t choose between my mother and the one I love. You’re asking me to kill one of them, and I can’t…don’t you see I can’t?”
I clenched my jaw, stepping closer so she couldn’t look away. “Maggie, listen to me. Your beloved mother has slaughtered coven after coven, century after century. She hasn’t shown a shred of remorse, not once. Do you really think there’s a bargain left in her? There isn’t. The only way…” I shoved my hand toward Jade, who lay pale and weak, his chest rising and falling too shallowly. “The only way is to kill the wraith the second it takes full control of Jade’s body.”
Maggie’s breath hitched, and she shook her head violently. “No…no, there has to be another way. Maybe if I talk to her, maybe if I remind her of who she was…”
“Who was she?” I snapped, my voice sharp enough to make her flinch. “Maggie, your mother died centuries ago. What you’re clinging to isn’t her. It’s a husk. A parasite wearing her face.”
Tears streaked down Maggie’s cheeks as she wrapped her arms around herself. “Don’t say that, Aurora. Don’t you dare say that about her. She loved me once. I know she did. Somewhere in there, she still does.”
I grabbed her wrist and forced the magic dagger into her palm. “No. She doesn’t. Each time they exchange bodies, each time they covet more power, they lose whatever shred of humanity they had left. Lucas and Harmona have done this so many times there’s nothing human left in them.” I leaned closer, my voice dropping to a desperate whisper as I pushed the dagger into her hand.
“Because if they had any humanity left, Maggie, they wouldn’t have tried to sacrifice their own children.”
She staggered back, staring down at the dagger in her hand as though it had burned her skin. “I… I don’t know if I can. I can’t be the one to end her. What if I’m wrong, Aurora? What if there’s still something, someone…left inside?”
I swallowed the tightness in my throat, forcing myself to meet her broken gaze. “Then prove me wrong, Maggie. But if you wait, if you hesitate for even a heartbeat, Jade will be gone. And then it won’t matter what you believe, because you’ll have lost them both.”
Maggie’s sob broke the air between us. She gripped the dagger tighter, knuckles going white. “If I do this… if I do this, then I’ll never forgive myself.”
I held her shoulders firm, refusing to let her collapse under her own grief. “Then hate me, Maggie. Blame me. But don’t you dare let that wraith win. Don’t you dare let Jade die because you couldn’t let go of a ghost.”
She looked at me like I had just shattered every part of her world, but her hand tightened on the dagger anyway, her tears spilling faster. “You’re asking me to kill the only family I have left.”
“No,” I said softly, shaking my head. “I’m asking you to save the family you still have.”
Right then, Ashton’s voice cracked as he yelled at Maggie, his tone so raw and desperate it almost made the air feel sharp.
“Don’t you dare fall for her lies, Maggie! Don’t you dare! She’s manipulating you, can’t you see that? We’re family! Family sticks together, always!” His words were spat with such force that it was as though he believed volume alone would make them true.
I took a slow breath and stepped closer, my voice cutting through Ashton’s anger with a steady challenge.
“Family?” I echoed, narrowing my eyes at him. “If that’s what you call family, then tell me, Ashton…does that mean I’m not Maggie’s family? Does that mean Avery wasn’t family? That Violet wasn’t family?” My words came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t stop. “Because if we’re family, if that word means anything at all to you, then why didn’t Lucas stick with us? Why didn’t Harmona? Why did they keep choosing to sacrifice everyone else over and over again while still calling it loyalty?”
Ashton’s face twisted, fury flaring in his eyes, and he jabbed a finger at me like he wanted to strike me with it. “Don’t you dare twist this, Aurora! Don’t you stand there and spew your poison like you’ve always done!”
Maggie’s eyes darted between us, her lips parting like she wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come. I caught the faint tremble in her hand, the blade still poised but unmoving.
I stepped forward again, refusing to let Ashton’s shouting drown me out. “So tell me, Ashton, what exactly does family mean to you? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like family only matters when it benefits you. When it keeps you in control. When they obey.” My voice grew louder, sharper, and I could see Maggie’s breathing pick up, her conflict burning across her face.
“If family is everything, then why did they turn their backs? Why did Violet have to die without her so-called family by her side? You can scream the word all you want, but it doesn’t make it true.”
“Shut up!” Ashton roared, his face contorting with rage as he took a step forward, but Alice’s shield kept him back, the glow shimmering between us like a wall he couldn’t break through. He slammed his fist against it and snarled.
“Maggie, you’re being a stupid fool! You’ve got the dagger…in your hands and instead of doing what needs to be done, you’re standing there falling for her manipulation! You think she cares about you? She’ll destroy you the second she gets the chance! Do it, Maggie! Prove you’re not weak! Prove you’re still with us!”
Maggie’s jaw clenched, her eyes flicking down to the dagger, then back up to me. Her lips trembled, but she said nothing, her silence louder than anything she could have spoken.
I tilted my head, meeting her eyes, my voice softer now, calmer in the face of Ashton’s storm. “Maggie… you have to ask yourself. Who’s really manipulating you here? The one demanding you kill in the name of family… or the one asking you to think about what family should actually mean?”
Ashton’s voice ripped through the silence, deafening, shaking the air. “Enough! Either you kill her, or you’ve chosen her over us! And if you do… then you’re no sister of mine!”
Maggie’s lips parted in a shaky breath, and for the first time, I saw tears glisten in her eyes as she looked at me, then at Ashton, the weight of his ultimatum pressing down on her like a blade to her own throat.
I didn’t realize it at first, not until Maggie lifted my dagger higher in her hand, her knuckles white as she gripped it tightly, her chest rising and falling in uneven gasps. My breath caught in my throat as the sudden, awful realization hit me, maybe I had made a mistake when I gave her my blade.
“Maggie… what are you doing?” I asked carefully, my voice trembling but trying to hold steady, my heart pounding so hard I thought the sound alone would shatter the silence. She didn’t look at me, didn’t even glance at my face, her eyes locked entirely on Jade, whose body trembled violently as the wraith seeped deeper into him.
Jade’s lips moved then, but the words that came out weren’t his own, they were layered, distorted, the voice of something ancient and cruel wrapped around his own. “Aurora… you were too late. He is mine. You can’t kill me without killing him too.”
His eyes snapped open, glowing with a sickening, unnatural hue, and the sight of it made me stumble back a step, fear clawing into my throat. “Don’t listen to it Maggie!” I shouted, my voice breaking, but Maggie’s hand only tightened more around the dagger, her knuckles pale as bone. “Do it!”
“Don’t you dare!” Harmona screeched, voice raw.
But Maggie’s sob shook the air. “You don’t understand, mother! I’d rather kill him myself than watch you wear his face and use him to hurt everyone I care about. He would want this, he would want me to stop him before it’s too late.”
Her arm moved before I could even breathe, and instead of turning the dagger toward me like I had so feared, she drove it straight into Jade’s stomach, her scream ripping through the air like something jagged and raw.
“No!” I cried out, my hands grabbing her arm too late, my entire chest collapsing as I watched the blade sink deep, and watched Jade’s body jerk violently as the wraith inside him wailed in fury.
Jade gasped, blood spilling from his lips, but at the same time a horrifyingly radiant red light burst out of him, filling the entire place in a blinding wave. I shielded my eyes, stumbling backward with Maggie as the light consumed everything, drowning out even my own sobs. His voice echoed in that light, broken and raw. “What have you done!”
And still, the red light burned, swallowing us whole, leaving me unsure if what we destroyed was Jade… or the wraith that had taken him.