CHAPTER 78: BLOOD AND BROTHERHOOD

Chapter 78: Blood and Brotherhood

Kael and Jace spoke together, their words cutting through the morning air like two blades of steel. "We choose—" "—to break the blood bond!" Lyra felt like she was being hit by words.

Her beautiful face turned red with shock and then anger. "You can’t!" "You’re my sons!" "We’re brothers first," Kael said, his voice steady despite the pain.

He grabbed Jace’s hand and their fingers touched. "And we won’t let Rowan die for your madness." Jace agreed, but tears were running down his face. "Sorry, Mother.

When you put power over love, though, you quit being our family. They started to talk together in the old language, which had been illegal for hundreds of years.

The ancient rite of blood severance—a magic so dangerous it could kill the caster. "No!" Lyra shrieked, abandoning her attack on Liana to rush toward her boys. "You don’t understand what you’re doing!" But she was too late. The brothers’ combined voices rose in harmony, each word sparkling with silver light.

The magic built between them, sparking with power that made the air itself burn. On the ground, Rowan’s breathing became stronger, color returning to his pale face. "Sanguis divisus, anima liberata," they chanted, their voices getting louder. "We sever the ties that bind us to thee."

The magic reached its peak. A brilliant flash of light erupted from the joined hands of the brothers, shooting high like a silver spear.

The shockwave that followed shattered the old stones of the ritual circle, sending the watching Alphas stumbling backward. Lyra screamed as her magical link to her sons was ripped away.

The beautiful, terrible power that had surrounded her flickered and died. She fell to her knees, clutching her chest as if something important had been torn from her body. "My power," she whispered, staring at her hands in fear. "My beautiful power." But the brothers had paid a price too. Kael fell first, his face gray with exhaustion. Jace fell beside him, his breathing shallow.

The power that had made them Alpha-strong was gone, leaving them as weak as newborn pups. Rowan sat up slowly, his blue eyes clear for the first time in hours.

He looked at his fallen brothers, then at their mother, understanding filling his features. "They saved me," he whispered. "They gave up everything to save me." Liana saw her chance. With Lyra’s power broken, the witch was vulnerable.

She called upon Selene and Mara’s combined power, silver fire dancing around her hands. "This ends now!" Liana shouted, firing a bolt of pure moon-fire at the kneeling woman. But Lyra wasn’t helpless yet. Years of learning dark magic had taught her more than blood bonds.

She raised her hands, and shadows emerged from the cracked stones, swallowing her attack. "You think you’ve won?" Lyra growled, her beauty now twisted with rage.

"You’ve only made me desperate. And desperate witches are the most dangerous kind." She stood, darkness moving around her like living smoke. "I came here thinking I could reclaim my kids peacefully. But if I can’t have them..." Her eyes fixed on Liana with murderous purpose. "Then I’ll make sure no one else can either."

The shadows around her grew thicker, making a cocoon of midnight darkness. When she spoke again, her voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "The blood link is broken, but there are other ways to claim what’s mine. Older ways. Darker ways." Elder Mira stepped forward, her ritual staff sparkling with protective light. "The duel is incomplete!" she stated, her voice carrying over the chaos.

"The challenge stands unresolved!" The shadows writhed, and Lyra’s laughter echoed from within them. "Incomplete? Oh, my dear Mira. This fight is far from over. It’s just beginning." The darkness began to fall inward, taking Lyra with it.

But before she vanished totally, her voice rang out one final time. "Seven days, little omega. Seven days to prepare for what’s coming. Because next time, I won’t be so forgiving."

The shadows imploded with a sound like breaking glass, leaving only burned ground where Lyra had stood. Silence fell over the traditional circle. The twenty Alphas stood frozen, wondering what to make of what they’d witnessed.

The most powerful witch in generations had just fled, but her parting words promised something worse to come. Liana rushed to the fallen boys, dropping to her knees beside them. Kael’s eyes were closed, his breaths shallow. Jace was aware but barely, his hand still clasped in his brother’s. "Are they...?" she couldn’t finish the question.

Rowan crawled over to them, his own strength still returning. He put his hands on their chests, his empath abilities reading their condition.

"They’re alive," he said, relief flooding his voice. "But the separation... it took almost everything. Their Alpha strength, their enhanced healing, their link to the pack mind. It’s all gone."

"Will it come back?" Liana asked, her heart breaking at the sight of the two strongest men she knew reduced to this. "I don’t know," Rowan revealed. "Blood magic isn’t like other kinds. When it’s broken this way..." He shook his head. "They might never be the same."

Around them, the Alpha Council started to argue in hushed voices. Some claimed the incomplete duel meant Lyra’s challenge was still valid. Others claimed her withdrawal was tantamount to surrender.

The debate got heated, voices rising. "This is unprecedented," stated Alpha Morrison, his weathered face grim.

"In seven centuries of pack law, we’ve never had a challenge end this way." "The witch fled," argued Alpha Chen. "That should count as defeat." "She didn’t flee," countered Alpha Volkov. "She strategically withdrew.

There’s a difference." Elder Mira raised her staff, calling for silence. "The ancient rules are clear. An incomplete duel means the challenge stays open. Until there is a clear victor, the pack’s control is... disputed."

The word hung in the air like a death sentence. A disputed leadership meant chaos, division, possible civil war.

"What does that mean for us?" Talia asked, appearing at Liana’s side. Her young face was pale with worry. "It means everything just got a lot more complicated," Liana answered, helping Rowan lift his unconscious brothers.

"And we have less than a week to figure out what Lyra’s planning next." As they carried Kael and Jace away from the broken ritual circle, Liana felt the weight of twenty Alpha gazes on her back.

Half of them looked at her with respect, the other half with doubt. The unity she’d worked so hard to build was already starting to crack.

But it was Rowan’s quiet words that chilled her most. "She called it merciful," he said as they walked. "What she did today, nearly killing me, stealing our power... she called it merciful."

He looked at Liana with haunted eyes. "If that was mercy, what’s she planning for her real attack?" Behind them, the Alpha Council’s arguments got louder, more fractured.

And somewhere in the shadows between worlds, a witch with nothing left to lose was planning her payback. Seven days.

They had seven days to prepare for a war they couldn’t even imagine yet. The brotherhood had been saved, but at what cost? And would their sacrifice be enough when the real fight began? In the distance, storm clouds formed on the horizon, moving against the wind.