(Selene's POV)
The moment the arrow left her fingers, Selene knew she had made a mistake.
She had acted on impulse.
And now—
She was running.
The battlefield disappeared behind her, a blur of fire and smoke as she vanished into the night. The wind howled through the ruined land, carrying the scent of blood and death.
Selene didn't stop.
Didn't slow.
She moved through the dense, gnarled trees of the vampire domain, the ashen moonlight casting eerie shadows on her path.
But no amount of darkness could swallow the storm raging in her mind.
Her fingers twitched, still curled from the release of the arrow. The memory played on a loop in her head.
Kastiel, poised to end Eloise's life.
Eloise, her face twisted in grief.
And then—
Selene's betrayal.
Her heart should have been steady.
Instead, it thundered in her chest.
What have I done?
She skidded to a stop near the ruined outskirts of the vampire stronghold. A silent, abandoned watchtower loomed ahead, its blackened stone crumbling from centuries of war.
She leaned against it, forcing air into her lungs, her mind spiraling.
She had saved a witch.
A witch.
The very creatures who had torn her world apart.
The ones who had slaughtered her family, leaving her to rot in the shadows of vengeance.
She should have been glad to see another one of them perish.
Instead, she had acted.
Why?
Her hands curled into fists, nails digging into her palms.
Her body had moved before she could think, before she could remind herself of all the blood witches had spilled.
And now, there would be consequences.
The vampires were ruthless when it came to betrayal.
Selene had seen it before—traitors torn limb from limb, their ashes scattered into the wind.
She had never once cared.
Never once pitied them.
Now, she was one of them.
Kastiel wouldn't let this go.
The news would reach the Draculas, the supreme rulers of the vampire clans.
They would hunt down the one responsible.
And they would find her.
Her stomach twisted.
Had anyone seen?
Eloise had.
The witch had seen exactly what Selene had done.
Selene exhaled sharply, pressing her fingers to her temples. She should have let Kastiel kill her.
It would have been easy.
It would have been right.
But that moment—the way Eloise clung to her fallen coven member, the way her hands trembled as she tried to hold onto someone already lost—
Selene had hesitated.
She had felt something.
Something she didn't want to name.
Something dangerous.
She slammed her fist against the stone wall, her breath coming out in harsh, uneven gasps.
This wasn't just a mistake.
It was suicide.
And for what?
For a witch?
For someone who would have driven a dagger through her heart the first chance she got?
Selene gritted her teeth, tilting her head back against the cold stone. She needed to fix this.
She needed to make sure no one ever found out.
The council couldn't know.
The vampires couldn't know.
And above all—
Eloise couldn't know why.
She pushed off the wall, her golden eyes burning in the dark.
If there was one thing she had learned in centuries of war, it was that mercy was a weakness.
And she would never—never—make that mistake again.
Even if the memory of Eloise's eyes haunted her.
Even if, for the first time in over a hundred years—
She felt alive.