Aria's POV
"You're dead." The words came out flat, emotionless. "I felt you die when the suppressants broke. The backlash should have killed you."
My mother—Elena Blackwood—smiled, and it was the coldest thing I'd ever seen. "I'm harder to kill than you think, daughter. Blood witch heritage runs strong in our line."
"You're a blood witch?" Rowan stepped forward, her power flaring. "That's impossible. Grandma would have known. She tracked every bloodline—"
"Your grandmother knew exactly what I was." Elena's voice was sharp as glass. "She just didn't tell you everything. The Blackwood family has secrets within secrets, girl. And I'm the one who buried them deepest."
My mind reeled. All these years, my mother had suppressed my power, made me weak, sold me to slavers—and she'd been a blood witch herself the entire time?
"Why?" The question came out broken. "Why would you do this to me? To your own daughter?"
"Because you were supposed to stay hidden." Elena moved closer, and I noticed she looked younger than she should—decades younger. Blood magic, keeping her preserved. "I kept you weak to protect you. To protect our family. But you couldn't just accept your place, could you? You had to go and awaken at the worst possible time."
"Protect me?" Rage bubbled up through my exhaustion. "You sold me to Blood Moon! You let them chain me and beat me and—"
"I sold you to Cade Winters specifically," Elena interrupted. "Do you think it was coincidence that the one decent rogue Alpha in the territories bought your contract? I made sure of it. Made sure you'd end up somewhere you could survive long enough to awaken safely."
Cade's expression darkened. "You manipulated me."
"I paid you." Elena shrugged. "Fifty thousand for the debt, plus another hundred thousand under the table to ensure my daughter was kept alive and relatively unharmed. You got rich off me, Winters. Don't pretend you're the victim here."
The revelation hit me like a physical blow. Everything I thought I knew was a lie. My mother hadn't abandoned me—she'd orchestrated my captivity. But why?
"The Council is hunting blood witches," Elena continued. "The Bloodhunters are rising. And in the middle of all this chaos, you decide to announce yourself to every Alpha in the territories?" She laughed bitterly. "You've made yourself the most wanted creature in North America, Aria. Everything I did to protect you, wasted."
"Then why are you here?" Dominic growled, moving to my side. "To lecture her? To blame her for surviving?"
"I'm here because she's my daughter, and despite everything, I don't want her dead." Elena's mask cracked slightly, showing something that might have been actual emotion. "The Council is coming. They have weapons specifically designed to kill blood witches—ancient artifacts from the purge. And they have your friend Zara as bait."
"I know," I said through gritted teeth. "We're going to save her."
"You'll die trying." Elena shook her head. "The trap is too sophisticated. They have silver nets blessed by witch hunters, blood-binding chains, and at least twenty trained enforcers. You're exhausted from fighting Bloodhunters. Rowan can barely stand. You won't make it past the first barrier."
"So what, we just leave her?" My voice rose. "Let them torture her to draw me out anyway?"
"No." Elena's eyes gleamed. "You let me help you. I know ways into Blood Moon that the Council doesn't. I have contacts, resources, magic you haven't learned yet." She extended her hand. "Let me teach you what you should have learned years ago. Let me help you save your friend and survive what's coming."
Every instinct I had screamed not to trust her. This woman had poisoned me for two decades, sold me into slavery, lied about everything.
But I was out of options.
"If this is a trick—" I started.
"Then you'll kill me with that shiny new power of yours," Elena finished. "I know what you can do, Aria. I helped design the suppressants that held you back. I know exactly how dangerous you are now that you're free." Something like pride flickered across her face. "You're stronger than I ever was at your age. Maybe strong enough to actually win this war."
"What war?" Rowan asked suspiciously.
"The one that's been brewing for three hundred years." Elena looked at each of us. "The Council thought they wiped out blood witches. They were wrong. We've been hiding, planning, waiting for the right moment to emerge." Her smile was sharp. "Congratulations, Aria. Your awakening just started the revolution."
Before anyone could respond, Elena's phone buzzed. She checked it, and her face went pale.
"We're out of time. The Council just moved up their timeline." She turned the phone around, showing a live video feed.
Zara hung from chains in the middle of Blood Moon's main square, barely conscious, blood dripping from dozens of cuts. Council enforcers surrounded her, weapons drawn.
And standing in front of her, smiling for the camera, was Alpha Thorne—Dominic's father.
"We know you're watching, blood witch," he said directly to the camera. "You have one hour to surrender yourself to Council custody. If you refuse, we start removing pieces of your friend. Slowly." He gestured to Zara. "The choice is yours."
The feed cut out.
Dominic's wolf roared to the surface. "My father is behind this?"
"Your father has always been the Council's most loyal dog," Elena said coldly. "Did you really think he'd accept a blood witch as his son's mate?"
"We go now," I said, my voice deadly calm. "We save Zara, and then I'm going to show the Council exactly why they should have left blood witches extinct."
"Finally," Rowan said, cracking her knuckles. "A plan I can get behind."
Cade checked his weapons. "I've got vehicles and backup ready. We can be there in twenty minutes."
"Make it ten," I said. "And someone find me a weapon. I'm done being hunted."
Elena's smile was savage. "Now you sound like a Blackwood." She pulled a small vial from her pocket—the same dark liquid Cade had used to break my suppressants. "Drink this. All of it."
"What is it?"
"Concentrated blood essence from our ancestors. Every blood witch who died in the purge left their power in their bloodlines, waiting to be reclaimed." Her eyes glowed. "You want to be strong enough to face the Council? This will give you centuries of accumulated magic. It'll also hurt like hell and might kill you if you're not strong enough to handle it."
I took the vial without hesitation and drank.
The pain was instant and absolute. My veins caught fire. My blood felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside, rewriting everything I was at a fundamental level.
I screamed, dropping to my knees.
Through the agony, I felt them—all of them. Every blood witch who'd died fighting the Council, every ancestor who'd hidden and survived, every drop of power they'd left behind in the Blackwood line.
And it was all flowing into me.
When the pain finally subsided, I opened my eyes.
The world looked different. I could see the blood flowing through everyone around me, could feel every heartbeat within a mile, could sense the web of life connecting every living thing in the territory.
I was no longer just a blood witch.
I was a blood sovereign.
"How do you feel?" Elena asked.
I stood, power crackling around me like lightning. "Like I could burn down the world."
"Good." My mother's smile was proud and terrifying. "Because that's exactly what we're about to do."
We piled into the vehicles, my power singing through my veins like a war song.
The Council wanted a blood witch to surrender?
They were going to get a monster instead.
But as we drove toward Blood Moon, my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.
I opened it and felt my blood run cold.
It was a photo of my father, Marcus, bound and gagged in a Council cell. And beneath it, a message:
"Your mother isn't the only one with secrets. Ask her what really happened to your grandmother. Ask her why the Blackwood line was really targeted in the purge. Ask her what she promised the Council in exchange for keeping you alive. — A Friend"
I looked at Elena sitting in the front seat, her expression unreadable.
And I realized I'd just drunk power from a woman who might be leading me straight into the Council's hands.