Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings novel Chapter 397

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." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"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....

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