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Rage ignited inside me, and I reached for my power again. This time, it answered.

I didn’t think. I let it take over, raw and untamed, surging out of me in a blinding wave of light.

Aurelius staggered back, his hold on me shattering.

I dropped to my knees, gasping for breath, but I didn’t stop. I pushed the magic outward, surrounding him in light.

His screams filled the crypt as the magic wrapped around him, burning through his skin.

I felt it, the spell working, the mixture of Rowena’s herb and my blood taking hold.

But it wasn’t enough.

Not yet.

Tears blurred my vision, and my body trembled with the effort. “Stay down,” I whispered through gritted teeth. “Stay down!”

Aurelius writhed against the magic, his roars shaking the walls—but slowly, he weakened.

And then he fell.

The magic bound him to the ground, his body limp and smoldering.

I collapsed, my strength completely gone. My breaths came in ragged gasps, and my vision swam.

Lucas was there in an instant, his arms around me. “Annika!”

I looked up at him, my body trembling. “He’s not dead,” I whispered. “Not yet.”

Lucas’s jaw clenched, and his grip tightened.

“Then we’ll finish this,” he said. “Together.”

We stood up, his hand gripping mine so tightly it almost hurt. But I needed it. I needed that anchor to keep me standing as the last threads of magic wove around Aurelius, sealing him within the crypt once more.

I opened the vial of blood I held on me, releasing it into the air. It intertwined with the light emanating from me, locking him in a cage of luminosity. The spell pulsed through the air, vibrating in my bones, and I could feel the weight of it locking into place. Final. Unbreakable.

Or so I prayed.

Aurelius’s screams echoed, raw and guttural, but they were weakening. The power we’d unleashed, Lucas’s strength and my blood-fueled magic, was more than even he could resist.

His eyes snapped to mine. That burning, terrible gaze pinned me, and I froze as his voice sliced through the air, rasping and cold.

“This isn’t over,” he said.

The words slithered inside me, coiling tight.

“You can’t stop what’s coming,” he hissed, his lips curling into a smile that sent ice down my spine. “You’re just the beginning, Annika. The key.”

The light flared brighter, cutting him off. His scream turned into a wordless howl, and then—silence.

I gasped, the sound loud in the sudden stillness. My knees buckled, and Lucas caught me before I hit the ground.

“It’s done,” he said, his voice rough, but I heard the relief in it.

I wanted to believe him.

But before I could say anything to that, it all went black.