Knots of the Hybrid Queen: Claimed by Four Alphas

Chapter 54: Judgment

The wards flared one more time—bright enough I had to close my eyes or go blind—and when the light finally died Draven was still kneeling on the floor with his hand on the anchor stone except his veins weren’t just black anymore, they were pulsing with red that looked way too much like demon-spawn eyes.

Not good. That was decidedly not good.

"Draven?" His name came out strangled because my throat had decided swallowing was optional and also my lungs were doing that thing where they forgot how to expand properly.

He didn’t answer. Just stayed there frozen with his palm pressed to the stone while whatever the wards had done to him finished processing, and the bond between us tasted like copper and ash in ways that made my brain scream danger.

"The ward accepted him." Morgana’s voice was clinical but I caught the underlying holy shit we got lucky tone. "His intent was pure enough. He can access the binding now."

Access the binding. That was good. That was what we’d come here for. Except Draven’s eyes were still closed and his veins were still doing the pulsing black-and-red thing and the bond was carrying feedback that tasted wrong.

"Draven." I tried again, louder this time. "Can you hear me?"

His eyes opened.

They were red. Fully red. No whites, no pupils, just demon-red from edge to edge. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

Oh no. Oh no no no—

"It’s—" His voice came out wrong, layered with something that wasn’t entirely him. "I can feel it. The binding. The demon. It’s—" He couldn’t finish because apparently whatever the anchor had done was beyond words.

"Get away from the stone." Thorne moved before I could, pulling Draven back from the pedestal, and when Draven’s hand left the anchor his eyes flickered—red to normal to red again like they couldn’t decide which state to settle in.

"What happened?" The question came out sharper than I meant but my brain was stuck on Draven’s eyes being demon-red and that seemed like the kind of thing we should address immediately.

"The anchor—" Draven’s words came out halting, like he was having trouble forming thoughts. "It didn’t just test my intent. It created a link. To the demon. Through the binding. I can feel it. Its thoughts. Its hunger. Its—" He had to stop because apparently demon consciousness was a lot to process.

A link to the demon. Through the binding. Which meant Draven was now connected to the thing we were trying to destroy.

Great. Fantastic. Love how this plan was going. Very sustainable.

"Can you break the binding from here?" Because if touching the stone gave him access to the magic maybe he could just—what, wish it away? Unravel three hundred years of demon summoning through sheer willpower?

Yeah that sounded way too simple which meant it probably wasn’t an option.

"I can—" His eyes flickered red again. "I can see how it works. The structure. Cassia bound the demon to herself through blood magic. Then she anchored the binding to the stone so she wouldn’t have to maintain it actively. Breaking it requires—" He stopped. Swayed. Would have fallen if Thorne wasn’t holding him up.

"Requires what?" Morgana had her tablet out, taking notes like Draven wasn’t actively being corrupted by demon magic.

"Her death. Or mine." His voice was hollow. Empty. "The binding is keyed to Blackthorn blood. End the bloodline, end the binding."

End the bloodline. Which meant killing Cassia or killing Draven, and we’d already established that Cassia had been hiding successfully for three hundred years so finding her seemed unlikely.

"No." The word came out before I could stop it. "We’re not killing you to break a binding your ancestor made. There has to be another way."

"There isn’t." Simple. Direct. Devastatingly certain. "I can see the entire structure now. It’s—" His eyes went fully red and stayed that way. "It’s brilliant. Cruel. She designed it so the only way to stop the demon was to end her line. She knew eventually someone would come. Someone would try. And they’d have to choose—keep fighting the demon forever or sacrifice themselves."

Sacrifice themselves. Because three hundred years of demon attacks wasn’t enough, we also needed generational trauma and forced martyrdom.

"How long?" Thorne’s rough voice cut through my spiral. "Before the corruption takes over?"

Corruption. Because linking to a demon through a binding wasn’t a one-time thing, it was an ongoing connection that would eventually—what, turn Draven into a demon? Make him its puppet? Both options seemed bad.

"Days." Draven’s voice was getting quieter. Farther away. "Maybe a week. The link is growing. Every minute I maintain connection to the binding, more demon essence transfers through. Eventually I’ll be more demon than vampire and then—" He didn’t finish.

Then we’d have to kill him anyway. Either to break the binding or to stop him from becoming the thing we were fighting.

No pressure.

"Break the connection." The words came out of me even though my brain was screaming that we needed that connection to understand the binding. "Let go of the anchor. Stop the transfer."

"If I do that—" His eyes flickered to normal for just a second. "I lose access. Can’t see the binding structure anymore. Can’t find alternatives. This is the only way to learn how to break it."

So either he maintained the connection and got corrupted or he broke it and we lost our only chance to understand how the binding worked.

Fantastic. Just fantastic. Why did every option involve someone dying?

"There has to be a third option." I was pacing now, unable to stand still while Draven was actively being consumed by demon magic. "Cassia wouldn’t create a binding with only two outcomes. She was too smart for that. There has to be—"

"She left research notes." The witch from the enclave—I really needed to ask her name but my brain had decided social niceties could wait—gestured to books stacked against the wall. "In the workshop. Said anyone with Blackthorn blood could read them. Everyone else just sees blank pages."

Research notes. Because of course Cassia had documented her demon summoning like a good little magical researcher.

"Show me." Draven moved toward the books before I could stop him, and when he touched the first one his eyes went fully red and the veins in his neck pulsed black.

The corruption was accelerating. I could see it happening in real time—more black spreading under his skin, more red staying in his eyes, more of whatever the demon was bleeding through the connection.

And we had days. Maybe a week. To figure out if there was a way to break the binding that didn’t involve killing him.

No pressure at all.