Chapter 349 The Price of a Choice

Emilia’s POV

Someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. That was the only way to describe it.

“Zero,” I repeated, numb, like the word might change shape if I said it out loud.

“Yes. The odds of success are zero, Emilia.” Margarita folded her hands and leveled her gaze at me. “Because your witch blood runs thousands of times stronger than your wolf blood. You could no more peel that out of your body than peel the marrow from your own bones.”

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.

“You told me Tanya sealed away both your wolf and your witch magic to protect you. That she planted the mind-reading gift inside you besides. Child, do you understand what that means?” She leaned forward. “It means your mother was a formidable witch. And you are her daughter. Her continuation. Your power is no weaker than hers. If anything, it is greater.”

“Then why—”

“Because you are a hybrid, if you’ll forgive the word.” She said it without cruelty, which somehow made it land harder. “When your wolf woke, you inherited the sharp ears, the keen nose, the strength, the speed. All of it. And you leaned on your wolf. You partnered with her. You built your whole survival around her.” She shook her head slowly. “And all the while, you turned your back on the witch standing right behind you.”

I stared at the tea on the table and said nothing. There was nothing to say. She’d cracked me open and looked straight at the mess inside.

Her warm, paper-dry hand closed over mine. “Of course, I don’t blame you. You had no elder to guide you. You’ve been sleeping on top of a gold mine your whole life, child, and never once knew how to dig. And this plan of yours, to carve the witch blood out of your own body?” Her thumb brushed my knuckles. “It is, forgive me, one of the most foolish things I have ever heard.”

I turned my hand over and gripped hers back. Her gentleness undid something in me. My throat tightened, hot and thick, and when I spoke my voice came out rough.

“I know. I do know.” I blinked hard. “I just ran out of roads to walk. This witch blood, it’s the one thing my mother left me, and God, I’ve hated it. I’ve hated the wolf blood from my father even more.” A wet laugh scraped out of me. “But that cursed wolf blood is the only reason I ever found Sebastian. The love of my whole stupid life.”

The tears came then, humiliating and unstoppable.

Margarita didn’t flinch. She pulled me into her arms and stroked my hair the way my mother used to. “Hush now. Don’t torment yourself. I didn’t say it to shame you. Your choices weren’t wrong. The Sundering the Ashvein coven sold you is sound work, I’ll grant them that. It simply won’t take. Not on you.”

I pulled back and wiped my cheeks with the back of my wrist. “Then is there another way?”

“Well.” She tilted her head, and something sly crept into her old eyes. “Like I mentioned. Your mother sealed your wolf and your witch magic once already.”

My head snapped up. “You mean— you could seal the power inside me again?”

Margarita smiled, slow and smug. “Yes, my darling Emilia. And I am a far stronger witch than your mother ever was.”

I wiped the last of the tears away and leaned in, suddenly all business. “Margarita. Will you help me? Whatever it takes. Name it.”

“I will. And it’s simple.”

“Simple?” I squinted at her. In my experience, nothing involving witches was ever simple.

“Those Ashvein harpies will be doing the heavy lifting, won’t they?” She waved a hand. “I’ll keep to their circle, step for step. I’ll only swap out the Sundering at the heart of it for a sealing spell instead. Their coven feeds the working with their own power. I’ll barely have to spend a drop of my own.”

I muttered, “I paid five million for that circle, you know.”

She pinched the back of my hand, fondly. “So let that rich Alpha husband of yours cough up a little coin. It’s for the child the two of you want, isn’t it?”

“Is there anything I need to watch for?” I pressed. “I’d rather hear the bad news now than later.”

Her smile faded. “There. Now you’re asking the right questions.” She held up one gnarled finger. “You get one chance. One. This isn’t a game you can reload, Emilia. Nature is not so generous with her mercies. As we witches say, everything has its number, and everything has its price.”

I nodded slowly. “Understood.”

“And of course,” she added, settling back, “I don’t help for free.”

Oddly enough, that loosened the knot in my chest. A woman this kind, this eager to help a half-blood stranger who’d nearly torched her forest an hour ago, I’d been waiting for the catch. A price I could understand. A price I could trust.

“Name it,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

“Once you’ve had your child, once your sealed witch power is loosed again, I want you to come back here. To this town.” Her eyes held mine, steady. “To take my place. To guard this town, and to guard the Hollowthorn witches.”

“What?!” The word shot out of me. “Margarita, I’m practically a stranger to you. Friends, fine, maybe we’re friends now. But inherit your position? You’ve got a whole town of witches out there, half of whom tried to murder me this afternoon, any one of them more qualified than—”

“Emilia.” She said my name quietly, and it closed the subject like a shut door. “You are a powerful witch whose potential has never once been struck like a match. Come back, and I will raise that flame myself. And beyond that.” She lifted a second finger. “You are a mongrel. Half wolf, half witch. Relations between our kinds have never been worse. If a pack ever came snarling at our borders, you could stand in the gap. You could speak both tongues. With you here, there might be words instead of war.”

Inside my skull, Eve stirred. “She makes a hell of a point, Emmy.”

“I know,” I shot back. “That’s the problem. I’m halfway talked into it myself.”

Still, I tried it again. “Margarita, I’m a Luna. A pack’s Luna. Stepping into a witch’s seat, abandoning that for this, it just… doesn’t sit cleanly. You understand.”

She rose, one hand braced against her lower back, and looked down at me, suddenly grave.

“Everything has a price, Emilia. This is yours. This is your choice.” Her voice dropped, each word deliberate. “If you fail to make the right choice when fate lays a crossroad before you, it will keep setting the same trial at your feet. Again and again. Until you choose correctly.”