JAX

The blast of magic strikes my back like liquid fire, sending searing pain through every nerve in my body. I stagger forward, my vision blurring as I turn to face my attacker. Avery stands behind me, violet magic crackling around her fingers like purple lightning, her beautiful face twisted with murderous rage.

"You son of a bitch," she snarls, launching another magical strike in my direction.

I lash out instinctively, my claws slashing toward her throat, but she dodges with inhuman grace. The magic that follows burns through the air where I'd been standing moments before, leaving scorch marks on the stone wall behind me.

"You're insane," I growl, barely avoiding her next attack. The force of the blast still clips my left arm, and I feel something tear—muscle, maybe bone. Blood runs warm down my sleeve.

"Insane?" Avery's laugh is sharp and bitter. "You used me, manipulated me, made me believe we were partners. And all along, you were planning to discard me the moment it became convenient."

Her magic comes faster now, more vicious. I can barely keep up with her attacks, each one more precise than the last. This isn't the same witch who used to curl up in my lap and purr sweet words about our future together. This is something else entirely—something deadly and unhinged.

"We were partners," I spit, ducking another crackling bolt of energy. "Until you let your jealousy ruin everything."

"Jealousy?" The word comes out as a shriek. "You think this is about jealousy?"

Another blast of magic catches me in the ribs, and I feel something crack. Pain explodes through my chest as I stumble backward, struggling to stay upright. My werewolf healing is trying to kick in, but her magic seems to poison every wound it creates.

"This is about betrayal," she continues, her voice rising with each word. "About watching you throw away everything we built together for some broken little girl who doesn't even want you."

I try to shift, to call on my wolf's strength, but Avery's next attack hits me square in the chest. The impact sends me crashing into the stone wall behind me, and I slide to the ground, tasting copper in my mouth.

"You always were too arrogant for your own good," she says, approaching with slow, predatory steps. "Did you really think you could use me and walk away without consequences?"

I struggle to my feet, but my legs won't support my weight. Blood pools beneath me, dark and warm against the cold stone. My vision keeps sliding in and out of focus, and I can feel my strength ebbing away with each passing second.

"Avery—" I start, but she cuts me off with another magical strike that sends fresh agony racing through my body.

"No more words," she says quietly. "No more lies. This ends now."

The battle is over before it truly began. Her magic is too overwhelming, too precise. Every spell she casts seems designed specifically to counter my werewolf abilities, to strip away every advantage I might have had. Within minutes, I'm collapsed on the ground in a spreading pool of my own blood.

As my consciousness starts to fade, my mind flashes through scenes from my past. The day I first tasted power, when I realized that hatred could fuel strength beyond anything I'd imagined. The moment I decided that revenge was worth any price, any sacrifice. The years I spent crafting my perfect plan, turning a broken child into a weapon.

But along with the memories of triumph comes something else—regret. Sharp and unexpected, cutting through the haze of pain like a blade. Images of Aubrey flash through my mind: the frightened thirteen-year-old I'd saved from the burning pack house, the woman she'd become under my guidance, the look of disgust in her eyes when she turned away from me.

I'd told myself I was saving her. I'd convinced myself that everything I did was necessary, justified by the greater good of my revenge. But lying here in my own blood, feeling life slip away from my body, I can't escape the truth anymore.

I used her. Manipulated her. Destroyed her innocence and twisted her into something she was never meant to be.

And for what? So I could have my revenge? So I could prove that I was stronger than the people who'd wronged me?

The hatred that had driven me for so long suddenly feels hollow, meaningless. It had given me power, yes, but it had also consumed everything good in me. It had turned me into a monster who could threaten to rape an innocent woman, who could murder children and call it justice.

With the last of my failing strength, I reach deep into the magical connection that binds Aubrey to me. The blood oath pulses like a living thing, dark and twisted, ready to kill her the moment she steps too far out of line. It's been my insurance policy, my way of ensuring her compliance even when she was thousands of miles away.

But not anymore.

Gathering every ounce of will I have left, I sever the connection. The magical bonds that tie her to me snap like breaking chains, and I feel the oath dissolve into nothing. Whatever happens next, she'll be free to make her own choices without the threat of death hanging over her head.

It's the least I can do. The one thing I can still make right.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, though I'm not entirely sure if the words are meant for Aubrey or for the version of myself I lost to vengeance so many years ago. Maybe both.

Darkness creeps in from the edges of my vision, cold and final. My last coherent thought is a strange one—relief. After twenty years of carrying hatred like a poison in my veins, I'm finally free of it.

The darkness swallows me whole.