Jason tries to stop him. "Dude, shower, change, and then rest. You were just tortured..."

Alec just shakes his head. "Sadie needs rest. The faster we get this done, the sooner I get her upstairs."

No one comments. Leaders fill in and then we all sit.

One of the vampire heads leans forward. "How did you do that? Take down an entire council battalion alone? How were you able to kill twelve council members?"

Sadie opens her mouth to speak but a shrill, violent alarm cuts through the building.

We all freeze.

One witch gasps. "What is that? Another hybrid attack?"

Alec's jaw tightens. "No. That alarm means a prisoner has escaped."

We don't waste time as we leave the room; all the while I'm wondering who could have escaped.

Outside the meeting room, two warriors are already running toward Alec.

"Alpha," they bow, their voices strained.

"Who is it?" Alec asked, through clenched teeth.

It's like we can't get a fucking break. It's been one storm after another.

"Lola," He answers and that single name for some weird reason makes my stomach drop.

We all turn as one and move outside. We clear the courtyard just in time to see Lola sprinting across the grounds toward the forest.

Alec steps forward, voice sharp: "Stop, Lola. You can't escape. You won't be able to get past my warriors."

Lola stops, slowly turns around, and then gives us a twisted, evil smile. “It's laughable you think your little soldiers can stop me."

Something about her now, about her words, about her arrogance and about her eyes, makes my whole body freeze.

I can't put my finger on it, but something about her feels different. Like she's shed

her skin. Like she's done hiding. Like she isn't afraid of us.

I don't know how to explain it, but it feels like we are about to get another shocking revelation. Something that will floorus leaving us to question everything that we've known.

I close my eyes and summon my magic, getting ready for anything.

Sadie steps forward, her expression turning lethal. Her aura bleeds back into the air, and she begins changing back to the form that slaughtered an entire council.

"The only way you're leaving here is in a body bag."

Sadie is pissed and I understand why. She just came back from a brutal rescue mission, and then this. Her nemesis escapes. I'd be pissed too.

Lola only laughs, high and manic and without a hint of fear in her.

Then before Sadie can do anything, right before our eyes, Lola begins to change and all air is sucked from my lungs.

Her body illuminates, not with gold,

not with white, but with black light. Shadow bleeds from her skin.

Massive black wings tear througnet

her shoulder blades. Her clothes shift into black silk, with golden bands.forming around her wrists and ankles and ancient etchings glowing along her skin. Her eyes blacken entirely and a scepter forms in her hand, with a blood-red crystal at the tip.

Sadie's face drains of color, staring at Lola like she has seen a ghost. Then without

warning, she begins screaming, her hand clawing toward her skull.

Her screams are so sharp they feel like they can rip through tissue and bone.

We all flinch and Alec lunges toward her.

"Sadie!"

She keeps screaming, like something is tearing through her mind. Like something is breaking her from the inside.

“See you around," Lola says with another wicked smile before rocketing upward, launching into the sky like a demonic comet.

Sadie then collapses. Her body falls limp and Alec catches her before she hits the ground.

Dead silence fills the area, as real fear begins to crawl up my spine, because if Lola is what I think she is, then we all just met Xena... Nyx's evit sister.

The

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