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Dear Amelia,

I don’t want you to think of me as some cruel, heartless being. I made the best choices I possibly could within the time given. Ideally, things wouldn’t have played out the way they did if I could help it. But in order for us to win the war, I had to do something horrible.

Jordan informed me that all the guards were taken out. By that time, I was hiding in the shadows in the room connected to Darius’s.

Charlotte, his daughter, used that room and knew I was in there. I don’t know how she could sense me, but she did. When she tried to inform her father, he assured her that I was in the palace, in the middle of battle. He had no idea I was there.

When he left, Charlotte talked to me directly. She seemed to know that not only was I there, but that I brought back up also. So I revealed myself to her.

I don’t want to get into the details, so I’ll just say this; we fought, and I won. Darius felt the tether break, and James, who was watching him, informed me he was coming into the room.

As expected, we fought. He was twice my size, yet somehow smaller than the gray wolf I fought earlier. Which honestly made no sense, since he was the king of the wolves, I expected him to be the biggest. That’s usually how it works. Alphas are always the biggest wolf in the pack. And the bigger the wolf, the stronger the alpha. I guess I was wrong.

Training with Celest and Victoria came in handy. Since I had so many powers, Gaia and I learned to fight together as two. In wolf form, Gaia had complete control. She attacked while I focused on using the “magic” we had. It was hard, fighting as two in one body, but I was able to gain the upper hand.

I’m telling you this unnecessary detail because I still think it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. While Gaia was attacking, I jumped mid air, shifted back to my human form, and landed on his back. I needed to feed.

James and Jordan shifted and jumped into the fight at that point as I fed on Darius’s disgusting blood. Honestly, I’d prefer the blood of the drugged out homeless people over him. His blood was so vile, but I needed it in order to keep fighting.

Eventually, he was able to shake me off. Onyx and I both attacked at the same time, and he was able to dodge us. Everything happened so fast. The same dagger I used to kill Charlotte was now killing James.

Milo protected us as I did my best to heal Onyx who had shifted back to his human form. It took longer than I expected, and I could hear Milo struggling. Once I was sure the poison was out of James’s body, I turned to help. Darius had gotten the upper hand, and his wolf had Milo by the scruff. The fire in my hands had a target, but Darius was using Milo as a shield.

I called him a coward and taunted him. Anything to get him to let go of Milo. He didn’t, but he did shift back into his human form. I challenged him to a one-on-one fight. Instead of accepting right away, he told me to make Milo shift back.

I didn’t want to, of course, but I knew he’d kill him if I didn’t. And the last thing I wanted was for him to die. So I told him to shift back. As soon as Jordan was in control again, Darius knocked him out.

With both Jordan and James unconscious, it was just the two of us. I kept him distracted as Gaia used telekinesis to lift the silver blade and aim it at his back.

Darius wasn’t weak, or stupid. And he was a good fighter. As soon as the blade got close to him, he dodged it. I wasn’t stupid either, I anticipated that he would, and the blade shifted directions to follow him.

I missed his heart, but the silver still poised him. I jumped behind him and broke the blade so it was stuck inside of him. Darius wasn’t a normal wolf, he was the king, and I knew the silver itself wouldn’t be enough to kill him. Especially since I missed his heart. But, that was okay for now. It wasn’t my place to kill him alone. Vasilia needed her revenge.

I enchanted him with persuasion to make him think he won. Then I injected him with a normally lethal dose of wolfsbane. That’s when Grandpa joined me and told me that Markus would be arriving soon.

For the record, Amelia, I’m not proud of everything I did that day. I also think it’s important that you know Charlotte was not a child. I don’t know how old she was, but I do know she was significantly older than me. Take solace in the fact that I would never, under any circumstances, hurt or kill an innocent child. She was not innocent, nor a child. So don’t hate me. I was an angry, 19 year-old with the world depending on me.

~ Mom

MJ. B