“Violet, no! Not in the center!” Marta shouts next to me, as we all crash into the third threshold’s barrier.

How the fuck did she get there?!

Emit bangs his fist, as flames erupt outward, circling around Violet, as salt starts seeping out of the ground, skittering across the rotted tombs it has wrapped for centuries.

“She can’t be in there! It’ll suck her in if she’s not strong enough to raise them yet!” Marta says in more of a panic. “She was supposed to toss the tray out there and let me do the rest from here!”

She holds her hands out and starts chanting like she’s trying to bypass the third barrier to make it to Violet, and her panic just fuels my motherfucking panic, while I watch helplessly at the ominous shadows slipping up from the ground.

Violet remains oblivious, as salt spills onto the earth, and Emit shouts for her to run.

“Violet, the wraiths! Pay attention to the wraiths!” Marta screams.

All the salt on the ground explodes and rains into the air, just as lightning crashes somewhere behind us.

The flames explode higher into the air, their goal looking to reach the stars, and the wraiths shriek an ear-splitting sound that sends snow spraying into the air.

“Violet, get out! You’re not going to have enough!” Marta shouts, throwing herself against the barrier.

“I can’t leave them!” Violet cries out, salt still climbing up, swirling into the winds that are gathering faster and faster around her, leaving her in the middle of the cyclone of burning salt.

Emit and I stagger back a step, as my heart hammers, my monster on the verge of slipping out.

Emit drops to all fours in fur, a howl erupting from him as he charges the barrier again, slashing at it with claws to no avail, as Violet makes a scream of exertion, blood leaking from her nose.

“Violet, get out!” I shout again.

“I can’t,” she says as tears leak from her eyes. “No one else will ever get them up.”

She leans down, eyes glowing brighter as she grabs her Van Helsing blade from her ankle. “I was born the perfect conductor the same reason I was born to fuck up potions,” she says as the wraiths remain trapped on the other side of the swirling flames. “For the same reason salt moves as freely by my fingertips as thread. And for the same reason I can take a lot of pain.”

She thrusts the blade above her head, eyes going up as the entire sky lights up, the lightning trying damn hard to break the seal—the natural versus the unnatural.

“Nooo!” Marta shouts just as the flaming cyclone gets drowned out by nature’s own rain, and all the wraiths dive for her at once.

I almost fall when the earth under my feet shakes violently, and in the next instant, I’m thrown to the ground as something hard hits me in the chest. Bright, blinding light almost sears my eyes.

A roar escapes the wolf, and a cry escapes Marta, as she shouts Violet’s name. The wraiths scream over all of us as though they’re the only ones in pain.

I drop to my back, narrowly dodging an old, rusted piece of metal that sails inches above my face. My eyes widen at the sky as more and more metal sails toward us at really fast fucking speeds.

I roll out of the way as part of an old car slams into the spot where I was, shatters into smaller pieces, and gets sucked up by the wind again.

“What the fucking hell is happening?” I bark at Marta.

“This is new!” Marta shouts as she grabs ahold of a tree trunk, pulling herself against the wind, just as I start sliding toward the same place all the metal is getting sucked. “But look at it all going through the seals!”

“Where are the wraiths? I can’t see anything!” I call over the raging winds, as the whirling cyclone now stays black with the extinguished fire’s smoke.

“Violet!” Emit calls toward the center, two-legged again as he continues to slam into the third barrier.

Another bolt of light crashes, and Emit is launched back like I was, only this time I know why.

The lightning strikes, and the center of the cyclone lights up as Violet stands alone. Violet’s pained scream finds my ears as another bolt of lightning runs at a horizontal angle, like it’s chased her for miles. It finds the tip of the blade, running into Violet just the same.

Then another joins it.

And another.

And another.

So many all start coming in at once, and I go from not being able to see, to gaping in shock, as the storm tries to pull me in closer, sliding me across the ground until I absently stop myself.

Violet is glowing as the ground continues to vibrate and break apart, no sign of wraiths, who apparently aren’t the least bit lightning proof. Neither are we. We can’t get any closer or we’ll just be blown back again.

One tree after another turns to ash, as the bag Marta brought goes soaring through the air.

Ribbons whip through the wind like razors, slicing through branches above us with sharpened ease, before stabbing the ground all over the place.

My breaths come out shakier when Violet’s scream goes silent, and the lightning just continues to strike, the rapidness lighting up the entire area for miles. It quickly starts getting too bright to watch.

The metal lands all over the ground, but not one spark touches anything but the Van Helsing blade Violet is holding…until she drops it.

The lightning vanishes, and silence spills around us as the storm stops almost too abruptly, the light cutting out everywhere except for Violet, who is practically glowing, as she staggers and drops to the ground.

Blood drips from her nose as we stand slowly, not trusting the abrupt silence, watching as she weakly places a hand on the closest piece of metal.

Sparks shoot off, flying around, sizzling and spreading across every single piece of metal in the massive burial ground.

My panic is gone.

I’ve been reduced to a numb, unmovable fixture, forced to do nothing but watch with rapt attention as more whirring of threads fill the air like buzzing bees, shooting into the orchard from every angle, coming from seemingly nowhere.

My eyes stay on Violet as she turns her head, staring into the thick fog that is only growing and bubbling higher now.

Groans send my spine rigid as I stare at the fog in disbelief, seeing the silhouettes of bodies rising.

So many bodies…

So many things reattaching and moving together as a few more groans and moans ring through the air…

Emit moves past the third barrier like it’s no longer there, and he sprints to Violet the rest of the way.

All the seals are gone. She bloody broke them.

“She really was made for this. More so than I even realized,” Marta says so quietly that I know it’s intended for just her own ears, as she stares over at Emit scooping Violet from the ground, not even protesting as she just watches.

“She didn’t just raise them,” I say almost to myself, as I see the silhouettes in the growing fog.

The bodies are now standing and lumbering this way.

“She stitched together and charged every single one of them,” Marta states like she’s finishing my sentence.

We both cast a dubious look at the other, just as Vance slides to a stop at my side, and Arion drops in front of me. They both look on with the same stupefied expression I’m likely wearing.

“What the fucking hell did you do and how?” Vance asks, almost like he expects me to have really somehow fucked shit up and zombies now walk among us.

“I’m not entirely sure what happened, but Violet has more secrets than I even imagined,” I tell him, adjusting my collar as I grow slightly agitated, eyes moving to Marta.

“If you think I have all the answers, you’re sorely mistaken,” she states quietly as Emit just holds Violet’s limp body, staring out at the throngs of silhouettes as they seem to multiply.

“But we signed that sentence in blood,” Marta adds distractedly as Violet’s head lifts ever so slightly, staring over Emit’s shoulder to find all of us staring at her, as the violet color in her eyes slowly dims to be almost unnoticeable once more. “And then I bore an impossible child after I fell truly in love with a man for the very first time in my life.”

I almost don’t believe the words out of her mouth, because Marta would never confess something to make her that vulnerable. Not when Tom is already a sore topic for Arion.

I see it in the vampire’s eyes as he devotes all his attention to her, barely resisting the urge to smirk.

“Tom’s already as good as dead, Vampyre. Stow your excitement. I prepared myself for it the day I learned I was pregnant, because the day you found out was surely inevitable. Violet is a conduit for more than lightning. She’s a magnet—she tempts death and attracts it. Her life was set up to deliver her to this very moment. Now that her job is done, the universe will cast her aside, and you’ll ruin her just to spite me.”

She angrily bats away her tears as Violet looks away, resting her head on Emit’s shoulder.

“You only think you’ve seen my vengeance,” Marta threatens, her jaw grinding as she cuts her cold glare to us, and the temperature chills just barely. “She can’t die, and I’ll just bet Nadine would be far less likely to stand by the way she did with Caroline when she meets Violet. Not when she could have me by her side. Call it mother’s intuition.”

“You and Nadine can’t sit in the same room because of what you did to Bobo, you hypocritical bag of psycho marbles,” I bite out. “Why would she care for your daughter?”

So much for playing my patient little games.

Her smile wavers. “You’d be surprised at what one can overcome when they’re truly tired. Go chase Idun. I’ve done my exact minimal part, according to the law. Tell her I said to go fuck herself up the ass with one of your dicks that will never touch my daughter again. Violet will see the truth soon,” she carries on, straightening her skirt. “She probably already sees.”

With that, she walks away, as Arion runs a hand through his hair.

“She really was designed specifically for this, and nature forced order when we tried to break the big rules again,” Vance states quietly. “What really does happen when something completes its purpose?”

“It becomes obsolete,” I say barely above a whisper.

“Or is that cruel bitch Portocale just feeding us lies mixed with ominous, vague truths and fucking with our heads the way she always does?” Arion growls.

“It doesn’t matter right now. It’s clear Marta really is going to protect Violet, and that’s a lot of protection, especially if Nadine backs her up,” Vance states like he’s inside his own head.

His job just got very complicated. A whole set of Houses have just risen, and none of them have true homes any longer. Sucks to be him today.

“Why would Nadine ever back up Violet against Idun?” Arion asks like we’ve both lost our damn minds for even considering it.

“Because Violet grows Nadine’s perfectly green apples,” Vance supplies with the condescension he feels the answer deserves.