Damon's POV
"Damon. Your choice."
Her voice was soft, but every word felt like a blade slipping between my ribs.
I held her wrist. She held Lilith's. The three of us were locked in an absurd, twisted standoff at the center of this circus.
And she—the one who started it all—had the nerve to give me a choice.
Rage burned in my chest. I was about to make her pay for her arrogance.
But in that instant, I met her eyes.
What... was in them?
Not the defiance I expected. Not even anger.
It was a wasteland.
A barren, ash-covered emptiness after a wildfire had torn through everything.
It was so raw, so intense, that for a split second, my heart gave a sharp, unfamiliar pang.
My wolf, Rhein, let out an uneasy whine deep in my mind. He could feel her pain—that death-rattle agony radiating
