Athena didn't move.
Didn't blink. Didn't breathe.
The words hung in the air like poison: the blood oath has been invoked.
"No one can invoke it," she said through gritted teeth. "Not unless both names are still bound."
Lucien stepped closer. Snow crackled beneath his boots, but she stood her ground.
"We were never unbound, Athena."
His voice dropped, a husky whisper that almost made her forget she hated him. "You may have run, but the bond never broke."
A pulse thundered in her veins—ancient magic, stirring like a beast awakened.
She felt it.
Damn him.
"Why now?!!" she snapped. "You stayed away for decades!! Not minding me. Us! What's changed?"
Lucien tilted his head, his expression unreadable. "The Court has fractured. Factions are rising. And someone wants you dead, again."
She scoffed. "That's not news."
"This time, it's different." His jaw tensed. "They found your name in the Writ of Ancients. Marked in crimson. They think you're the key to the prophecy!"
Her blood ran cold.
That prophecy was supposed to be a myth, an old bedtime tale whispered by elders to scare little vampires. But the fact that it resurfaced now, tied to her…
it meant something darker was brewing.
Lucien took one step closer. Too close.
"You're not safe," he said. "And neither am I."
Her heart twisted in her chest. Not because of the danger, but because some part of her still remembered what it felt like to be his.
Athena shoved him back, hard enough to make him stumble.
"Don't pretend you care!"
He caught himself with a smirk. "I never stopped."
She hated the way her chest ached at those words.
But she hated herself more for believing them, if only for a second.