Silence is not something I was accustomed to growing up. Having four older brothers around usually meant that our house operated on a healthy level of chaos at all times. This silence surrounding us is... stifling, and I decide right then and there that I never want to experience it again. 

Hundreds of rogues and witches alike surround us, staring wordlessly at the two brothers in front of them. Maddox stands there, his chest heaving in short breaths as blood drips from his mouth. 

"Maddox..." I say out loud in a strangled whisper. 

It's fine. It's finally done. We won.

I give Maddox a moment alone with his brother, but I realize quickly that there's another problem on our hands. We may have won the battle against Aiden himself, but his entire army is still here, no doubt feeling the loss of their Alpha. 

As if they weren't fueled enough by rage before, this was certainly enough to send them over the edge. I can't let them turn against the very witches they forced into servitude. I step up to the center of the platform, drawing everyone's weary gaze to me and look each witch in the eyes. 

August and Basil eye me curiously from the sidelines, but I know what I have to do. 

"Your Alpha is dead," I address them all, projecting my voice across the field. "Normally in a pack war, the winning Alpha would offer you two choices- pledge your loyalty to the pack or be killed. As Alpha Maddox's Luna, I'm offering you no such choice. Your crimes against my coven and these witches you've forced to serve you cannot go unpunished. In senselessly killing those witches for Aiden's cause, you've doomed too many wolves to face the same miseries you've faced. My mate and I cannot, in good faith, allow any of you into the same pack you've tortured."

There's a hum of nervous energy in the air, but the rogues continue to look at me with bored expressions on their faces. They still believe Maddox will show them kindness if they pledge their loyalty. 

I look to my mate, who's looking back up at me in understanding as he reads my thoughts. He bows his head to me, showing me that this is my decision to make and he'll respect and honor it. Clover smirks and almost looks relieved as she realizes what I'm about to do. 

"Witches, despite what these barbarians have told you or how they've treated you, you are not weaker than them. You are not a sub class, born to serve wolves. You were born of Hecate's magic, a power older than time itself. You are powerful, a force to be reckoned with, and you serve no one but the magic that has served you. I encourage you to take back that power now. No rogue leaves this field alive."

For the first time since this hellish ceremony started, the rogues finally look afraid for themselves as the witches look to them smugly, ready to reclaim their power. 

The elemental witches are already forming a circle around the field to create a perimeter. The fire witches create a wall of flame and smoke around us all that's too thick even for the wolves to see through. 

Without fear blocking them from their true potential and without Aiden's paranoia of their power and making sure the witches were kept separate, there was no stopping them. We may have been outnumbered physically, but the rogues no longer had Aiden's protection. 

They were fucked and they knew it. 

I stand back, letting this band of witches take the reins as they decimate the wolves around them. This isn't my fight. I got my revenge with Aiden's death and it's their turn to find their own revenge. 

Maddox comes up onto the platform with us finally, stopping on his way to me to check on Basil. He nudges Basil's leg with his nose and Basil laughs, reaching up to pat him on the head. 

"I'm fine! I'm fine. Poppy and August saved the day," He tells him. 

"Poppy saved the day," August interjects quietly, glancing hesitantly between us. 

"Yeah, I guess I did. I'm still not quite sure how though."

"What happened?" Basil asks, looking up at me. "I remember Aiden lunging at me, and then... nothing. After that, I woke up to see you and August kneeling over me, but I felt fine. I don't even have a wound."

He points to the hole in his shirt where my dagger had pierced him, but underneath it was perfectly smooth skin, no sign of Basil's brush with death. 

"I'm not really sure," I shake my head. "I was trying to call to my magic. I figured if I could keep yours around by using mine, I could gather enough to call your soul back and bind it to you. You were dead, Basil, you didn't- you didn't have a heartbeat," I begin to sob recalling the way my brother laid there, ice cold beneath me. 

August furrows his brow and looks between us. 

"That's not it though. You didn't bind your magic and his, did you? You'd be able to feel his magic working with yours. You were holding his hand when Donovan distracted you. You brought him back as you were condemning Donovan to death."

My breathing hitches when I realize what August is implying and Basil seems to understand the same time I do.

"You're a... necromancer?" He gasps. 

"No, there's no way. It's not possible. Hecate and I never practiced dark magic," I whisper. 

I glance nervously at Maddox, terrified of what this could mean. He responds by rubbing his head against my leg, trying to ease my nerves with his touch. 

We'll figure it out. We always do.

"Let's not jump to any conclusions until we know for sure. Hecate will have answers for us," Basil soothes me. 

"You're right," I square my shoulders. "No use stressing over what we're unsure of. For now, we've got a field of dead werewolves to tend to."

I turn around to face the carnage that had ensued. The witches made good on their word and left no rogue alive. Bodies laid broken and mutilated across the field, disfigured and dismembered in every way possible. 

The smell of charred flesh assaults my nose, but instead of resurfacing traumatic memories of the witches they burned, it brought on a sense of victory. We were too powerful to be held down. 

We won.