Chapter 11 SERAPHINA'S CONFESSION

Seraphina's POV

The message came through encrypted channels at three in the morning and I stared at my phone screen feeling ice spread through my veins as I read the council's latest orders. Execute the hybrid, eliminate all witnesses, burn the compound. My handler Morgana had made it clear that failure was not an option and success would secure my position within the council hierarchy for generations to come.

I looked down at Aria sleeping peacefully in her crib, her tiny chest rising and falling with innocent breaths and the child I'd conceived as a weapon, as insurance against Logan's potential betrayal, now felt like the only pure thing in my corrupted existence. She was six months old and already showing signs of extraordinary abilities, her eyes tracking movements no infant should perceive and her occasional babbling carrying harmonics that suggested ancestral memory or council influence.

The pregnancy had been induced through magical means, Morgana had administered the conception ritual without my full understanding of its implications and I'd believed I was serving a noble purpose, infiltrating a dangerous Alpha's pack to investigate crimes against omegas. Every word had been a lie and I'd swallowed them all because I wanted to belong somewhere, wanted to matter to someone, wanted to believe my existence served something greater than myself.

Now I understood the truth and the council hadn't sent me to investigate Lysander's crimes but to ensure they continued, to seduce Logan and produce an heir they could control as leverage against both the Cross bloodline and any potential resistance. I was a broodmare dressed up as a spy and Aria was the chain that would bind Logan to council service for the rest of his life.

Unless I did something impossibly stupid and irreversibly treasonous.

I picked up my phone and opened a different communication channel, one Morgana didn't know existed because I'd paid a human hacker named Dante to create it three months ago when I first started questioning my orders. The message I typed was simple and devastating.

"Council task force en route to your location. Two hundred operatives, orders are complete elimination, you  have maybe two hours. I'm sorry for everything. Seraphina."

I hit send before I could reconsider and then I sat in darkness holding my daughter and wondering if I'd just signed our death warrants or taken the first step toward actual redemption.

My phone buzzed with Morgana's response to my official report. "Confirmed receipt of orders. Proceed with execution protocol, council expects confirmation of the hybrid's death by dawn."

I typed back a lie, "Understood, moving into position now."

Then I began packing essentials into a bag with shaking hands, my mind racing through impossible logistics. I needed to disappear with Aria before the council realized I'd betrayed them and I needed to get far enough away that their tracking magic couldn't locate us but I also needed to warn Logan personally because a text message wasn't enough to convey the magnitude of what was coming.

The council had mobilized their entire enforcement division and this wasn't a capture mission but an extermination and they were bringing weapons designed specifically to counter hybrid abilities, magical suppressors and reality anchors and compounds that would burn through supernatural flesh like acid through paper.

Isabel had survived impossible odds before but this was different and this was the council's full power unleashed without restraint or mercy.

I strapped Aria into her carrier and slipped out of the apartment I'd been using as a safe house, moving through shadows with the paranoid caution of someone who knew exactly how council operatives hunted targets. The drive to the compound would take ninety minutes if I pushed the speed limits and prayed to gods I'd stopped believing in years ago.

Halfway there, my phone rang with Morgana's distinctive tone and I almost didn't answer but refusing a direct call from my handler would trigger immediate investigation so I pulled over and accepted the call with my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Status report," Morgana said without preamble.

"En route to the secondary observation point," I lied smoothly. "The primary position was compromised by the hybrid's security perimeter."

"The task force commander reports no hostile activity at the compound. They're still sleeping, completely unaware of what's coming." Morgana's voice carried satisfaction that made my stomach turn. "This will be over quickly. The hybrid won't even have time to mount a defense."

"Understood," I managed to say.

"Seraphina, you've served the council well these past months," Morgana continued and there was something almost kind in her ancient voice. "When this is finished, when the hybrid threat is eliminated, you'll be rewarded beyond your expectations. Your daughter will be raised with every advantage and your bloodline will be elevated to positions of genuine authority."

The offer was everything I'd wanted when I first accepted this mission and now it sounded like a prison sentence dressed up as opportunity.

"I'm honored by the council's confidence," I said, each word tasting like poison.

"See that you earn it. Morgana out."

The call disconnected and I sat in my car feeling the weight of impossible choices crushing down on me. I could turn around right now, return to my apartment, let the council execute their plan and secure Aria's future within their power structure. She would grow up privileged and protected, never knowing her mother had been complicit in genocide.

Or I could drive forward into probable death and certain exile, gambling everything on the desperate hope that Isabel's revolution might actually succeed and create a world where Aria could grow up free rather than powerful.

I looked at my daughter sleeping peacefully in her carrier and made my choice.

I drove forward.

The compound came into view as dawn was breaking and I could see the council's task force positioning themselves in the forest surrounding it, two hundred trained killers moving with coordinated precision toward an enemy that had no idea they were about to be slaughtered. I parked a quarter mile away and began moving through the forest on foot, using stealth training the council had provided to approach unseen.

I reached the compound's perimeter just as the first explosion tore through the eastern wall.

The attack had begun early and I was too late to warn them properly and as fire bloomed into the sky and screams echoed through the morning air, I realized my betrayal of the council might have accomplished nothing except ensuring Aria and I would die alongside the people I'd tried to save.

But I kept moving forward anyway because stopping meant accepting that I was the monster the council had trained me to be.

And I refused to let that be Aria's inheritance.