Bound to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 146: The Witch Coven’s Price

HIGH WITCH MORGANA POV

The scrying bowl burst in my hands.

Glass shards flew everywhere, cutting my hands as I jerked backward. The picture I’d been seeing vanished in a shower of sparks, but the image was burned into my mind forever.

Death. So much death.

"Morgana!" My trainee Elena rushed to my side. "What happened? What did you see?"

I stared at the blood dripping from my hands, trying to make sense of what I’d witnessed. "The Final Sacrifice ritual," I whispered. "If they perform it as planned, everyone dies. Not just the Shadow Lords—everyone."

Elena’s face went pale. "That’s impossible. The ancient books say—"

"The ancient texts are wrong!" I snapped, then instantly felt bad for yelling at her. Elena was just eighteen, barely finished with her training. She didn’t deserve my fear and anger.

"I’m sorry," I said, more gently. "But we have a problem. A big one."

Before Elena could reply, the doors to my chambers burst open. Three figures walked in—Aria, the Luna who’d linked with the Alpha triplets, and two of the brothers themselves, Kael and Lucien.

"High Witch Morgana," Aria said, slightly out of breath. "We need to talk."

I looked at their faces and knew they’d felt it too. The magical disturbance when the vision broke. The wave of dark energy that had swept across the supernatural world.

"You saw it, didn’t you?" I asked. "The death."

Kael stepped forward, his face grim. "We felt something. A picture of fire and screaming. But it was fuzzy. Unclear."

"Mine was very clear," I said, covering my bleeding hands in a cloth. "If the Final Sacrifice ritual is completed as the ancient texts describe, it won’t just destroy the Shadow Lords. It will kill every magical being within a thousand miles."

The room fell silent. Elena gasped. Lucien looked like he might be sick.

"That can’t be right," Aria said desperately. "The rite is supposed to save everyone. It’s going to end the war."

"The ritual was designed three thousand years ago," I explained. "Back then, there were maybe a few hundred magical beings in the entire world. Now there are millions. The magical reaction from that many connected lives being severed at once..." I shuddered. "It would be like setting off a magical bomb."

"So what do we do?" Kael asked. "We can’t just give up. The Shadow Lords are winning. If we don’t stop them soon, they’ll capture or kill everyone anyway."

I’d been thinking about this ever since the image hit me. There was only one option, but it was going to cost more than anyone wanted to pay.

"The ritual can be modified," I said slowly. "My group and I can change it, make it safer. But..."

"But what?" Aria asked.

I took a deep breath. This was the hard part. "It will take a different kind of sacrifice. Not just one life, but something much more valuable."

"What do you mean?" Lucien asked.

"The bonds," I said. "All of them. Every mate bond, every pack tie, every family connection between supernatural beings. To make the ritual safe, we have to sever every magical link that exists."

The quiet that followed was deafening.

"You’re talking about destroying love itself," Aria whispered.

"Not love," I said quickly. "The feelings would stay. But the magical links that tie supernatural beings together—those would be gone forever. No more mate ties. No more pack ties. No more family magic."

"That’s not living," Kael said furiously. "That’s just existing."

"It’s better than being dead," I answered.

"Is it?" Aria asked quietly. "Without our ties, what would we be? Just individual people fighting for survival? The ties are what make us strong. What make us who we are."

I understood their anger. I really did. When I was Aria’s age, I’d been madly in love with a vampire named Thomas. Our bond had been everything to me. The idea of losing it would have killed me.

But I was eight hundred years old now. I’d learned that living sometimes meant making impossible choices.

"There might be another way," Elena said softly.

Everyone turned to look at her. She blushed under the attention but continued.

"What if we didn’t modify the ritual?" she said. "What if we found a way to make it more powerful instead?"

"Elena, that would make the problem worse," I said.

"Not if we channeled all that power into something specific," she said, getting excited. "Instead of just killing the Shadow Lords, what if we used the ritual to send them somewhere else? Banish them to another dimension?"

I stared at my student. It was actually a great idea. Dangerous, but clever.

"That would require an anchor," I said slowly. "Someone with a strong enough connection to both our world and the Shadow dimension to guide the spell."

"What kind of connection?" Aria asked.

I was quiet for a long moment, working through the magical idea in my head. When I realized what would be needed, my heart sank.

"Someone who’s been touched by Shadow magic," I said. "Someone who’s been corrupted by it but hasn’t fully turned."

"That’s impossible," Kael said. "Anyone touched by Shadow power either dies or becomes a Shadow Lord. There’s no in-between."

"Actually," Lucien said quietly, "there might be."

We all turned to stare at him.

"What do you mean?" Aria asked.

Lucien looked uncomfortable. "There’s something I never told you about my healing skills. About why I’m so good at it."

"Lucien," Kael said warningly.

"No, they need to know," Lucien said. "Fifteen years ago, when I was just a kid, I was taken by Shadow Lords. They held me for three days, trying to turn me. The process started, but Kael and Jaxon saved me before it was complete."

Aria’s face went white. "You’re part Shadow Lord?"

"A tiny part," Lucien said. "That’s why I can heal so easily. Shadow power gives life as well as takes it. But it’s also why I’ve been so careful about using my skills. I was afraid of what might happen if I used too much."

I felt a chill run down my spine. "Lucien, that connection might be exactly what we need for the banishment process. But..."

"But what?" Aria asked.

"Using it would almost certainly kill him," I said quietly. "And there’s another problem. To anchor a spell that strong, we’d need him to go deeper into his Shadow side. Become more tainted, not less."

"Absolutely not," Kael said instantly. "We’re not risking Lucien’s life or his soul."

"It might be the only way to save everyone else," Lucien said softly.

"There has to be another option," Aria said desperately.

I was about to agree with her when Elena gasped behind me.

"Morgana," she said, her voice shaking. "Look."

I turned to see what she was pointing at. On the table where my scrying bowl had exploded, a new picture was forming in the scattered glass. An picture of someone I hadn’t seen in over a century.

"Thomas," I whispered.

My old vampire boyfriend stood in the glass, but he looked wrong. His eyes were black with Shadow power, and when he smiled, I could see fangs that had been sharpened to deadly points.

"Hello, my dear Morgana," his voice whispered from the glass. "I hear you’re trying to modify our routine. How caring of you to make it even more powerful."

My blood turned to ice. "Our ritual?"

"Did you really think the Shadow Lords found those ancient texts by accident?" Thomas asked with a cruel laugh. "I’ve been feeding them knowledge for decades, waiting for the right moment to strike. And now, thanks to your little changes, we’ll have enough power to open permanent portals between dimensions."

"You’re lying," I said, but I could hear the doubt in my own voice.

"Am I?" Thomas asked. "Check your spell components, darling. Check them very carefully."

The picture faded, leaving us all staring at empty glass.

With shaking hands, I opened the cabinet where I kept my ceremony supplies. The herbs, the crystals, the sacred oils—everything I would need to alter the Final Sacrifice ritual.

Everything except one important component.

"The binding salt," I whispered. "It’s gone."

"What does that mean?" Aria asked.

I looked at her with growing fear. "It means we can’t stop the practice. And worse, it means Thomas was telling the truth. Someone in my own group has been working with the Shadow Lords."

Elena stepped closer to me, and I saw something in her eyes that made my heart break.

"I’m sorry, Morgana," she said softly. "But some prices are worth paying."

Before I could respond, she pressed a small dagger against my throat.

"And the price for saving my family," she whispered, "is betraying yours."