“Danae.” Helena’s composure hardened into something colder. “I understand your concerns. But you should understand that I know Damon. He is many things, but he is not a liar. He may want revenge, but he wouldn’t harm Andie to accomplish it.
“Most importantly, we are out of options. The collar failed, and we both saw what that failure did to her. Alexander’s presence triggers the curse. Every treatment we’ve attempted has made things worse instead of better. Andromeda is running out of time, and House Hades is offering something no one else can.”
“So the solution is to suppress everything that makes her an Omega? To hand her over to strangers who will turn her into something she’s not?”
“The solution is to keep her alive long enough to find a real cure.” Helena’s breath caught, and when she spoke again, something had cracked in her voice. “You were there when the collar failed, Danae. You saw her screaming, clawing at Alexander, begging for him and trying to tear him apart at the same time. You saw how close we came to losing her.”
Danae said nothing, but I heard her breathing change, becoming shaky and uneven.
“I have watched my daughter suffer for months,” Helena continued. “I have watched every solution fail. I have watched her push away everyone who tries to help, including me, including her fathers, including you. If House Hades can give her peace, even temporary peace, even artificial peace, I will take it.”
“But this isn’t your decision to make,” Danae tried to insist. “It’s Andie’s decision. Her life, her body, her choice. And you’re making it for her while she sleeps, just like you’ve made every other decision about her since you brought her to this island.”
“Because she would refuse.” Helena didn’t deny the accusation. “You know her as well as I do, Danae. If I presented this option to her while she was conscious, she would reject it out of pure stubbornness. She would rather die than accept help from another Alpha House, and I am not prepared to let her make that choice.”
“Then maybe you should respect her enough to let her make it anyway.”
“And watch her die?” Helena laughed, and the sound held no humor at all. “You’re asking me to stand by while the curse destroys her from the inside. I’m her mother, Danae. I can’t do that. I won’t.”
I lay beneath the apple trees with fury building behind my eyes like a storm waiting to break.
They were doing it again. Deciding my fate without me, talking about what was best for me like I was a child or a patient. House Hades was coming for me, and Alexander had agreed to let them take me. My mother thought she was saving my life by handing me over to strangers who wanted to hollow me out.
None of them had asked me what I wanted. None of them had even considered that I might have an opinion worth hearing. Danae was trying, but she had no real say in the matter.
“The transfer will happen at the end of the week.” Helena’s voice had steadied again, the matriarch back in control. “Elara Blackwood will file the guardian claim tomorrow, and by this time next week, Andromeda will be in House Hades custody.”
“Helena, please—”
“This discussion is over,” Helena snapped. “I have made my decision. You may disagree with it, but you will not interfere.”
“She’s my best friend,” Danae whispered.
“And she is my daughter,” Helena said coldly. “I think you should leave, Danae. Go back to your workshop. Continue your research. Perhaps one day you’ll find a solution that doesn’t require these compromises.”
“You’re sending me away.” The disbelief in Danae’s voice was raw and wounded.
“I’m suggesting that your presence may not be helpful right now. You care about her, I know you do, but caring is not enough.” Helena paused, and when she continued, some of the hardness had left her tone. “Sometimes we must make difficult choices for the people we love, even when they would hate us for making them.”
I heard Danae stand, heard her footsteps crush the grass as she moved away from where I lay. She stopped a few feet away. I could picture her standing there with her fists clenched and her jaw tight. She was torn between her loyalty to me and the reality that she had no power here, no standing, no way to fight a matriarch’s decision.
“If she wakes up and asks for me, you tell her the truth.” Danae’s words came out brittle and sharp. “You tell her exactly what you’ve done and why I’m not here. Don’t you dare pretend I abandoned her.”
“I’ll tell her you had to return to your work. She’ll understand.”
Danae’s footsteps receded across the grass, growing fainter with each step. Finally, they disappeared entirely, and I was alone with my mother in the sacred garden.
My mother’s hand brushed across my hair with a gentleness that made my skin crawl. “I’m sorry, Andromeda.” Her whisper was so soft I barely caught it. “I’m sorry for all of it. I wish I could have protected you better. I wish I could have kept you away from this world entirely. But you’re my daughter, and I will do whatever I must to keep you alive, even if you hate me for it forever.”
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was stay silent and pretend.
My last ally was gone. Helena had sent Danae away, and even my best friend hadn’t been able to stop what was coming.
I had no plan. I had no allies. I had a body still weak from a week of healing—and a fury that burned so hot it felt like it might consume me from the inside out.
But I also had something none of them had counted on.
I had spent my entire life hating what I was. Fighting against my nature, refusing to submit to the instincts that made other Omegas compliant and agreeable. They thought suppressing that nature was a gift they could give me. They thought I would be grateful to feel like a Beta, dampened and safe.