Rose turns to face Andrei, her chest heaving, the glowing sword still held ready in her hand.
“We are surrounded,” she says, her voice tight with urgency. “Killing him is the only way to stop your kind from destroying everything we protect. I know… I know most of them act under his control. That he is the heart of it all.”
Andrei stands frozen. He opens his mouth to speak, yet no words come. He has no answer. He cannot tell her she is wrong.
Footsteps race across the hall. Zyber arrives breathless, chest heaving as though he has run miles without pause.
Rose lifts her sword high, preparing to strike the final blow. But before she can drive the blade downward, Andrei steps forward and catches it in both hands. Dark blood wells instantly, streaming down his wrists where the silver bites deep.
Rose lifts an eyebrow, staring at him in disbelief.
“Do not delay me any longer,” she warns.
Andrei does not let go. His blood drips steadily onto the stone.
“Rose… just this once. Spare him.”
Rose pulls back, shaking her head. “No more chances, Andrei. Step aside.”
At that moment, the dread she felt earlier swells into something unbearable. Dream University needs her. Rosella needs her. She is needed elsewhere, desperately, and she wastes precious seconds standing here.
And she sees it too. Harold’s wounds—those terrible, silver‑burned gashes—are slowly knitting together. He is healing. As one of the most ancient and powerful vampires alive, his body mends far faster than any ordinary vampire could. He pushes himself upright, his eyes clearing, his strength returning. He readies himself to strike—at Andrei, at Rose—while they stand arguing.
Before he can move, Zyber lunges between them.
“Go!” Andrei releases the sword at last, turning to face his own father. He stands shoulder to shoulder with Zyber, steeling himself. “We will hold him here. Run. Save your people.”
Rose hesitates. Doubt wars with urgency in her chest. But the feeling grows stronger by the second. She cannot stay. She must go.
With one last sharp nod, she turns and sprints from the hall.
Outside, the wider battle is nearly concluded. The Zhao family and their allies stand firm, restraining Harold’s allies—powerful figures from other clans who have come to aid him. They are outmatched, their will broken. Jared signals sharply as Rose passes. She gives one quick nod in return, and then she is gone, racing toward Dream University as fast as her legs will carry her.
Back inside the great hall, Andrei and Zyber stand between Harold and the door. Harold advances upon them with cold, unrelenting fury. He strikes without mercy—even at his own son.
“Father, stop!” Andrei shouts, ducking a blow that would have shattered bone. “This is madness! Stand down!”
Harold does not pause. He strikes again, claws tearing through the air.
“You do not understand what you are doing, Andrei.”
“I understand perfectly!” Andrei counters, blocking and parrying. “We are digging our own graves with this violence. We have already lost. We have already seen what stands against us. Why would you refuse to see it?”
Harold laughs—a sharp, furious sound. “Exactly! That is precisely why we must eliminate them!” He hurls a punch that sends them both skidding backward.
“Because of a living dhampir that ought not to exist? We have seen what she is capable of. But her power only awakens when forced—when crossed! If we leave her be, she poses no threat!” Andrei catches Harold’s wrist mid‑strike, his knuckles turning white. “That is not what truly frightens you.”
Harold tears free and grabs them both by the collar, hurling them toward the wall. They crash against the stone and slide down, gasping.
“It does not matter what frightens me!” Harold roars. “What matters is that her very existence endangers everything we have built! You act as though you know everything! You dare defy your own blood for her? You seek death, Andrei!”
Zyber and Andrei scramble upright, breathing hard, blood trickling from cuts and grazes.
“I defy you because no one has ever told me the truth!” Andrei calls out, dodging another sweeping claw strike. “But I have seen enough to know you are wrong!”
Harold advances, driving them back step by step.“You know nothing at all!” he snarls. “If you truly understood, you would know why we must never draw close to the Zhao clan. Why we must keep our distance at all costs!”
Andrei and Zyber launch a coordinated attack, striking from both sides. Harold deflects every blow.
“Because you fear them!” Andrei says.
“Fear them?” Harold laughs again, dark and bitter. “Why would we fear them? They should be the ones fearing us!”
“Should they?” Andrei ducks beneath a claw strike and counters. “You just admitted they are a threat. You admitted it yourself. And you also said it is not Rose alone you fear—that other powerful vampires, ones that do not belong here, hunt the Zhao clan. Their leader is what you truly fear. Not the Zhaos. Now I understand exactly why Lord Calvin hunts them.”
Harold freezes. For a heartbeat, he says nothing.
Andrei and Zyber stagger, exhausted, their strength nearly spent.
“I cannot keep this up much longer,” Zyber mutters, clapping Andrei on the shoulder. “You handle your father. I will try to flank him.”
“Before Lord Calvin… why are we involved in this at all?” Andrei demands, blocking another strike. “Why must we fight his war for him?”
Harold’s expression hardens into something ancient and terrible.
“We have long been involved, Andrei. You forget something. That is exactly why your mother was killed.”
The name—Cassie—hangs in the air like a thunderclap. Andrei’s blood turns to fire in his veins.
“You follow exactly in her footsteps,” Harold continues, striking Andrei across the chest, opening a deep, stinging wound. “But it is too late to turn back. Lord Calvin will hunt you just as he hunted her. You and your mother… you are the ones who bring ruin upon this clan. When will you open your eyes? Peace with the Zhao clan will drag us all down into ruin. Everything that has befallen us began with them!”
As Harold’s claws tear into Andrei’s side, Zyber lunges from behind, striking hard and true—giving Andrei the opening he needs to strike back.