Artemis thoughts spun, too fast, too tangled. Every time she considered what had to be done, her stomach turned. She couldn't lay a hand on the hunter — not anymore. Not with everything the book had revealed. And definitely not now that Selene had bound herself to him.
Her jaw tightened.
Even thinking it aloud felt like betrayal. But what was she supposed to do — sit by while her sister built a future with a creature born of a forbidden ritual? One she had created?
She came to a sudden stop. Her arms fell limp at her sides.
A new thought crept in. Quiet. Dangerous.
"What if I don't strike him at all?"
The idea settled in her chest like a cold stone. Wrong. And yet…
She turned it over in her mind, slowly, like someone weighing a blade they never meant to draw. Her breath slowed.
"What if a mortal did it instead?"
Her lips parted — not in awe or surprise, but with the sharp pull of an idea clicking into place. Cold. Precise. Calculated.
