Thalia had been in the western tower when the first explosions rocked the main house.
She ran toward the chaos instead of away from it.
She found her mother in the central courtyard surrounded by bodies....hunters she had killed defending their home. Elowen's hands were still crackling with power, her face streaked with blood and ash, her eyes wild with fury and grief.
"Run!" Elowen screamed when she saw Thalia. "Take your sisters and run! Get to the safe house!"
"I'm not leaving you...."
"GO!"
But before Thalia could move, before she could argue, before she could do anything, the hunters were there.
Twenty of them. Thirty. Too many to count.
They surrounded Elowen with blessed silver and iron chains. With weapons that burned through magic like acid. With the absolute conviction that they were doing the Moon Goddess's work.
Thalia watched her mother fight.
Watched her kill a dozen hunters even as they drove blessed daggers into her body.
