"It's not going to work," my father said. I sighed, rubbing my face with my knuckles, frustrated.

"It's a good plan," Sylvia chimed in, noticing my frustration.

"The best part is, that son of a bitch Elijah gets taken down," Natalia added. We all looked at her, raising our eyebrows. "Excuse the language. I'm a bit distraught," she said. We gave her sympathetic smiles.

"So are you in or am I going to have to find a way to do this myself?" I asked.

"You can't do it yourself or you'll activate the poison in your veins," my father said, giving me a look.

"Yeah, but if my idea works, then it doesn't matter," I replied.

"Let's not risk it," he said. "But fine. We have no other choice. This is the only plan we have. Natalia, can you go find Trey? Tell him to get as many people out of here as possible. Have Lance help him. We need to get as many people to safety as we can. Once you've done that, make sure you get out of there as well. Sylvia, you need to come with me," my father said. 

"Do you know the signal?" I asked. 

"You will gather your hair into a ponytail. Then I'll attack," my father replied. I nodded.

"Excellent. Let's do this," I said.

With that, we split. I went to go look for Gerrard so that he could help me execute the plan.

The plan was as follows. I was going to go to Elijah and tell him that my father had decided to turn himself in. After that, Gerrard and I were going to convince Elijah to call off his army. We were going to have to be persuasive, but I knew how to push Elijah's buttons until he gave in due to sheer annoyance of me. Once he called the army off, Natalia and Trey were supposed to get all of the Order to leave the grounds of Trinity University and transport to safety. When Elijah's army was gone and everyone else was safe, my father was going to go to Elijah. This is when we were going to take Elijah down.

This was the tricky part. Elijah was strong and even worse than his incredible magical ability, he was extremely cunning. The problem with taking Elijah down was that Gerrard and I had sworn an oath to never disobey Elijah's orders. However, there was a loophole.

Elijah's orders to us were that we had to do whatever he said. We just had to make sure his orders were followed, but in a way that would benefit us. He wanted me to take down Trey's army and technically, I will have done that by convincing the army to give up and retreat to safety. There was still the caveat that I had to kill Trey, but I was still working on figuring that one out. Gerrard's orders were that he had to keep me safe and help me carry out my tasks. Elijah hadn't specified which tasks he was to help me out with, which meant that my task of taking down Elijah was what Gerrard had to help me out with. 

But there was still the issue of our sworn loyalty to Elijah. We couldn't go against him. Yes, while we were planning and scheming to go against him, the actual actions themselves would not be done by Gerrard and I. We were going to do the part that Elijah had essentially told us to do: defeat the Order's army. My father was going be the one to take down Elijah. 

Sylvia was going to be hiding out. When I gave the signal, which was tying my hair, she was going to take away Elijah's voice permanently so that he couldn't give further orders. Once his voice was gone, my father was going to have to work quickly to take him down. Elijah could still think up spells and we had no idea if he knew a counter to the curse that Sylvia was going to use. So he had to be rendered unconscious before then.

It was all very risky and everything had to go as planned for it to work. If there was even a minute missing detail or alteration, the plan wouldn't work. It had to be perfect.

When I relayed the plan to Gerrard, he gave me a look of disbelief.

"You're mental. This is never going to work," he said.

"Yes, it will," I said.

"There are too many conditions, Caley! If anything goes wrong, all of us will end up dead," he exclaimed.

"That's why we're doing this in a controlled fashion. We're getting everyone off campus and making sure nothing can go wrong," I replied.

"You can't control for everything," he argued.

"Are you going to help or not?" I snapped at him, growing frustrated quickly. The more time we wasted, the more likely there was a chance that people were going to get hurt. 

"I don't really have a choice," he grumbled. 

"Good. Now that that's settled, we need to go find Elijah," I said. 

"He's waiting by the ruins of the dormitories," Gerrard told me as we started walking briskly towards the other end of campus. I felt my heart beating against my chest, the thumping so loud, I felt like I could hear it in my ears above the noise and utter chaos of the war around us. I was nervous and my stomach was doing flips. I didn't know whether we would kill Elijah or not, because that was up to my father. But what I did know was that this was it. This was the end. 

This was when I would find out if my theory on breaking the blood oath would be true. This is when I would finally be able to restore the peace that I was meant to restore. This was when I would find out if I could live happily ever after with Trey.

When we reached the now burnt-down remains of the dormitories, we saw Elijah sitting on top of a charred chair, Isaac and Gianna as well as a few others by his side. He had his fingers crossed by his chin, a bored expression on his face. When he saw me and Gerrard, his icy blue eyes flashed and a grin spread across his face.

"Ah, here they are. My star warriors. What news do you have?" he asked as we approached him.

"My father-he's decided to turn himself in," I replied without hesitation. Elijah raised his eyebrows.

"Really now?" he asked. "And what made him change his mind?" he asked.

"I did," I replied. He quired an eyebrow at me, silently telling me to continue. "I found him before the hour of ceasefire was up. I told him everything—about how I betrayed him, how I was working for you. I told him that he needed to give himself up because he was letting innocent people die. I told him that there wasn't any point in fighting anymore because you are clearly stronger and people from the Order were starting to give up hope. So he said okay. He said he'd turn himself in," I explained, trying to sound as convincing as possible. 

Elijah simply stared at me, a curious expression on his unreadable face.

"Are you lying to me, Caley?" he asked slowly, his blue eyes glinting.

"No. My father said he was going to turn himself in," I replied. It wasn't a lie. My father did say that. So I was still in the clear.

Elijah scrutinized me for a moment before letting out a long sigh and getting up.

"Well, it's about damn time my brother had some sense knocked into him. Well done, once again, Caley. You've always been supremely gifted at bull-shitting people to get your way," Elijah said with a smirk.

"He's only going to come under one condition, though," I said.

"And what is that?" he asked.

"You have to call off your army. Tell them to stop killing innocent people," I replied.

"I don't see the point in that," Elijah replied, fingering a silver button on his suit coat. Among all of us, he was the only one without a physicial speck of dirt, sweat, or blood on him. I had to keep from snorting at the irony.

"You said yourself that you want to minimize as much magical blood lost as possible. The people in the Order have given up. When my father didn't show up to defend them, they lost all hope. Now they're only being slaughtered for no reason. They'll submit to you because they're old leader failed them," I said, doing my best to not only butter Elijah up, but also make my point. 

Elijah pursed his lips and then let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Very well. Dmitri, call off the army. We can cease the fighting now," Elijah said. I let out a sigh of relief. The plan was working.

Dmitri walked off with two others to follow Elijah's orders. This left me and Gerrard alone with Elijah, Gianna, and Isaac. When my gaze fell on Isaac, I felt my blood boil and my anger rise. He was sitting there with a satisfied smirk on his face, like he was the strongest and luckiest person to be one of Elijah's right-hand men. It took every ounce of my willpower to force myself to stay put and not strangle him to death for what he had done to Zayll and Christopher. The number of people that I cared about that had lost their lives to Isaac was too high. He was not going to survive this war unscathed.

"So what was my brother's reaction to finding out that you had betrayed him, Caley? Do tell me in excruciating detail about his disappointment," Elijah spoke up, deflecting my attention from Isaac to him.

"He was disappointed," I said, forcing my voice to stay calm.

"Do you know what detail means, Caley?" Elijah replied, cocking his head the side slightly.

"He was confused and disappointed. My mother wrote me a letter warning me not to take your stupid oath, but I didn't read it until after. He was confused as to why I had joined your side. And he was sad and disappointed," I said. I left out the part where my father did indeed forgive me for my actions and was now helping me to take down his own brother.

"Katerina wrote you a letter telling you not to join me?" Elijah asked, furrowing his brows.

"She wrote me a letter warning me not to take the oath. She told me to join you," I replied.

"Well, if she had followed Jerome's orders and killed your father like she was told, she would have never died. Disloyalty is always punished. You should do well to remember that, Caley," Elijah said, his blue eyes flashing.

"I thought you said my father killed her..." I said, playing dumb and pretending I didn't know the actual truth about my mother's death.

"He did. Her love for him killed her in the end. And if you don't watch yourself, your love for your fiance will kill you in the end, too," Elijah replied. "We water masters are better off alone. If we don't fall in love, we won't die. It's as simple as that," he added.

"You can't live a life without loving anyone. It'd be too lonely," I countered.

"When you have power, you don't need love," Elijah said.

"You know, I feel bad for you, Elijah. You're so deluded in your quest for power that you miss out on the more important things in life, like love and family," I said.

"I have no family and no need for love," Elijah said, narrowing his eyes at me. I glanced at Gerrard, who was examining his shoes intently.

"You have a son that will defend you at every moment and you treat him like shit. You might have cut off all of your blood relations, but you still have him," I said. Elijah glanced at Gerrard, who was standing silently by my side. An emotion flashed across his face for a second and for a moment, I thought that maybe I had gotten through to Elijah. But the very next second, Elijah proved to me that nothing was ever going to change him.

"I have no son," he said, enunciating each word so that it hit Gerrard hard. I felt Gerrard tense up next to me, clenching his fists. After everything he had done for the one who had adopted him and taken him in, this was the gratitude that he got. I wrapped my fingers around Gerrard's wrist and glared at Elijah.

"People like you don't deserve the blessing of love," I hissed.

"People like me don't see love as a blessing, so we don't care," Elijah replied smoothly with a smirk. I glared at him as he turned his back on me. I stood fuming, but Gerrard pulled his hand from my grip and gently wrapped his own fingers around my arm.

"Just forget it," he said, his voice sad.

I felt my heart go out for Gerrard. He was the most loyal person that I knew and all he really wanted was acceptance. Forgotten by his real parents and never loved by the one who took him in, he never really had someone that would truly care about him. I felt so bad for him. Even though he was only part water master, this may have been his curse—to never truly be loved by anyone. I only hoped that Isobel wasn't with him for the physical pleasure. Gerrard deserved to be loved.

"It has been done. The army has been called off," Dmitri said, returning to the group.

"Excellent. Now we wait for my cowardly brother to show," Elijah said.

I felt myself grow anxious as we waited. The more time that went by, the more I began to doubt my plan and if it would work. Elijah was always ten steps ahead of the game. What if he had anticipated me going against him? What if he had a back up plan? What if this was all a mistake? As the seconds and minutes ticked by, I became more doubtful and wanted to go back on the plan. But just as I was thinking this, we heard the sound of chain dragging on the ground. We looked up to see my father being brought in, his hands in shackles, his face even more bruised than before. Elijah turned around just as my father stopped a few feet in front of him.

"On your knees," Elijah ordered. My father stared blankly at him, but didn't obey. "I said, ON YOUR KNEES," Elijah shouted, forcing his brother into prostration in front of him. When my father was on his knees in front of Elijah, his head bowed, Elijah smirked.

"Well, big brother. I must say, it is good to see you. And even better to see you in this position," Elijah said. "Tell me, brother. Are you happy to see me?" Elijah asked. My father didn't speak. "ANSWER ME!" he shouted.

"Always a pleasure, little brother," my father forced out. Elijah snickered.

"Is it strange for you, Michael? To be the one that lost? To be the one that has no power or control?" Elijah asked. "All our lives I watched everyone give you so much praise, so much honor for being the way that you are," he continued, his tone bitter. "Charismatic, intelligent, determined. A natural-born leader," he paused, as if letting the memories of the past fuel the fire of his hatred even more. "Admittedly, I idolized you when we were younger. But then I soon grew sick of it. You were so egoistical, so full of yourself. You knew that you were the favorite and you fully embraced it. You covered it up by pretending to be humble and grateful for your opportunities, but I knew better. I knew how you truly were. I knew that you enjoyed every ounce of praise that you received and that you would do anything to continue receiving."

"But look at you now. Look at where you are now. Who has all of the power now? Who's in control now, big brother? Me. It's ME. I single-handedly tore down everything you worked so tirelessly to create. And now you've lost. You lost your beloved wife. You lost your prestige and your power. You've lost the respect of the people you tried so hard to fight for. You've lost the one thing you thought you had control over: your daughter's loyalty," Elijah said. "And me? I've won. Did you hear that, brother? I WIN," he gloated, pacing in front of my father with a wide grin on his face, a slightly manic look in his eyes.

"What have you won, Elijah? From where I'm standing, you have nothing," Michael.

"Well, brother, you aren't standing. You're kneeling. In front of me. So what have I won, you ask? I've won everything you lost. Your power, your control, your honor, your daughter's loyalty. I've won everything and you've lost it all," Elijah said.

"You live a sad and delusional life, Elijah. Your views about me have always been so skewed. I never asked for any of the things that I had. I worked hard to achieve them. That is what our father taught us to do. You were always lazy and looked for the easy way out. That is why you were so unsuccessful. Because you never tried. And now, even though you think you have everything, you still have nothing. You have nothing because everything that you now have, you've stolen from people that have worked so hard. None of it is yours. None of it will ever be yours," my father said, his voice steady and quiet as always, the mark of a true leader.

My father's words clearly struck a chord with Elijah. His icy blue eyes flashed in anger and he stopped pacing. He stood directly in front of my father and brought him up using magic so that he was eye level with Elijah. My father didn't back down. He stared directly into Elijah's eyes, not allowing his brother to have the satisfaction of defeating him.

"Did I tell you to speak?" Elijah hissed, his voice dreadfully quiet. My father chuckled lightly.

"What's wrong, baby brother? Do you not like that I'm right once again?" my father taunted.

"You are not in the position to be gloating, brother. You have nothing," Elijah said.

"I have my life," my father said.

"Not for long," Elijah replied, pushing my father back.

This was my cue. I tied my hair up and just as my father fell on his back at Elijah's feet and Elijah opened his mouth to utter a curse that would surely take my father's life, we heard a shout coming towards us.

In the distance, sprinting towards us, was Trey.

READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE

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A/N: So I'm back! A few things...

1. Sorry for taking ages to update. Pharmacy school, it turns out, is HARD AS F*CK. Pretty much every week I have at least 2-3 exams. My finals week consisted of 8 exams in one week, 3 of which were cumulative. So...yeah. I've been a LITTLE busy with my studies and trying not to fall into a depression or accidentally starving myself to death because I'm studying all the damn time.

2. That being said, I find it extremely RUDE of some people to continuously tell me to update when they KNOW that I'm at school and studying. I repeat, for hundredth time, THAT THIS IS NOT MY JOB. Pharmacy is going to be my job, so it is my priority. Writing a story for fun is NOT IMPORTANT TO ME. I don't really give a shit if you're going to "die because I'm not updating". If your life depends on whether or not I update a story, then you seriously need to consider re-evaluating your own priorities. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but my life doesn't revolve around what's convenient for you. SO STOP TELLING ME TO UPDATE.

3. This is the last book of this series. I've said this multiple times before. So stop private messaging me and asking if there's going to be another book.

4. I'm off for the summer. I will be working, but I have a week to do nothing currently. My plans are to crank out the rest of this story in that time. I'm not making any promises. This may or may not happen.

K. That's all I have to say.

Bye.