Liora's library yielded the answer within the hour, though none of them found comfort in it. The oldest texts were dense, written in a script even Liora had to squint over, and Jasmine sat with the twins cradled close while the vampire queen translated aloud, each word landing heavier than the last.

"The Rite of Unmaking," Liora said grimly, sliding an ancient, brittle text across the table for the others to see. "Outlawed by the Council so long ago that most scholars believe it was destroyed along with the practitioners who once performed it. It doesn't kill a hybrid. It reaches into the bond between a child and the power...