Hi, I'm Marion, and this is the story of the night Magnus walked back into a house full of vampires who wanted him dead.

The door of the coven mansion swung open. The whispering stopped the second Magnus stepped inside. Eyes everywhere in the dark. A side door opened, and Leonard walked out.

"Incredulous," Leonard said. He sat on the throne at the far end of the hall, crossed his legs, and laced his fingers together like a king. "Speak."

I wasn't there. I was pacing a hospital room a hundred miles away while Jake slept. But Magnus told me everything afterwards, every word, and I am telling it to you exactly the way he told me.

He had driven up in a storm. Of course it was a storm. The gate creaked open like it remembered him. He walked past a dead fountain with a grinning gargoyle he swore was watching him. Then he knocked on the door of the family that had thrown him out. For me.

Beside Leonard's throne stood two smaller chairs. Magnus and Leonard used to sit in them. Brothers. Protectors of the coven.

Magnus knelt at the bottom of the stairs. He told me that part quietly, like it still stung. A three-hundred-year-old vampire, on his knees.

"My brothers, my sisters, I come before you humbly to seek forgiveness for my past transgressions," he said. "I know that what I have done has put our house in great peril, and I understand that the punishment shall be just. However, my actions were not driven by selfish motives, but rather an attempt to find alternat-"

"MAGNUS!"

Leonard stood up. He came down the stairs slowly, and he started to circle. Magnus said Leonard always circles when he thinks he has already won.

"Magnus. Magnus. Magnus. My dear brother. Pardon my interruption, but I find myself confused. Do correct me if I'm wrong, but you come here tonight to BEG for forgiveness?"

He leaned in close to Magnus's ear.

"Forgiveness for the massacre you set in motion on this already dying family? Forgiveness for snuffing out the last hope we all waited and nursed for ages? Because if I'm correct, then why does it sound like I hear nothing but EXCUSES?!"

Magnus stayed still. He stared straight ahead and said nothing.

"Oh, Magnus. You were so dear to us. These vampires looked up to you. You were a hero. I can still picture the day you would have walked through that very door with the girl in your arms, ready for everyone to feast."

The girl. That was me. I need you to sit with that for a second, because I did.

"What a grand moment that would have been," Leonard said. "But instead. Nothing. We waited and waited. And we realized we had not only lost our last chance at survival. We had lost a brother."

The crowd murmured. Magnus said he could feel them turning, like a tide going out.

"You know that's not true!" Magnus shouted.

"Shh! Shh!" Leonard spun back toward the throne and pointed at the two empty chairs. "Take a good look. What a pair we used to be. The High Lord CHOSE us to protect this coven. We are vampires, Magnus! We HUNT the humans. We FEED on their blood. Yet YOU DARE FALL IN LOVE WITH ONE OF THEM!"

The whole room was leaning forward now. Magnus said he could feel hundreds of fangs behind him, waiting for permission.

"YOU ARE A TRAITOR, MAGNUS! YOU! KILLED! US! ALL!"

And then Magnus did the one thing nobody in that room expected. He fought back.

"Wouldn't you?!"

The hall went dead silent. Leonard froze.

"You act so righteous and mighty, Leonard. But deep down, I KNOW YOU WOULD DO THE SAME!"

Magnus told me Leonard's eyes flickered then. Just for a second. Like the words had hit something true.

"HOW... DARE YOU!"

The crowd surged forward out of the shadows, and Magnus braced himself, certain he was about to die in the house he was born into.

And that was when a voice boomed from beside the throne, "MAGNUS?!", and an old vampire in glasses stepped out of the dark.