What did she even mean by forcing her hand? Damon would find out eventually.
Lilith Astranova was not the type of woman who gave up. She had lost to him four times, but not because she lacked a way to stop him. It was because doing so would have been cruel. Because it would have denied Damon the right to choose.
Now she had been pushed past that line.
He could hate her for it if he wanted.
He could only hate her if he was alive.
The first four times, she truly believed she could change his mind. She felt like a foolish woman who thought she could fix a man who was already too far gone. Maybe she could have, given time, but he was not giving her that option.
Her heart tightened painfully. She did not care about his defiance. She did not care about his pride or his grand ideals.
She just wanted him to live. Dammit.
As long as he survived to the very end.
Then again, what was the difference between surviving and living.
