Chapter 66

MISTY

Like bloodhounds, we followed the scent, never deviating, until Cammy skidded to a halt just before a moss-covered outcrop.

Shelley stood with her arms in the air, chanting the same verse over and over.

~By blood once spilled and wrongs unspoken,~

~By sacred vows your kind has broken,~

~I call the dark, I bend the light—~

~Let every beast now feel my bite.~

I thought she was taking time off, but instead, she was planning to kill us all.

Fury galvanized me, and an errant thought popped up. If I had a gun, I could have easily shot her. We attacked without warning, but a shockwave hit us as a barrier repelled us, a jolt so fierce it knocked the breath from my lungs.

Shelley turned to look at me and laughed outright, then carried on chanting.

~Let hearts that thrum with stolen grace~

~Be bound in pain they can’t erase.~

~With every beat, a tighter thread—~

~A vise of bone, until they’re dead.~

I shifted into human form in horror. “Shelley,” I screamed. “Why?”

I could still hear howls, and Lloyd’s face was ingrained in my brain. He had to survive. I would make sure of that. I attacked again, but this time Cammy held back.

~“What are you doing?”~ I screamed at her.

~“We can’t get through the barrier.”~

Shelley laughed even louder, observing us. Now I could see that her face…~wasn’t quite right~. Her features shimmered, glitching at the edges like a mirage. The bones beneath her skin seemed to shift, her eyes deepening unnaturally as something darker stared back at me.

For a moment, two faces warred for dominance—Shelley’s familiar one and a stranger’s, pale and angular, with a cruel twist to the mouth. Then the illusion peeled away entirely, and I was no longer looking at Shelley.

Yamika said this was a powerful witch—and now, I saw why.

The witch was ancient, and she ~looked~ it. She had only worn Shelley’s face like a mask.

Her skin was ashen and creased like old parchment, drawn tight over sharp cheekbones and a sunken jaw. Deep-set eyes, black as oil, gleamed with ageless malice.

Her lips had thinned to near nothing, revealing yellowed teeth, long and uneven, like splinters of bone.

Silver-white hair hung in coarse strands around her face, drifting with an unnatural breeze, as if the air around her pulsed with power.

Runes had been carved into her flesh—raised and red, some still weeping—and they glowed faintly, alive with dark energy.

“Bronya,” Yamika’s voice echoed behind me. “Holy Hecate…those runes must have caused you endless pain—all just to prolong your life.”

“I wasn’t ~born~ immortal like you, little familiar,” Bronya snapped, her eyes narrowing. “Where have you been hiding? Come—serve ~me~ now.”

Yamika stood tall, hands clasped behind her back. “Sorry. Still busy serving my ~last~ master.”

“What? Kiralah is long dead. Who commands you now?”

“None of your business,” Yamika said coolly. “But I do have a question. Why the revenge, Bronya? If I remember correctly, you were ordered to stay behind and guard the young…”

“The Sayelle-Moreau monarchy has fallen,” I added. “The new king will never persecute witches.”

“I ~did~ stay behind,” Bronya said, voice thick with fury. “And I was ambushed not long after you left. With the last of my energy, I carved the first runes into my skin and begged Hecate to spare my life. Every year since, I carved more.”

She let her shawl fall from her shoulders. Her back was a tapestry of scars and symbols—glowing, ancient, and angry. There wasn’t an inch of flesh untouched.

“Then why didn’t I sense you near the Monolith?” Yamika asked.

“Because I wasn’t ~there~,” Bronya hissed. “I uncovered Kiralah’s spell—the one she used on Lloyd. I twisted it, made it mine. Buried myself so deep in the folds between worlds that not even you could sense me. I erased every trace of life. And when the stars aligned”—her eyes glinted with malice—“I woke, ready to claim revenge for our coven.”

She turned to me with a slow, wicked smile.

“I don’t care who your new king is. Werewolves are demons—filth that should be wiped from the earth.”

I glanced helplessly at Yamika. The hatred burning in Bronya’s eyes wasn’t just personal—it was ancient. No argument, no plea would ever reach her. This wasn’t anger. It was an obsession she had chosen to carry through the centuries.

And in that moment, I realized something with startling clarity.

Lloyd was a ~saint~.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she tittered, then resumed chanting.

“I can’t get through the barrier,” I said urgently to Yamika.

“That’s because your wolf is spineless,” she snapped. “And she’s only using a ~fraction~ of the essence I left in you.”

~“I hate her,”~ Cammy wailed.

~“Cammy?”~ I said, stunned. ~“I ~felt~ it when you absorbed her spark. Please tell me Yamika’s lying.”~

~“Fine,”~ Cammy growled. ~“I took half. And yeah, you felt the power shift. How do you think I feel? I’m a wolf, not some cursed cat!”~

~“If you don’t want Vetus to die…” ~I stopped, the words catching in my throat as the fullweight of Cammy’s duplicity hit me. Horror twisted through me—how could she?

The moment Cammy took in the balance, it was like the world inverted. A violent crackle tore through my veins—hotter than fire, colder than ice, blinding in its purity.

I doubled over and my vision fractured, sound warped, and for one terrifying second, I thought my heart had stopped—then it thundered back to life like a war drum.

Power flooded every corner of me, ancient and absolute. It didn’t just surge—it ~expanded~, pressing outward until I was sure my bones would shatter from the strain.

My skin thrummed, stretched thin over something no longer entirely mine. I could feel Cammy growl inside me, a force barely held in check.

I wasn’t just stronger. I was ~changed~.

Shifting came faster this time—sharper, wilder—as if the power inside us demanded release. We soared through the air, tearing through the barrier like it was nothing.

But the forest beyond twisted before us, becoming unrecognizable. Fog coiled like smoke around our legs. The trees leaned in, bark groaning as if whispering warnings. The air prickled with static and the unmistakable humming of magic.

Before we could move again, a force slammed into our side—raw magic, thick and blunt like a battering ram. We crashed into the ground, rolled, bark and thorns raking our skin.

My bones snapped and knit mid-shift as I staggered upright, slipping from Cammy’s form, half-wolf, half-human, fully driven.

The witch emerged from the trees, long fingers raised, mouth gaping as she wove her spell.

“You should never have existed,” Bronya snarled, the dirt beneath her feet rising up in a cloud. Her hair whipped around her face as she sent the soil toward us, all-consuming like a whirlwind.

Cammy snarled inside me. ~“She’s stalling us.”~

“No,” I said aloud. “She ~hates~ us.”

The witch’s lips curled. “Correct, little beast. You’re abominations—every last one of you. You think your bond with the moon makes you sacred? You’re monsters born of cursed blood and unchecked hunger.”

I stood my ground, panting, every muscle coiled. “We aren’t all the same.”

“You are and you ~enjoy~ it,” she spat. “Your kind wasn’t happy unless you were hunting witches. You didn’t care, regardless of age. I ~remember.~”

A wave of energy blasted from her, throwing me back against a tree. My vision flickered. Cammy growled, furious and shaking inside me.

“She wants blood,” I whispered. “Not justice. She doesn’t care who pays.”

“Werewolves aren’t born—they’re ~made~ by dark influence,” the witch continued, stalking toward me. “You’re demons wearing flesh. You think you’re different because you look human. But I see you. I smell the rot in your souls.”

I pushed off the trunk and met her eyes. “Then look closer.”

Something sparked at my fingertips. Raw and golden, flickering like firelight. It shot toward her like lightning and disappeared straight into her heart.

Bronya faltered, and I took advantage, lunging at her with bone-crushing force, teeth closing over her paper-thin throat.

Blood gushed hot and thick across my tongue—foul, ancient, carrying a bitter tang of long-forgotten magic.

As soon as her heartbeat stopped, Cammy plopped down exhausted.

Had I saved everyone?

Was it finally over?

Shifting, I examined my fingers. That was magic, but I had no clue how I did it.

Yamika had gone, but in the distance I spotted a big gray wolf bounding through the forest.

~“Cammy? I think absorbing Yamika’s spark is the best thing that has ever happened to us.”~

She took a long time to respond. ~“Maybe.”~