Chapter 133 – The Witch in the Shadows

Chapter 133 – The Witch in the Shadows


Morgana's POV

Darkness was nothing, It was breathtaking. It was a beat, a pulse that resonated in tandem with mine.

For centuries, they had taught me still, hidden beneath their bone and blood seals, Fools. All they could manage to do was trap the storm. And storms don't die.... they wait.

I strode across the chapel floor, boots echoing off shattered marble and the moon filtered through a broken window, catching on the jagged edges of runes scorched into the stone. My rune, They still trembled with the memory of fire, proof that my prison once had stood impenetrable.

No longer.

A shadow trailed along the wall beside me, eyes opening where eyes should not exist. My servant whisper made me human.

Where is she?" My voice breathed out like silk winding around the air.

The shadow growled, a tongue older than wolves, Words slithered into my head.

Close guarded and Kept safe by those who betrayed you.

A smile twisted my lips. Lucian and Nasir always play as kings when they are no more than animals playing at crowns. And now… my little thorn had gone into their den.

Trinity.

Her name was sweet upon my lips, with fate seasoned. I knew she was there the moment her wolf stirred against the web of fate. Not my blood, not born of my making—yet still tied to me. The decadence of it. She possessed the key without knowing. Her resurrection within her very blood.

I stroked a fingertip over one of the broken runes, sparks flashing under my skin "She is mine."

The shadow trembled, crouched low.

"She is protected," it snarled. "The brothers will not surrender to you. And the broken one… returns."

Oh Kael,

For a moment, there was silence around me, and something akin to laughter stirred. That boy had teeth some time ago—sharp, devoted and indomitable ones. I had thought him lost to pain and rage. And yet here he slithered back, trying to be savior.

"Let him crawl," I breathed. "Let him think he deals with fate. He will bring me straight to her, whether he knows it or not."

I made my way towards the altar, where it was worn stone but still showed signs of scorching on the day when they bound me. My palm rested on the cold surface. I could sense Lucian's growl, his voice of defiance, the shadows he employed like blades. I had felt his claws tear at me, and had smelled his scent mingling with mine as the seal closed.

Lucian. Always so sure he was the stronger. Always so sure he could command the darkness.

A laugh arose, soft and sharp.

"Do you still dream of me, wolf?" I addressed the darkness. "Do you wake with gagging on fear you won't admit?"

The darkness disturbed, restless. The shadows hissed once more. The girl resists. The bond grows stronger.

I rested my head. Bond. Of course. Trinity, trapped between both of them, vulnerable and ignorant. The brothers had thought she was theirs to protect, their own to fight over. Sweet, dumb brutes. They had no clue what reality was. She was not theirs. She was mine.

"Then let them bond," I said, a smile twisting my lips. "Let them weave their dainty chains around her neck. It will only make it that much more sweet when I break them.".

A sound in the distance of the chapel. One of my disciples slithered out of the shadows—a woman with sunken eyes, ash-burnt lips. She collapsed to the ground, forehead against the shattered floor.

"Goddess," she croaked.

"Talk."

"The pack is restless. Your return hangs heavy in the air. Do we strike?

I descended from the altar steps, each step of my boot contracting her shudders. She was saturated with smoke and submission, her torso bent like a supplicant before an altar.

Not yet," I whispered, leaning low so my breath caressed her ear. "The storm must rage before it breaks. Let the wolves think they are safe. Let them fight, fragment, bleed. When the girl's heart is shattered, when she has no idea whom to trust—that is when we strike."

The disciple shivered, nodding against the earth. "Yes, goddess."

My smile hardened. "Stand."

She stood, eyes wild and fever-bright, waiting for direction.

"Send the hounds," I breathed. "Let them howl in the darkness. A warning that shadows approach. But touch her? No. Not yet. Only just enough to remind them… that she is pursued."

The disciple bowed and dissolved, eaten by the black.

I rose, my face twisted up towards the broken window. The moon glared back, cold and silver, but even she flinched away from me.

Trinity's face came flashing back into my mind—eyes too bright, soul too wild. I wanted to grasp her. I wanted to break her. I wanted to see her on her knees and beg for the reason why fate had condemned her to be with me.

And when she would beg at last, I would reveal the truth to her.

That she had always been mine.

I stood with my back to the altar, hood of darkness wrapped around my shoulders, the air thick with expectation as my coming was no longer rumor, it was breath. And soon the wolves would know.

The ground trembled beneath the chapel somewhat, as if earth itself feared what I would bring.

And over the quake, over the whisper, I heard it—the thin, stubborn sound of a howl, the cry piercing the darkness of the night. Not mine. Hers.

Trinity's.

My lips parted with a shiver of pleasure running down my spine "She feels me already" I whispered.

The darkness around me hissed, restless and famished.

Yes," I panted, red-rimmed eyes blazing. "Make her fear me. Make her shake at the choice she will soon have to make. And when the moment comes… she will break. They all break."

A shiver of intense vibration through the walls, dust drifting lazily down from the broken ceiling as the old chapel was no longer spacious enough for me. There wasn't anything.

"Ready them," I ordered in the darkness. "We will march soon.".

The shadows curtseyed, many eyes fluttering before vanishing into the stone.

And as I stepped out into the night, the forest itself receded, branches groaning away, leaves whispering threats.

But the moon. the moon observed. Silent. Helpless.

Her time was drawing to a close.

And mine—mine had just begun.