Chapter 9 Chapter nine
When I wake, the air is thick with smoke and the metallic tang of blood. My head throbs. Every breath scrapes my throat raw. The room is dim, lit only by the faint, red glow of symbols drawn in blood around me.
I try to move, but agony rips through my wrists and ankles. Silver chains bite into my flesh, sizzling against my skin. The smell of burned flesh fills my nostrils. My Mali howls inside me, but she’s trapped, caged, suffocating under the silver’s suppressive weight.
I’m lying inside a circle. It hums faintly, the light pulsing as though it’s alive. My fingers twitch, but I can’t break free. Every movement sends a new wave of pain radiating through my body.
My gaze drifts, and I see a table nearby. Metal, cold, clinical. On it lies an array of tools: blades, scissors, needles, and glass vials filled with something dark. Some of the blades are stained red. My inside twist. I feel nausea, if possible I would have thrown up everything in my stomach.
Then I hear footsteps. I close my eyes pretending I was still unconscious.
Two figures step out of the shadows, their robes brushing the floor. Witches. I can feel their energy, it’s sharp and rotten, humming with hatred. From my side eyes, I see them, one of them is tall, her eyes glowing with a faint, eerie green. The other is shorter, her lips twisted into a cruel smile.
The shorter witch crouches beside me, tracing a finger along the silver chain. The touch sends sparks of pain shooting through me. “Pretty thing,” she murmurs. “Strong blood. No wonder they wanted her alive.”
I flinch away from her touch. “What do you want from me?”
Well, well,” the tall one says. “The wolf awakens.”
Her voice drips with mockery.
The short one laughs, a sound that crawls over my skin. “Your kind destroyed everything,” she hisses. “You beasts ruined our lands, stole our power, made us hide in the shadows. But now…” Her eyes gleam. “We’ll take what’s ours.”
The tall one gestures toward my stomach. “You’re carrying power, little wolf. Life. And we’ll use it to restore what your kind took from us.”
My heart stops. “No,” I whisper. “You won't dare..... I will never allow you to take my child away”
The short one grins wider. “Oh, but we can. You’ll watch as we take your child. Maybe we’ll even let you die after.”
Tears blur my vision. I thrash against the chains, but the silver burns deeper, sending fire through every vein. Mali cries grow weaker.
I feel bad for Mali, she warned me but I never listen now see where my selfishness has landed the both of us into.
Then the shorter witch leans closer, her cold breath brushing my ear. “Perhaps we should enjoy the wolf first, before the ritual begins.”
"No, not Mali" I cried out "Mali please do something. Don't allow them to laid hands on you," I whispered to my wolf.
Her hand trails down my face, toward my chest. Disgust floods me. I try to scream, but a spell seals my throat. Panic claws at my chest. I can’t breathe, can’t move, can’t...
The door explodes.
A thunderous growl shakes the room. Wind surges through the cracks in the walls, blowing out the candles. In the sudden darkness, glowing eyes appear, amber, wild, filled with fury and rage
The beast steps in, a massive wolf, silver and black fur glinting under the red glow of the ritual circle.
The witches freeze. “Impossible...” one of them gasps.
The wolf moves before they can finish. One powerful leap, and it tears through the first witch, jaws crushing bone and flesh. Blood splatters across the symbols, breaking the ritual’s glow. The second witch screams and raises her hand to cast a spell, but the wolf slams into her, tearing her throat open.
The room goes still, except for the ragged sound of my breathing.
The chains fall limp around my wrists. The burning stops. Mali stirs weakly inside me, sensing something familiar.
The wolf turns toward me, its fur matted with blood, its eyes softening as it steps closer.
Those eyes. I know them.
“Sylvia,” I whisper, my voice trembling.
The great wolf lowers its head beside me, pressing its muzzle gently against my cheek, as if to say you’re safe now. My tears spill freely. Relief, fear, and love crash together inside me until I can no longer tell one from the other.
In that moment, as the circle fades and the smell of blood thickens the air, I realize Sylvia found me. And he would burn the world for me.