Chapter 83 CHAPTER 83
The mountains loomed like silent giants, their jagged peaks carved against a dim horizon. Sarah moved quickly along the narrow path leading upward, her cloak pulled tightly around her as the wind hissed between the rocks. Her steps were light, almost floating - a grace that belonged to no wolf, no human. Only witches moved with that kind of ghostly fluidity.
She did not know she was being followed.
A soldier from Ethan’s elite guard kept to the shadows behind her, his body wrapped in a special Mooncrest cloak designed to mask scent and presence. His wolf lay low inside him, belly close to the metaphorical ground, breath silent. He followed each step Sarah took, never letting himself get too near and never allowing her to sense him.
He didn’t know what she was.
Not fully.
But Liam had ordered him to follow her if she ever left Silverpine.
Tonight, she had rushed toward the mountains with urgency.
A woman in trouble.
A witch with secrets.
The soldier kept pace silently.
Sarah reached a clearing where the trees grew twisted and old, their roots clawing through stone. Before them stood one tree unlike any other - wider, taller, darker, as if carved from shadows. It towered over everything else like an ancient sentinel.
She looked around once, sniffed the air, and, satisfied she was alone, stepped toward the tree.
The soldier crouched low behind a boulder, breath barely detectable.
Sarah lifted her hands and whispered something - low, sharp, quick. The words weren’t in English, nor in any wolf tongue. The soldier strained his hearing but caught only fragments, a crackle in the air, a hum of dark syllables.
Then she drew a blade from her sleeve.
A curved, bone-handled blade.
She pressed it to her palm without hesitation and sliced.
The soldier winced silently as blood dripped down her wrist.
Sarah stepped forward and smeared the blood across the bark of the ancient tree. It drank the drops greedily.
A moment later, the tree groaned.
Its bark shifted.
Cracked.
Split open.
And then, the trunk peeled apart like a pair of wooden lips, revealing a swirling, pulsing darkness inside.
Sarah stepped into it.
The tree swallowed her whole.
The crack sealed shut after she was gone.
The soldier’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest.
He mind-linked Liam instantly.
“Commander, she vanished into a tree. She used blood. Dark magic. I couldn’t follow, but I saw everything.”
Liam: “Stay put. She’ll come back the same way. Do not be detected.”
The soldier pressed closer into the shadows, eyes fixed on the ancient tree.
Darkness spat Sarah out into a different world, the realm of the dark witches. The tree only responded to the blood of those from the dark witches’ bloodline.
Sarah stumbled forward and steadied herself.
She walked toward the grand stone house at the far end of the village - the home of her mother, Seraphine.
Inside, Seraphine was waiting.
Her eyes flashed silver when she turned toward Sarah. “Where have you been?” Seraphine demanded. Her voice was low and dangerous, like a hot coal wrapped in silk. “You were to return two days ago.”
Sarah bowed her head quickly. “Mother, I came as soon as I felt a disturbance.”
Seraphine narrowed her eyes. “What disturbance?”
Sarah swallowed. “The supernatural energy in Silverpine. It is… changing. Weakening in some places. Strengthening in others. Something is interfering with the spells I cast.”
Seraphine stared at her. “Interfering? How?”
“And Sebastian….” Sarah blurted. “He was supposed to be almost dead by now. Instead, he is recovering. His wolf… somehow protected.”
Seraphine shot to her feet.
“You useless child!”
Sarah flinched as her mother’s magic cracked loudly in the air, rattling the shelves and sending candle flames dancing.
“You were given a simple task!” Seraphine shouted. “Drain him. Break him. Destroy the wolf inside him. And you return to tell me that he is recovering?!”
“I…I don’t know why,” Sarah stammered, trembling. “I did everything you taught me. Everything!”
Seraphine stepped closer until Sarah could feel her breath.
“If you ruin this for me,” her mother hissed, “if you destroy decades of preparation, if you cost me the ritual….”
Her hand shot out and grabbed Sarah’s chin so hard that Sarah whimpered.
“…. I will make you wish you had never been born.”
Sarah trembled, tears filling her eyes. “I haven’t failed, Mother. I swear. I’ll fix it. I just came to report the shift in supernatural strength. Something is affecting magic in the realm. Something is pushing back.”
Seraphine’s glare deepened. “Find out what it is. Immediately.”
Sarah nodded frantically. “Yes, Mother.”
Seraphine shoved her away. “Then go. Recharge. Feed. And get back to Silverpine.”
Sarah bowed again, her voice barely above a whisper. “Yes.”
She left her mother’s chambers with her shoulders hunched and her heart racing. The tunnel leading downward was cold and steep, the air growing heavier with each step she took.
Then came the sound.
The soft, low groans of dozens of voices.
She reached the dungeon gates.
Behind iron bars lay rows of abducted young men, wolves and humans alike. Some barely conscious. Some whimpering. Some silent with hollow eyes.
They had been missing from the city, from Red Valley, from other places. All dragged here for one purpose:
Food.
Sarah stepped forward, the torches flickering around her.
One boy saw her and scrambled backward, his voice trembling. “Please… no more… please…”
But Sarah simply smiled.
A cold, hungry smile.
She went to the first boy, barely twenty, thin, trembling.
Her hand cupped his face.
“Shhh,” she whispered sweetly. “This won’t take long.”
She leaned in.
Her lips touched his.
And power rushed from his body into hers, making her gasp. The boy’s strength, his spirit, his youth - everything flowed into her in a wave of energy.
The boy collapsed, unconscious.
Sarah wiped her mouth and moved to the next one.
Then the next.
By the time she was done, her eyes glowed faintly, and her skin seemed warmer - her weakness fading with every soul she drained.
She exhaled slowly.
“I’m ready,” she whispered to herself, voice humming with new strength. “I’ll do better this time. I won’t fail.”
The soldier stayed hidden, still as stone, his body pressed low behind the boulder. Hours passed. The forest shifted. Night crept in. He did not move.
He didn’t dare.
Then…
A deep groan rolled through the clearing.
The ancient tree shuddered, its bark rippling like something alive beneath the surface. The soldier’s heart slammed into his ribs.
A split formed down the centre of the trunk.
Light, faint and pulsing, spilled out through the crack, widening slowly like the mouth of a living creature.
He held his breath.
The tree opened.
And Sarah stepped out.
She was no longer weak.
Her eyes glowed faintly.
Her skin hummed with new power, fresh energy thrumming beneath it.
She looked around sharply, scanning the clearing.
The soldier flattened himself tighter against the rock, not even daring to breathe. His cloak masked scent and sound, but one wrong movement might still betray him.
Satisfied that no one was near, Sarah pulled her cloak tighter and started down the mountain trail - heading straight back toward Silverpine.
The soldier mind-linked Liam instantly:
“Commander, she’s back. She came out of the tree. She looks stronger, like she absorbed something. I’m following her now.”
Liam’s answer was immediate and sharp.
“Good. Stay silent, stay hidden. Don’t lose her.”
The soldier slipped after Sarah, his steps soundless on the forest floor, watching the witch disappear into the shadows like a demon returning home.