Chapter 7

KATHARINA

I watched as the inky black liquid in the cauldron hissed, sputtered, then collapsed into a fine layer of powder.

Another failure.

A shadow flickered across my face—sharp as a blade—and for a heartbeat, a monstrous fire surged in my chest, an urge to reduce everything around me to ash.

How much longer would it take?

Another hundred years? A thousand? Ten thousand?

I simply couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. Every attempt ended the same way, leaving me with nothing but a trail of failures.

I had gathered rare plants, deadly poisons, sacred herbs, healing roots—tested them separately, fused them together, and re-fused them tirelessly in countless orders.

And still, nothing.

Absolutely no progress toward curing immortality.

It felt as though I was circling endlessly around the same point, trapped in an invisible loop I couldn’t break.

Was the universe mocking me? Warning me not to fight fate? Not to attempt the impossible?

The thought made me seethe and sneer.

Out of nowhere, wind gathered and spiralled into a small cyclone around me, a physical manifestation of the chaos boiling inside me.

Whether to become mortal or finally find death, I would achieve my goal.

And I would allow no force in existence to stand in my way.

Moments later, I exhaled slowly, and the whirlwind calmed before dissolving into nothingness.

Anger was useless.

It solved nothing, changed nothing. I knew that better than anyone.

But I no longer wished to remain in this room.

Everything in it now grated on my nerves.

As I finally moved, my body protested—my bones creaking, joints stiff.

A familiar sensation.

One that always followed those periods when I lost myself in deep concentration for days, weeks… perhaps longer—so long that my body barely moved from a single position.

I never cared about being in such a state, since time was meaningless to me anyway.

This thought flashed through my mind as I began to stretch, only for me to freeze halfway.

I seem to have forgotten something...

Something pretty important.

My brows slowly drew together as a few possibilities ran through my mind.

Then it hit me.

The wolf pup!

I had forgotten it entirely.

Time meant little to me, but to a creature that small… it was more than enough to starve to death.

Without wasting another moment, I hurried out of the room, only to find the space where I had left it completely empty.

Had it left? Or wandered deeper into the mansion?

Harboring this thought, I searched the hallways and corridors first, but found nothing.

Then, remembering the back entrance—the one I had led it through when we came in—I made my way there and found the door slightly ajar.

So it had left on its own.

A faint prickle stirred in my chest at the realization, an emotion I had no name for.

Still unwilling to accept it just yet, I stepped outside and circled the mansion, searching for pawprints, disturbed soil, snapped twigs. Anything.

But there was nothing.

Everywhere was perfectly undisturbed.

For a fleeting moment, I even wondered whether I had imagined its existence altogether. Conjured it out of thin air.

But the thought passed quickly.

It had been real.

And now, it was gone. Back to the outside world where it belonged.

Yet the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t how it had managed to bypass my enchantments again.

It was—

What an ungrateful little thing.

I healed it. Took it into my home.

And it couldn’t even stay long enough to say goodbye?

My worries for it would have been better fed to the dogs.

A beat later, I realized what I was thinking and froze in place.

Had I truly… grown attached? To an animal I had known for mere hours?

How absurd.

And yet, I wasn’t someone who lied to myself.

Deep down, I knew the truth.

That somehow—despite all my caution and wariness—that suspicious little creature had still slipped its way into my heart with ridiculous, infuriating ease…

My expression went perfectly blank.

Then, my hands curled into fists, nails digging deep into my palms. But I felt no pain, only numbness.

Before imprisoning myself here, I had lived more than eight centuries in the outside world.

I had traveled every continent, crossed endless oceans, met countless souls—humans and supernaturals alike—whom I allowed into my heart.

Friends. Family. Loved ones.

And I watched every one of them age.

Weaken.

Succumb to illnesses that hollowed them out, turning them into a shadow of themselves.

Then they turned resentful, bitter and envious of me because while time ravaged them, I remained untouched by it.

Like a saying in the human world, I was forever eighteen.

They pleaded with me for cures. Begged for immortality.

But even the most powerful witch cannot rewrite the natural order.

Eventually, they all died: leaving me all alone.

That was when it began.

I began to loathe my immortality—its helplessness, its cruelty, its endless cycle of loss.

So one day, I made a decision: to find a cure to turn mortal… or die trying.

I refused to suffer another loss.

Yet here I stood, feeling a thread of attachment toward a creature so fragile it might not even live long enough to experience adulthood.

My lips twisted into a cold, mocking smirk.

I would never learn. Would I?

The night air was icy, but I barely felt it as I stood unmoving.

I didn’t know how much time passed before I finally lifted my gaze to the sky.

The moon was gradually filling, gathering a formless energy unseen by ordinary eyes around itself.

Another full moon was near.

Meaning… I had been in the potion room for roughly twenty days. And the pup had been gone just as long.

Regardless of how it slipped past my enchantments—whether by design or coincidence—why it appeared or whether it ever intended to return… none of it mattered anymore.

Because from this moment onward—

I raised my hands.

Magic surged from me, rolling outward in a tidal wave that swept across the mansion and its vast grounds. My enchantments, invisible to all but me, tightened and hardened—becoming stronger and impenetrable.

This time, I thought, nothing would be able to wander in again.

Not even that pup.

Whether it lived or died outside these walls, was no longer my concern.

When the magic finally sank into earth and faded, my vision swayed.

Likewise, my knees trembled, threatening to give way beneath me.

The strain was catching up to me at last.

A century without feeding my vampiric half had left me dangerously weakened.

Only my witch half kept my body functioning.

Had I been a pure vampire, perhaps I would have gone mad long ago.

Fortunately… or perhaps unfortunately… I was a hybrid.

I steadied myself quickly. Even alone, I refused to show weakness.

Straightening up, I cast one last glance toward the rose garden—where I knew the exit to the outside world lay hidden within the enchantments.

Then, without lingering, I turned away.

Behind me, a dark cloud drifted across the moon, plunging the mansion into shadows, and swallowing my silhouette as I walked back toward the darkness of my self-made prison…