Chapter Fifty-Three

Gretchen.

The wind is rustling the leaves of the tree above me. It's dark, too dark. Even for this clouded night, it's almost as if the sky is falling and closing in on me. There is only one thing that can make me feel this suffocated.

Black Magic.

(Flashback- 5 Hours Ago)

I had reached my previous coven two nights after I left Alpha Jaxon's pack and was greated with burned down houses, hanging witches swinging from the trees. Not even the young children were spared. Everyone I used to know, love, and chant with, are just gone. I searched every house, store, even the small council office. Nothing but silence and the pungent smell of rotting flesh.

The magic of the dead floated through the air like a thick and tainted fog, making it hard to breath. And yet, I could still smell the simmering sparks of live magic in the air. I knew I had to be vigilant, so I had quickly drawn a memory erasing vigil in the dirt. I used my blood in both chalices; the one that the spell is used agains