Chapter 3

The darkness broke with the sting of herbs in my nose.

The moment I drew breath, pain knifed through my chest.

Elder Rowan sat at my bedside, exhaustion etched into his face.

Seeing me awake, he let out a long sigh.

"Thank the gods, you're alive. We nearly lost you."

"But the poison went too deep. I'm afraid... you'll never use witchcraft again."

I forced the corner of my mouth up. Even speaking drained me.

"The room's too close. Bad for clearing the poison. Let me help you out to the back garden for some air."

He wrapped a heavy cloak around me and, supporting me, settled me onto the stone bench outside.

We'd barely sat down when urgent bells rang out.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Mournful. Piercing. Nine tolls in all.

My heart dropped.

Nine tolls of the death bell meant a council elder had been murdered.

Elder Rowan's face went pale. The medicine bowl nearly slipped from his hand:

"No, something's happened at the Council!"

Then came the chaos of footsteps from every direction.

Dozens of guards stormed in and surrounded us.

Hall led the front, his face ashen.

Behind him, Kylie leaned on her maid, her face white as chalk, weeping in floods.

The crowd parted. Three stretchers draped in white cloth were laid before my eyes.

"Bella! You vicious, black-hearted bitch! Give me back my father's life!"

Elvin, the third elder's only son, burst out of the crowd, his eyes consumed with rage.

Elder Rowan reached out to stop him. Elvin swiped him to the ground with one claw.

He seized my throat and hauled me up.

"Let go of me..."

The choke stole my vision. Pain ripped through my whole body.

"Let go? Did you let go when you killed them?!"

"Renn, Leon, and my father, every one of them treated you with kindness!"

"You left the Council Hall last night, and not long after, they were all dead! Their wounds carry your scent! If not you, then who?!"

At his words, the pack erupted:

"Burn her! A witch who slaughters her own kind!"

"She was the last to see the elders. She did it! Kill her!"

Stones flew at me. Elvin bared his claws, ready to tear out my throat.

"Elvin. Stop."

Hall stepped forward, blocking Elvin from me.

"Bella. I thought your resignation yesterday was just spite."

"But never did I imagine your so-called resignation was because you'd already conspired with the vampires, planning to betray the pack and run!"

Then my apprentice, Mary, stepped out from behind the crowd, eyes red-rimmed.

She held up a thick stack of letters, my supposed correspondence with the vampires, and displayed them for all to see.

A bloodstained crystal ball slid from her sleeve.

The very one I'd lost last night.

Looking at Mary's grief-stricken, practiced face, everything clicked.

She was the apprentice I'd raised with my own hands, my only named successor.

I'd brought her home countless times to study spells.

She was the only one in the entire pack who knew my room's layout inside and out.

So she'd been bought by Kylie all along.

In my last life, it was her who stuffed the vampire letters under my bed.

And in this life, it was her who stole my crystal ball, used the spells I'd taught her with all my heart to murder the elders, then turned around and pinned it all on me.

My stomach turned over.

Seeing her moment, Kylie stepped to Hall's side, her eyes welling:

"Bella... I respected you so much. I yielded at every turn. I tried everything to earn your approval."

"I thought if I treated you with sincerity, you'd accept me as the pack's Luna..."

She sobbed, her voice breaking completely:

"But I never imagined that for power, you'd conspire with vampires and slaughter your own people."

"How could you be this cruel? How could you betray the pack like this?!"

The pack exploded in fury, howling for me to be sent to the stake at once.

Hall glanced at me and said coldly:

"Bella. Witnesses, evidence, it's all here. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Say? I don't want to hear her say anything!"

Elvin, mad with grief, lost all control.

He broke free of the wolves holding him and lunged again.

In the scuffle, his claws raked across me and shredded the cloak to pieces.

The next second, the roar of the crowd died.

The air went deathly still.

Even Elvin froze, stumbling half a step back.