Chapter 153
It reached every soul who ever breathed with the land…
And struck hardest in the mind of the one I trusted most.
Isolde MacCrae Coven Mother POV
Moon Temple Outpost
:
458
Pre–dawn
I dropped to my knees mid–step. One heartbeat my boots hit stone, the next the world tipped and my head aimed for marble. Alaric was there, solid and hot, and his arms closed around me before my skull met the floor. My vision rolled white. My breath stilled. Then the air left me in a ragged gasp and a scream lodged itself behind my teeth.
“Poison,” I choked out. “She’s poisoning the earth.”
Lachlan was at my side like a storm, his hands flaring with shielding magic. “Who?”
“Raelith,” I said, and the name cut like a blade. My voice came sharp, my eyes wide enough to drink the dawn. “She’s coming for the temples. Verenya sent word…vines burning, rivers going black, blood in the wells…” I dug my fingers into Alaric’s wrist until my nails hurt. The warning tasted of iron on my tongue.
“Tell Elowen. Now. They’ll hit the Earth Temple first.”
“Water,” I whispered, my breath ragged, the single word a warning and a plea. “Don’t drink it. Don’t touch it. Every cup could kill.”
My knees trembled and I slumped forward, Alaric’s arms cradled me, steady as stone. He pressed his forehead to mine for the fraction of a breath, his eyes blazing with a slow, terrible fire.
“Sound the fucking alarms,” he ordered, his voice low and hard.
Elowen POV
Stormclaw Keep
Just After Sunrise
I was halfway into my first cup of bitter, black as sin coffee when the floor shook. Not violently. Just enough to make the roots groan under the stone. Enough to send a chill down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
A second later, the great hall doors burst open. Isolde and Alaric stormed through like a prophecy on legs. She looked like death, sweat dripping down her temple, robes clinging to her like she’d just run through a battlefield of ghosts. Her eyes were still flickering with residual light.
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15:55 Thu, Oct 9
Chapter 153
孝館
Alaric shouted before they even reached me.“It’s Verenya! A warning from the Earth Goddess!” My mug hit the stone floor and shattered. I was on my feet before they stopped moving.
“What kind of warning?”
Isolde grabbed the edge of the war table, barely steady.
“Blood magic, rotting the ley lines. She’s poisoning the land. Raclith is moving, and she’s starting with the Earth Temple.”
My heart dropped. “She’s trying to break our gods,” I said aloud, the truth settling cold in my chest.
Isolde nodded, her eyes wide. “She’s targeting our faith. The roots of your power. Our power. She’ll rot the wells, foul the crops, and corrupt the water.”
“Fuck,” Daxon muttered from behind me. “That’s why the temple groves smelled wrong last night. I thought it was runoff from the armory forge.”
“No,” I snapped. “It was Raelith.”
Lachlan was already casting a detection ward. Alaric unsheathed his blade.
“She wants to starve us from within,” I said. “We cut her off.”
I turned to the guards posted at the door, my voice sharp and commanding. “Sound the horns. Lock down every well in the valley. Boil nothing. Drink nothing. If you so much as smell iron in the water, burn the source.”
Then I faced the room, warriors, nobles, mages, and my mates.
“All priests, seers, and elemental casters to their temples. Now. Ward the shrines. Feed the gods. Speak their names. Sing if you fucking have to.”
“Raelith is trying to hollow us out. So we fight her the way she fears most..”
“With roots. With light. With faith.”
Ashrian grinned like he was ready to fight a god with his bare hands. Daxon cracked his knuckles. “Let’s purge a bitch.”
I turned toward the East Tower, where the Earth Temple rose like a fortress wrapped in vines.
My mark burned.
“Gather the witches,” I said. “We go now.”
15:55 Thu, Oct 9
Hunted Hybrid – Aegis War Saga 1
