Chapter 51: Into the Storm
Lily POV
It wasn’t the smell of dark magic or the sight of the changed wood that hit me first. Like a knife through my heart, Caleb’s scream of pain echoed through our mate bond.
"CALEB!" I yelled and ran faster than I ever had before.
As I ran through the twisted trees, my feet barely hit the ground. Whenever he moved, it hurt both of us; his pain was my pain and his fear was my fear. The mate tie that usually brought us comfort now felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside.
I walked right into the Sacred Grove and stopped. This wasn’t the peaceful spot where Elder Iris taught me about plants. The old trees were dying and turning black. Their branches stuck out like ghost fingers. The ground was cracked and leaking some kind of dark liquid that made my stomach turn.
A huge female wolf with silver-streaked fur and eyes that burned like green fire stood in the middle of it all. She was beautiful and frightening at the same time, radiating power that made my Triple Moon Mark burn against my wrist.
At her feet lay Caleb, barely conscious and covered in weird shadow marks that pulsed like living things.
"You must be the famous Triple Moon bearer," the wolf said, changing into human form. She looked like she could be someone’s grandmother, except for those terrible glowing eyes. "I am Morrigan, and I’ve been waiting centuries to meet one of your kind."
"Let him go," I ordered, my healing power already flowing toward Caleb. But when my silver light touched the shadow marks on his body, it sizzled and burned away like water on a hot stove.
Morrigan laughed. "Oh, child. Your little healing tricks won’t work on shadow poison. Only I can remove it, and I will... if you give me what I want."
My heart pounded as I knelt beside Caleb. His breathing was shallow and his skin was going gray where the shadow marks spread. Through our link, I could feel his life slipping away.