Chapter 18: Ancient and Modern

Every step feels like moving through mud. My legs shake, muscles screaming from exhaustion and leftover adrenaline. The mark on my arm still pulses, but it's less like power and more like an open wound.

"We need to stop," Thalia says from somewhere behind me. Her voice sounds as ragged as I feel. "At least long enough to catch our breath."

I want to argue, but when I turn to face her, the world tilts sideways. Jay catches me before I hit the ground, though I can feel him trembling with his own exhaustion. Those magical chains did a number on him… his usual healing is working overtime just to close the worst of the wounds.

"She's right," he murmurs, and I hate how weak his voice sounds. "We've put enough distance between us and Kael's pack. Something was off about how they just... let us go."

That's been nagging at me too. Wolves don't give up a chase easily, especially not when their pride's been wounded. So why...?

The thought cuts off as another wave of dizziness hits. Using that much power, especially the transformation... It's like I've drained something essential from myself. The spirit realm should have warned me about this, I think. Or tried to. Everything from the spirit realm feels hazy now, as if I am trying to remember a dream through fog.

"There's..." Thalia pauses, her head tilting like she's listening to something I can't hear. "There's a presence ahead. Magical, but… faint."

"Trap?" Jay asks, automatically shifting closer to me despite his injuries.

"No," she says slowly. "More like... a sanctuary? The energy feels..." She trails off, frowning.

That's when I feel it too…a subtle shift in the air, like walking through an invisible curtain. The forest around us changes. The trees here look taken care of, their branches weaving together to create natural archways. Moss grows in spiraling patterns that look almost deliberate.

And there's magic here. Not the raw, wild power I channel, or the structured spells Thalia uses. This is something lite but it also feels almost... alive.

"Someone's shaped this place," Thalia whispers, running her fingers along a tree trunk covered in luminescent fungi. "Over a long period of time."

"Someone not very powerful but well versed in magic structure, crafting and function," I add, because I can feel it now…layers upon layers of spells, woven so tightly together they've become part of the forest itself.

Jay tenses beside me. "Someone's coming."

I hear it a moment later – footsteps, too precise to be an animal. Through the trees, a figure approaches, and my survival senses go haywire.

The woman who steps into view looks ageless; she could be thirty or three hundred. Her hair is a striking mix of silver and deep red, and her eyes... her eyes remind me of looking into still water, unable to tell how deep it goes.

"Well," she says, her voice carrying an accent I can't place. "This is unexpected. A hybrid, a witch, and a wolf, all stumbling into my sanctuary?" Her lips curve into something that's not quite a smile. "The question is... are you running from something, or toward it?"

Before any of us can answer, she takes a step closer, and I feel her magic reach out, not attacking, just... tasting. Testing. Her eyes widen slightly.

"Interesting," she murmurs, and this time her gaze fixes on my arm where the mark still pulses. "Very interesting. The spirits have marked you, haven't they? Left their own little signature..."

"Who are you?" Jay demands, but there's something in her presence that makes even his wolf want to stay still, listen.

"My name is Evelyn Thornfire," she says, and beside me Thalia inhales sharply. "And I think..." her eyes meet mine, and there's something like recognition there, "you might be exactly what I've been waiting for."

The mark on my arm pulses once, hard, like it's responding to her words. Or maybe warning me about them.

…

Evelyn's home isn't what I expected. Instead of a witch's cottage or some mystical tower, it's a sprawling structure that seems to have grown from the forest itself. Trees form natural walls, their branches weaving together to create rooms and corridors. Bioluminescent fungi provide soft light, glowing gently.

"Your magic will stabilize faster here," she says, leading us through what feels like a living maze. "The sanctuary helps balance... unusual energies."

Jay's hand tightens on mine. He's been on edge since we entered, and I can feel why. There's old magic here; the kind that makes both my witch and wolf sides sit up and pay attention.

"You're half human… not a full witch, how is that even possible," I say suddenly, the realization hitting me as I watch her move. There's something about her magic that feels... incomplete.

Evelyn pauses, turning to look at me with those bottomless eyes. "And you're half wolf. We all have our crosses to bear, don't we?"

She gestures to what looks like a healing room, herbs hanging from the ceiling and crystals embedded in the living walls. "Sit. Those wounds won't heal properly without intervention."

I start to protest that I'm fine, but my legs choose that moment to give out. Jay catches me again, but this time we both end up on one of the moss-covered benches.

"The spirit realm helped you unlock more control over your powers," Evelyn says, gathering supplies with practiced efficiency. "Opened channels that weren't ready to be opened. Your magic is... bleeding, for lack of a better word."

"How do you know about her jorney to the spirit realm?" Thalia asks sharply. She's been unusually quiet, watching Evelyn with an expression I can't quite read.

"The same way I know about the prophecy that's been keeping the witch elders awake at night." Evelyn's hands glow as she begins treating Jay's wounds first, despite my protests. "The same way I know why Kael's pack let you escape so easily."

That gets everyone's attention.

"They didn't chase because they didn't need to," she continues, her magic seeping into Jay's injuries with a light that makes my mark pulse in recognition. "They got what they wanted… confirmation."

"Of what?" I demand, but I think I already know.

"Of what you're capable of." Evelyn's eyes meet mine. "Of what you're becoming. Tell me, when you transformed, did it feel like something else was transforming with you? Something foreign?"

The memory hits hard… that sense of ancient port foreign power, of shadows that moved with their own will. "How did you..."

"Because I've seen it before. In the texts they tried to burn, in the histories they tried to bury." She moves to treat my injuries now, and her touch sends strange echoes through my magic. "The witches and wolves weren't always enemies, you know. Once, they performed rituals together, maintained balances you can't imagine."

"I know," I say quietly.

Evelyn's hands pause for just a moment. "Interesting. I believe you also know why it all fell apart? Did you get to see what everyone is so afraid might happen again?"

Before I can answer, Jay stiffens. "Those symbols," he says, gesturing to markings I hadn't noticed before, etched into the living walls. "I've seen them before."

"In the old pack territories, perhaps?" Evelyn's smile is knowing. "In places where the alphas forbid anyone to go? Of course you have. They're everywhere, if you know where to look. Remnants of a time when magic didn't choose sides."