Chapter 126

In the late afternoon, Rachel found herself in the pack’s meeting hall, in a room with rows of shelves and piles of ancient scrolls. Rachel was seated cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by faded tomes and crumbling parchment. Her brow was furrowed, and her lips moved silently as she read. Her focus was so intense that she didn’t even look up when I entered the room. “Still digging through the archives?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe. Rachel startled slightly but quickly composed herself. “Serena,” she said with her voice tinged with excitement. “You need to see this.” Curious, I crossed the room and knelt beside her. She held up a tattered scroll. Its edges were brittle with age. The writing was faded but legible and its angular script was unfamiliar yet strangely familiar to me. “What is it?” I asked, taking the scroll carefully in my hands. Rachel pointed to a passage near the bottom. “It’s a record of an ancient pact between witches and rogue wolves,” she explained. “It