Chapter 165. The Gift of Life

Alison POV

“Xander?”

The name left my lips in a whisper, barely carried by the cold night air. I stood there, my white fur matted with blood and earth, my chest heaving after the final clash beneath the cursed red moon. The sky was clearing now… the eerie crimson glow fading back to its rightful silver. I should have felt victorious. I should have felt alive.

But all I felt was dread.

The world around me was too quiet. The earth no longer trembled, the cries of the damned had faded into suffocating silence. I lifted my head, my ears twitching, desperately searching for the familiar voices for them. For Xander. For Simone. But the forest was empty, and the only thing that brushed against me was the cold wind.

Where are they?

Mother Eliza had promised. Victory will spare them. That was her exact fucking promise. She said the evil witch’s curse would break with the witch’s fall. I had shattered the monster’s heart with my own claws, I felt the