ELDER COUNCIL LEADER MORGANA POV
The crystal shattered in my hands.
Blood ran down my fingers as the old communication stone broke apart. The message it brought made my thousand-year-old heart race with fear.
"The camp is under attack," I whispered to the other Elder Council members. "The Shadow Lords have begun their final assault."
Around the holy circle, eleven other ancient beings sat in their stone chairs. Some were vampires, others were witches, and a few were werewolves older than the mountains themselves. We were the Elder Council, the hidden guardians of the supernatural world.
And we were about to make the hardest choice in our long lives.
"How many are dead?" asked Elder Cornelius, a vampire who had lived through the fall of Rome.
"Too many," I said, wiping blood from my hands. "And more will die if we don't act now."
Elder Freya, a Norse witch, leaned forward. "The time has come, hasn't it? We must reveal the Ancient Pact."
