Levi sat cross-legged on the floor of her apartment, the heavy grimoire lying open in front of her. The moonlight cast long shadows across the room, but it was the book that seemed to draw all the light in, as though it pulsed with an ancient energy of its own. Her fingers hovered over the pages, the symbols on the parchment seeming to shift with each passing moment. There was an undeniable pull, an unseen force tugging at her soul. She couldn't stop herself from reaching out, tracing her finger across the intricate runes.
At first, nothing happened. But then, it was as if the world tilted on its axis.
A sudden rush of vertigo overwhelmed Levi, and her vision blurred. The air around her grew thick, heavier, almost suffocating. She blinked rapidly, but the room didn't return to focus. Instead, the space seemed to ripple, the walls melting away like thin mist. Levi's heartbeat quickened, but it was drowned out by the sound of distant chanting—low and guttural—filling her ears, echoing in time with the pulse of the grimoire.
And then, without warning, she was somewhere else.
The scene unfolded before her, as vivid and real as anything she had ever known. Levi found herself standing in a vast stone courtyard, the sun high overhead, its light burning with an unnatural intensity. Around her, people in tattered robes moved quickly, their faces drawn with worry. It was a time of war—a time of magic being hunted.
Levi—though she didn't recognize herself in this vision—was wearing a cloak of dark green, her hair braided tightly down her back. She was running through the crowd, her heart racing, the air thick with the smell of ash and blood. The sound of screams echoed in the distance, and the ground beneath her feet trembled.
"Move!" a voice called out, and she turned to see a woman with piercing blue eyes and an aura of power. The woman grasped her arm tightly and pulled her through the chaos. "Do you want to survive, witch?"
Levi tried to speak, but her voice was caught in her throat. Her entire body was paralyzed, caught in a vision that felt far too real. She wanted to scream, to break free from it, but she couldn't. It wasn't her body moving—it was the memory of someone else.
As quickly as it had come, the vision shifted. Levi found herself standing in a forest, the trees towering above her, their trunks twisted in unnatural ways. A group of witches stood around a burning pyre, their faces solemn. The wind howled through the branches, and a figure on the pyre burned with an intensity that made Levi's breath catch in her chest. The witch was a woman, bound to the flames, her eyes wide with terror.
"Eloria," the witches chanted, "the traitor shall burn."
A sickening twist of recognition slithered up Levi's spine. The name—the woman on the pyre—was Eloria, the one from her dreams, the one who had called out to her from the past. Levi tried to scream, to stop what was happening, but her mouth remained frozen, her body a prisoner to the vision.
Before she could process what was happening, the scene changed again.
Now, Levi stood in a dimly lit room filled with ancient symbols. A man stood across from her, his face hidden beneath a hood, but his presence was overpowering. The air was thick with magic, the scent of herbs and blood lingering in the space. He extended his hand toward her, his voice low and commanding.
"Join me," he said, his tone dripping with power. "Together, we can rewrite the world."
Levi recoiled, but before she could back away, the man reached out, and everything went black.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back in her apartment. But the room wasn't as it had been. It was as though everything had shifted. The walls seemed to be closing in, the ceiling bending downward. Levi gasped, clutching her head in pain as the hallucinations continued to swirl in her mind. They were memories—other lives she had lived, other roles she had played.
Each vision was more intense than the last, dragging her deeper into a past she couldn't understand. Every time she thought it would stop, the grimoire seemed to pull her back in, forcing her to relive another fragment of history.
She stumbled to her feet, desperate to escape the mind-bending flood of images, but it was too late. The magic had already taken root. The grimoire had infected her with its curse.
Rue Pendragon stood silently in the shadows of Levi's dimly lit apartment, his eyes never leaving her. He watched her as she slept fitfully on the bed, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths, her brow furrowed in the throes of some nightmare that was no doubt far worse than anything he could have imagined. Her body twitched occasionally, as though trapped in a world she couldn't escape—a world filled with the heavy burden of magic, fate, and memories not her own. The weight of it all had driven her to exhaustion, and for a moment, Rue allowed himself the luxury of simply observing her.
His fingers flexed involuntarily at his side as he thought back to the past, to the woman whose memory seemed to haunt him, whose name was as much a part of his soul as the blood that ran through his veins. Eloria.
The image of her, burned into his mind, appeared unbidden—the way she had looked all those years ago, when she had summoned him for the first time, when the world was far less complicated than it had become. She had been so full of fire, so certain of the path ahead. She had thought she could change the world, that her actions would lead to something greater. But she had been wrong.
Rue's gaze softened as he recalled the day she had burned, her face locked in a twisted expression of pain and defiance. It had been a sacrifice—a final act of betrayal from those she had once trusted. The Council of Shadows had condemned her, marking her as an enemy to the very world she had once fought to protect. In the end, it was her blood that had sealed the grimoire Levi now held, though none of them could have known how the grimoire would resurface—how Eloria's death would pave the way for another witch to awaken.
And now, standing here in the quiet of Levi's apartment, Rue felt the eerie pull of destiny—a pull he had been running from for centuries. Levi was the key, and her awakening was not just a chance encounter. No, it was a part of something much darker, a chain of events that had been set in motion long before her birth.
But he couldn't let her face it alone.
Rue stepped closer to the bed, his boots making no sound on the hardwood floor. He reached a hand out, hovering over her, sensing the subtle crackle of power in the air. It was almost like the magic that flowed through her was... hungry. Alive. He could feel it gnawing at her, calling out to something deeper within her that even she didn't understand yet.
His fingers brushed against the edge of her blanket, and for a moment, the air seemed to still. He could have let the night pass without intervening, without bringing her into the fold of this long-forgotten war. But he knew better. The time for waiting was over.
As his hand hovered just inches above her, memories of Eloria's final words echoed in his mind. "You will not be alone in this, Rue. You are the key to her awakening. You are the one who will keep her alive."
Levi wasn't just some vessel for a prophecy. She wasn't just some pawn to be moved around in a game of magic and power. She was something more—something that had already been written, a soul tied to Eloria's own in ways neither of them fully understood.
Rue allowed his hand to fall to her forehead gently, brushing a lock of hair out of her face. His touch was like the calm of a shadow, soft and fleeting. For a brief moment, his guard slipped, and he found himself thinking of what could have been—if things had gone differently. If Eloria had survived, if he had never been cursed with this immortality. But those thoughts were useless now. The path had been set, and all he could do was play his part.
Levi's breathing steadied for a moment, a quiet sigh escaping her lips as if the tension in her body had eased under his watchful presence. Rue lingered for just a moment longer, his gaze drifting to the open grimoire on the floor beside the bed. Its pages were still glowing faintly, as though waiting for her to awaken again, to complete what Eloria had started all those years ago.
Rue stood, his expression hardening. He couldn't let her slip through the cracks, not now. He would protect her, guide her if he had to. But there was a growing sense of inevitability gnawing at him, an unshakable certainty that this path they were walking together would lead them to the very heart of the storm.
He turned to leave, his footsteps silent against the floor. But before he reached the door, he paused, glancing back at her. His hand rested lightly on the doorknob.
"Rest while you can, Levi," he murmured to the stillness of the room. "The real battle is just beginning."
With that, Rue slipped out into the night, leaving Levi to her dreams and the curse of the grimoire that bound them all together. And though he couldn't see it, the shadows in the room seemed to grow darker, as if the very air around them sensed the danger that was closing in.
Selene Graves stood in the dim light of the bookstore, her eyes scanning the rows of ancient texts and dusty shelves. The scent of old paper and leather was heavy in the air, a comforting yet unsettling presence as she allowed her gaze to drift toward the woman she had been tracking for weeks—Prairie Smith.
Prairie was hunched over a table, a pile of books in front of her, lost in the details of an old journal she'd discovered. She was the sort of person who wore curiosity like a shield, her mind always searching for answers that others would rather leave buried. And that was exactly what made Prairie so interesting to Selene. But it wasn't just her intelligence or her tenacity that intrigued the former witch-hunter—it was something deeper, something darker. Prairie was connected to Levi in ways that even she didn't fully understand yet.
Selene smirked as she stepped forward, the soft click of her boots against the wooden floor breaking the silence. Prairie looked up, startled, her expression quickly shifting to one of cautious interest.
"Can I help you?" Prairie asked, setting down the journal, her voice tinged with skepticism. She didn't recognize Selene, but there was something about her—something predatory in the way she carried herself—that immediately put her on edge.
Selene's smile was cool, calculated. "I believe you've been looking for answers about things best left undisturbed," she said, her voice smooth, each word laced with a quiet confidence. "But you're digging in the wrong places, Prairie. The truths you're after… they don't lead to salvation. They lead to destruction."
Prairie narrowed her eyes. "And you think you have the answers? Who are you?"
"I'm someone who knows what's coming," Selene replied, her tone turning slightly more serious, the subtle edge of menace present beneath the calm exterior. "And I'm here because you have a choice. You've been looking for something, haven't you? Something that ties you to this whole mess with Levi. Something that can't be explained by logic or science. But I can explain it. I can show you the bigger picture."
Prairie's fingers tightened around the edge of the journal, her suspicion growing. "I don't know who you are, but I'm not interested in playing your games. And I definitely don't want anything to do with witch-hunters."
"That's where you're wrong." Selene stepped closer, her presence unnerving as she leaned in, her eyes glinting with an unreadable intensity. "I'm not here to hunt witches. I'm here to offer you something more than just knowledge. I can offer you power, Prairie. A way to stop the chaos before it consumes everything." Her voice dropped to a near whisper, compelling, almost hypnotic. "Join me. Stand with me, and we can take control of this situation before it spirals out of control. You know Levi isn't ready for what's coming. But you… you could be the one to change everything. You could make sure she doesn't become the monster they think she will."
Prairie's heart raced, her breath catching as the weight of Selene's words settled over her. She had felt it, that same pull toward something bigger than herself, a tug in her chest that she couldn't explain. But this? This felt like something darker, something that couldn't be easily ignored.
"I don't need power," Prairie replied, though her voice lacked conviction. "I just want the truth. Levi—she's in danger, and I need to help her."
Selene's smile widened, but there was no warmth in it. "And what if the truth is that Levi will become the very thing you're trying to protect her from? What if the truth is that the only way to stop this chaos is to embrace it?"
Selene paused for a beat, letting the weight of her words sink in before she added, "You can't stop what's already set in motion. But you can choose how to handle it. Choose to be on the winning side, Prairie. Join me, and together we can shape the future."
Prairie was silent for a long moment, the tension between them thick and heavy. She wanted to refuse—wanted to scream at the woman in front of her, to tell her she was wrong. But something in Selene's eyes, something in the way she spoke, made it hard to reject her offer completely. Was it desperation? Or was it curiosity? Prairie wasn't sure, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Selene was offering her something she might need, even if it meant stepping into a world of shadows.
Finally, Prairie spoke, her voice quieter than before. "I don't know what you're offering, but I can't be a part of whatever this is. I have to protect Levi. That's all that matters."
Selene's expression softened ever so slightly, as though she had anticipated this response. She didn't move closer, but her eyes remained fixed on Prairie. "I understand. But remember, Prairie, there's always a price to pay for knowledge—and for power. You'll see that soon enough."
With that, Selene turned on her heel, her long coat swishing behind her as she walked toward the door. As she reached it, she paused for a moment and glanced back over her shoulder. "I'll be waiting, if you change your mind."
The door creaked open, and the sound of her footsteps faded into the distance, leaving Prairie alone in the quiet bookstore, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts. She was left with a single, undeniable truth: whatever was coming for Levi—and for her—it was much bigger than she had ever imagined.