Chapter 146

• Chapter 146: The Darkness She Craves
• Isabella sits motionless in the farthest chamber of the coven, the darkness around her pulsing like a living thing—expanding, contracting, breathing with malevolent curiosity. The ancient walls breathe with enchantments centuries old, their spells meticulously etched into obsidian stone and coated in velvet-soft mossy age that whispers secrets of forgotten power. Dim light flickers from a lone enchanted lantern suspended above her—its azure glow barely touching the corners of the room, letting shadows stretch like hungry claws across the worn stone floor, reaching for her as if sensing her vulnerability.
• Her body trembles faintly, not from fear—never fear—but from the raw, unfiltered pain still surging through her bones like molten metal seeking escape. She curls her fingers inward, wincing as the memory comes back in full force, flooding her consciousness with exquisite agony. That moment—that blinding, shattering moment—when Serena unleashed something so terrifying, so primal, so fundamentally wrong, that it didn't just knock Isabella out of the fight—it pushed her violently out of herself, tearing at the very fabric of her identity.