Chapter 372: Tracy’s rage
Finn came to a stop beside her. His face was white as a sheet as he looked at the sight in front of him. "What the hell? Just what the fuck happened here?" His voice was filled with disgust, horror and something more that Tracy couldn’t quite catch or maybe because she didn’t want to catch it. For it sounded more or less like guilt. The guilt that she was feeling at that moment. The men behind were furious after seeing the bloodbath. These shifters might not be their pack members but they were still related to their kin in one way or some other.
The scent of the blood was getting stronger, even stronger than the foul smell of the magic that was still lingering in the labyrinth.
Tracy didn’t even look at the man. She didn’t answer him; she couldn’t. Her attention was focused on the arrays that were drawn in the room. They were scattered all over the walls like ants running awry. These shifters were not killed just out of sheer desperation of being caught or traced by the witch hunters. No, they were killed to fulfil the last piece of the puzzle.
Veronica crouched next to her. Her expression was full of horror. Her movements were stiff and rather cold. It was as if the woman was not bothered after seeing the chaos in front of her but the truth? She was. Tracy could feel the aether around Veronica getting more chaotic by the minute. She studied the bodies through the glasses, her eyes flickering to every skin that was left intact, something that was rather hard to find.
Because there was nothing left of the bodies. Other than their faces, and that could be taken as the last bit of mercy that Morga had shown to these people. "They couldn’t fight back."
"Like they could ever fight back." Tracy scoffed; her voice was flat, but the emotions in her veins were turning chaotic by the minute. The rage continued to simmer. At Morga, at the gods, at the fates and whatever clusterfuck this was—but more than anything, the one person she was furious at? It was she. She should have come back sooner. No, she should have saved these people when she couldn’t or maybe killed them. That way they would have at least gotten a chance to close their eyes and they wouldn’t have become the last ingredient for a messed-up experiment.
She shouldn’t have let Inez cloud her judgement. Shouldn’t have worried about the lycan heir.
She should have known better than to leave these people behind.
Then Veronica turned to look at her and asked, "Can you still sense it?"
"Sense? I don’t know about sensing but oh boy, I do smell something," chimed Ajax before Tracy could reply.
Of course he did. The scent was lingering in the air so thickly that even a man without a sense of smell could have smelled it. This scent cut through the stench of blood and rotting flesh. A scent that didn’t belong in this place. Sweet like the delightful future but there was a hint of something sour and uncanny. Together with the scent of the blood, it smelled horrible.
Tracy felt like gagging and so would anyone. The air around the dome smelled like a cotton candy wrapped around a bunch of pieces of rotten and raw bacon.
"Someone used them as sacrifices. Trying to squeeze the last bit of worth they could have gotten." something that Morga had always done.
"Then did they succeed?" Veronica asked nervously.
"No. the ritual failed," replied Tracy. Her eyes gleamed unnaturally as she looked at the many arrays in front of her. "She tried to turn back time." Why? Tracy had no idea about that.
Her eyes fell on the many vessels along with the arrays and frowned even harder. "She had no idea what she was doing and yet she took the risk. Foolish and cruel. Really cruel." The words left a bitter note on her tongue. Morga had always been like this; she was like a child. A child with the most powerful wand in her hands. She was strong, a really strong witch. At least her magical power was.
But she had never cared to learn how to wield it.
She always wanted to do her own things.
Tracy walked past the many vessels that were now filled with bloodied water and strode right into the magical chamber. Back then, she was in a hurry and didn’t notice them. But now that she was looking at them much more carefully, she could see the eight arrays facing one another; some of them were adjacent to each other. These arrays were simply cleaner than any piece of art. They were untouched by the blood and flesh that had been left behind in the dome.
Tracy walked over to the arrays that were facing east. Her eyes studied the arrays closely. And just like always, she could see that Morga had drawn these arrays without properly studying their true nature. She had not only jumped a few Chapters but she had also added her dark magic twist into these arrays. There were curves where they shouldn’t be. A few loopholes were made but the intent of the arrays was clear.
"She was trying to change the past, present and future. Using the souls as the essence to turn back the clock of fate itself."
Veronica’s face had hardened and she had lost the innocence of a child. She examined the symbol in front of her with a frown on her face. "That is not how the essence of these arrays can be used."
"Well, she sure thinks that it is possible." Tracy squatted down and touched the cold floor with her hands. "She moved away the last remnants before I could track her down. It seems like this spell is bound to her main body rather than her vessel." The magic in the room had vanished without a trace as if someone had pulled it back in one go. Something that hardly happened, not unless someone administered some sort of an ancient ritual. An old spell that should have been long forgotten.