Rosalyn Ebonbloom's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Rosalyn pressed the shovel into frozen earth behind the greenhouse, following the map she'd stolen from Elder Thorne's desk three nights before. The grimoire had to be here. Someone in the coven had buried it decades ago, filled with botanical spells the elders refused to teach. But the hole she'd dug was empty. She stood there, shovel in hand, staring at bare dirt and ice crystals. Then she saw the tracks — fresh boot prints leading toward the frozen tree line. She followed them to a massive boulder crusted with ice, its surface split by a dark crevice. Wedged inside was an ancient leather binding, its pages brittle and covered in hand-drawn diagrams of flowering vines with teeth. She pulled it free and tucked it into her coat. The boot prints continued past the boulder, heading back toward the coven hall. The elders were still searching, which meant they didn't know she already had it.