Chapter 1

The loud gong of bells fills my ears as I stand in the cathedral with the other witch hunters, heads held high and arms at our sides. I beam with pride in my heart, my face stern on the outside, as the priest places a stringed necklace around my neck, the same one around the other hunters' necks. Leith nudges at me with his elbow.

"If you smile, I bet your mom would go insane," he whispers so low his voice tickles my ear. My gold eyes flick up to the pulpit where my mother stands still as a pillar, her stringed necklace covered in both large and small horns: witches' horns.

  Mother was the first female witch hunter of her generation, and she's trained my sister and I to be the best hunters in the village. Hazel passed during a hunting trip, mother didnt even mourn her or go to the funeral. I touch the dark green crystal tied to its cord under my shirt, the crystal I wear for my sister, so she is always with me.

...

"Congratulations Wren. " my mother's voice fills my ears as she stands next to me in the training field.

"Thank you," my voice equally emotionless. I no longer like to celebrate with her after Hazel's death. She hands me a knife, "On your first hunt, use this" she says simply and walks back home with her horned necklace clinking in the harsh wind.

...

Two sunrises later, Leith and I stand with our hunting party of a hundred men. Tall, burly men with beards and tattoos. I stand next to them, also muscular but without tattoos. My mother and our lead trainer, Gajiel, stand at the large gate protecting our village from the dangerous forests, and my mother speaks.

"You will be sent out into the forests and will be tasked with going up the mountain east of here and killing the Witches Council before they can have their revenge meeting," everyone looks around and whispers to each other, confused. We all knew we'd have to kill a witch coven, but not an entire council of different types of witches!

Gajiel holds his hand up and we all stop our chatter, "If one of you betrays your party, the stringed necklaces we gave you will choke you and die"

"What the hell!?" Leith shouts, "Are you wanting to get us killed!?"

"You go out as a family, you die as a family" is all our trainer says before he opens the gates and lets us out into the wilderness.