CHAPTER 78

It had been two weeks since Maxine's encounter with Leo, and Maxine was feeling strangely out of kilter. It started off in the faintest whisper: she wasn't as focused during training, moving slower than herself, her mind wandering. She tried to brush it off and blamed everything on the stress of all that had transpired. It was Leo, showing up in her life as mysteriously as it had vanished, speaking those cryptic words about the nature of the eclipse, and the tension between the pack and whatever dark forces Leo might be stirring up. But the days wore on and she knew it wasn't stress.

Something was wrong.

Her appetite was gone. Every time she settled into a meal, the sight of food churned her stomach. She couldn't eat a thing, not even food she had loved. At first, she tried to brush it off, thinking it was exhaustion or nerves, but the sickness carried on day by day, growing worse. Training made her feel tortured. The dizziness, nausea, constant sensation that something was wrong - ev