Chapter 5: Ash and Silver

The necklace felt heavier than it should.

It hung against my chest like a stone—cold, pulsing faintly, like it had a heartbeat of its own.

Selene watched me with a quiet kind of intensity. Like she was memorizing every movement I made.

She hadn’t said anything since she gave it to me.

Outside, rain tapped against the basement windows. The kind of slow, steady drizzle that made the world feel like it was holding its breath.

“So,” I said finally, “I’m part Rift. Whatever that means.”

She tilted her head. “Not part. Just… connected. Like a thread running through you. It’s not fully open yet. But it’s fraying.”

“And if it opens?”

Selene didn’t answer. Her silence said enough.

I swallowed hard, pushing down the rising tide of panic. “What happens if I take this thing off?” I asked, touching the pendant.

She moved so fast I barely saw her.

One second she was across the room, the next—her hand was wrapped around my wrist.

“Don’t,” she said, voice razor-sharp. “Not here. Not ever when you’re alone.”

Her grip was stronger than it should’ve been for someone her size. I stared at her fingers, pale and cool against my skin. Then up at her face.

“Are you even human?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Her expression faltered for a split second. Just long enough for me to see the crack in the mask.

“I’m close enough,” she said.

The candles flickered again.

“Selene,” I said slowly, “what aren’t you telling me?”

She stepped back, letting go. “It doesn’t matter yet. What matters is keeping you alive.”

“That’s not an answer.”

She opened her mouth to speak—then froze.

Her eyes darted to the staircase. She held up a finger, lips pressed into a thin line.

I heard it too.

Footsteps.

Slow. Deliberate. Upstairs.

Selene grabbed a vial from the table beside her and whispered something in a language I didn’t understand. The circle on the floor glowed faintly, then disappeared completely.

The footsteps grew louder.

Closer.

My breath hitched as a figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

It was Ivy.

Wearing my hoodie.

She looked… off.

Her smile was too wide. Her eyes too bright.

“Oh, finally,” she said, skipping down the steps like this was just a sleepover. “I was wondering how long it would take you to tell him.”

Selene’s expression was stone. “You weren’t supposed to come here.”

“I go where I want, witch girl,” Ivy purred. “Besides… secrets this big are hard to ignore.”

My mouth went dry. “What’s going on?”

Ivy turned to me. “Did she tell you yet? That you were supposed to die in that fire? That someone changed your fate?”

Selene’s fists clenched. “Enough.”

But Ivy kept talking. “There’s more to your little Rift than you know. And he—” she pointed at me “—isn’t the only one marked.”

Then she winked. “I just hide mine better.”

The basement temperature dropped like a stone.

Selene stepped forward, placing herself between me and Ivy. “You need to leave. Now.”

“I will,” Ivy said sweetly. “But tell him soon, Selene. Or I will.”

And then she turned and walked back up the stairs, humming a tune I hadn’t heard in years.

A lullaby.

The same one my mom used to sing to me before the fire.

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