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CHAPTER 38 — The Thing That Woke With Him
Aren gasped back into consciousness like a drowning man breaking the surface of a stormy sea.
Air—
Cold air—
Forest air—
Not the hallway.
He tasted dirt, damp leaves, and iron on his tongue. His fingers clawed at the forest floor, desperate to anchor himself to something real, anything real.
"Aren—Aren, look at me!"
Lirien's voice slammed into him, frantic and terrified.
He forced his eyes open.
She was kneeling beside him, hands trembling against his cheeks. Her hair was tangled, her face streaked with desperation.
"Oh thank the Stars—Aren, you were gone—your pulse vanished—your body went cold—"
Her voice cracked.
Aren blinked, struggling to speak. His throat felt scraped raw.
"I… I was somewhere else."
Lirien nodded quickly. "I know. I saw it—the fracture tried to pull you out of the waking world completely."
Aren shook his head violently. "No. No, Lirien, listen—something was there. A hallway. It wasn't part of this world. It felt… wrong. Too real. Too familiar."
Lirien's expression tightened. "Did you see anything inside it?"
Aren swallowed hard.
"Yes."
"What?"
He hesitated.
Because saying it out loud made it real.
But the memory slammed into him again—
The girl.
Her bare feet.
Her reflection-eyes.
Her wet footprints steaming on the tile.
"Echo," he whispered. "She was there."
Lirien's breath hitched. "…Echo? From the summons? Aren, how—how is that possible?"
Aren sat up slowly, hands shaking. "She wasn't the same. She said I left her there. She said I forgot something. And then—"
He froze.
A chill ran down his spine so sharp it felt like claws dragging along it.
Lirien leaned closer. "Aren… what else?"
"…there was a door."
His voice cracked.
"And something was behind it. Something that knew me. Something that wanted me."
Lirien placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Aren, look at me. You're safe now."
But the forest suddenly felt wrong.
Too still.
Too quiet.
Too… watched.
Aren turned slowly, scanning the shadows. The trees loomed tall, their branches crossing like ribs over a corpse. Mist curled between the roots like grasping fingers.
And then he saw it.
A shape standing between the trees.
Tall.
Motionless.
Half-hidden in the fog.
Not a creature.
Not a person.
Not anything with weight or substance.
A silhouette.
Pitch-black.
Thin.
Elongated.
Like a shadow cast by someone who wasn't there.
Aren's blood ran ice-cold.
"There," he whispered, eyes widening. "Lirien… do you see it?"
Lirien slowly turned her head.
Her breath stopped midway.
"Aren," she whispered, voice trembling, "please tell me that's just a trick of the light."
Aren's heart hammered against his ribs.
"It followed me," he said. "From the hallway."
The silhouette didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't waver.
It just watched.
Lirien stood up, pulling Aren with her. "Get behind me."
"No," Aren whispered. "If it came from the fracture… magic won't work on it."
The figure twitched.
Barely.
But enough to loosen Aren's knees.
And then—
It stepped forward.
Not walking.
Not gliding.
Just appearing a few feet closer, as if the space it moved through no longer obeyed distance.
Lirien's grip on Aren's arm tightened until it hurt. "It isn't alive," she whispered.
"No," Aren said. "But it remembers me."
The shadow-figure tilted its head.
Aren's breath caught—because the movement was familiar.
Too familiar.
It was the exact way Echo tilted her head.
Slow.
Searching.
Sad.
Lirien's voice shook. "Aren… what did the fracture show you?"
Aren stared at the figure, unable to look away.
"My past," he whispered.
"But not the one I know."
The silhouette stretched—a long, unnatural limb reaching toward him across the forest floor.
The wind died.
The mist held its breath.
And Aren felt something cold wrap around his heart like a hand closing slowly, patiently, deliberately.
Lirien raised her blade, magic gathering along its edge.
"Stay behind me," she hissed.
But Aren shook his head, tears burning unexpectedly in his eyes.
"No," he whispered.
"Why?" Lirien breathed.
Aren's voice trembled.
"Because… I think it used to be someone I knew."
The silhouette flinched.
Then it stepped into the moonlight—
And Aren's world shattered.
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