Ivy didn't run.
She walked.
Past the headmistress's office, past the double-doors that no longer squeaked, past three students whispering in hushed tones. The ripple was still humming around her—soft now, quiet—but awake. Fully awake.
She couldn't hide the fourth mark anymore.
It pulsed faintly under her sweater, lighting her side in a low violet glow that flickered like candlelight through fabric. It didn't burn. It didn't ache. It simply was—present, complete, claimed.
And they had all seen it.
Arlo walked two steps behind her, silent. Not a word since the room froze.
She stopped beside the stairwell. Her throat was dry.
"Are they going to tell the Council?" she asked.
"They don't need to," Arlo said. "They are the Council."
"They'll come for me."
"They were already coming." He paused. "This just means they'll come faster."
She let out a breath. "You shouldn't be standing with me."
"I know."
She turned to him, searching his face for some crack in the calm, some unguarded truth.
"What did he mean?" she asked. "The envoy. When he said I wasn't supposed to exist."
Arlo's jaw tightened. He didn't answer.
He never answered the questions that mattered most.
So Ivy walked away.
---
By midafternoon, the school was breathing around her again—watchful, not hostile. Every hallway was a whisper. Every turn held eyes. Students didn't speak to her directly, but they stared. They felt it. The magic. The pull. The glow that hadn't fully faded.
Even the walls seemed to lean in when she passed.
Her locker refused to open at first. Then opened too easily, the contents rearranged in reverse order.
Someone had written on the back wall of the locker door. Not graffiti. Not a joke.
Just one word:
"Echo."
She touched it.
It faded.
---
She found Calla in the mirror corridor, third floor, leaning against the frame of the tall window they used to sneak cigarettes through freshman year. The glass behind her shimmered—not ripple, not magic. Just heat. The kind that always gathered around Calla when she was trying too hard to act like she wasn't waiting.
Ivy stepped closer.
"You heard."
Calla didn't look at her. "The walls told me."
Of course they had.
"Why didn't you tell me first?" Calla asked.
"I didn't plan it."
"You never do. That's the problem."
Ivy flinched. "I wasn't trying to shut you out—"
"But you did," Calla snapped. "You let Arlo walk you into a trap and didn't think to tell me. After everything I've done—"
"I didn't know what it would turn into," Ivy said. "It was just a glyph check."
"No," Calla said sharply. "It was never just a check. They were waiting for it. And now it's here."
"I didn't choose to complete the mark—"
"Didn't you?" Calla's voice dropped. "You think we don't change when we speak the words, but we do. Every version of you… chose something different."
Ivy stared at her. "What are you talking about?"
Calla's expression flickered.
"You don't remember," she said quietly. "You're not… her."
"I'm me," Ivy said.
"You're a you." Calla took a shaky breath. "But not the one who held my hand on the edge of the ripple. Not the one who promised she wouldn't speak the fourth word, even if it meant losing Eli."
Ivy's stomach dropped. "I never said that."
"No," Calla said. "You didn't."
Silence hung between them.
"I don't hate you," Calla added. "But sometimes I wish I could."
Then she walked away.
---
Ivy stood alone with her reflection.
The mirror looked normal.
But it felt hollow.
---
She went back to her room before curfew. The dorm was unusually still—almost muffled. Like someone had turned the sound of the world down by one notch.
She stood in front of the mirror above her desk.
"Eli," she said.
Nothing happened.
"Eli?"
She waited.
Nothing.
The ripple didn't shimmer. The mirror didn't bend.
She pressed her hand to the glass.
Cold.
"Eli, please—where are you?"
Still nothing.
She took a step back. Looked down at her fourth mark.
It wasn't glowing anymore.
It was quiet.
But she'd felt it when it flared—that terrifying, incredible power.
And she knew—deep in her chest—that Eli had felt it too.
And now he was gone.
---
End of Chapter 23