Gateway of shadows

Chapter 7: Ashes in Her Veins

Elena couldn't sleep after the crossing.

Not because she was haunted-she was the haunting now.

The ghosts followed her not out of need, but loyalty. Reverence. Even fear.

They could feel it.
The shift.

"Elena," Jeremy whispered as he hovered near her window, eyes full of worry. "You brought something back with you."

She didn't look up. She was sitting at the edge of her bed, tracing symbols into her skin with ash. The language wasn't one she knew. Not before the veil. Now it flowed from her like second nature.

"I brought clarity," she said, voice flat. "I know what he is. I know what I am."

"Elena-this isn't you."

She looked up, finally, and Jeremy took an involuntary step back.

Her eyes were glowing again. Not with light.

With flame.

"I think it always was," she said quietly.

⸻

Eligh stormed into the room minutes later, rage burning under his skin.

"You touched the soulstream," he snapped. "You looked too far. That wasn't supposed to happen."

Elena stood slowly. Calm. Composed.

"It did happen. And now I understand."

"Understand what?"

"Why he chose me."

Eligh froze.

"Elena, don't say that like it's a gift."

She walked toward him, close enough that their energies collided-fire and frost.

"It is," she said. "I've seen the core of Valek. I've seen the wound in the world he crawled from. He isn't just a parasite. He's a mirror. He reflects what people hide. What they deny."

"Don't let him inside your head."

"He's already there."

Eligh reached out and gripped her shoulders hard. "Then I'll rip him out."

But Elena only smiled. "You might have to."

⸻

Later, she stood alone in the woods behind the boarding house.

The trees whispered her name.

And someone else's.

"Amara."

The name hit her like a bell toll.

She turned-and saw her. A ghost she'd never met, but knew instantly.

Elena's ancestor. The first doppelgänger.

"You were supposed to break the loop," Amara whispered.

"I didn't ask for this."

"No," Amara said. "But the loop never cared."

Then she raised her hand, and the trees bent backward.

Elena gasped as visions hit her again-
Valek reaching for her in a mirror.
The ghost girl in white, screaming.
Eligh, on his knees, holding a blade made of bone.

"Elena," Amara said. "The end isn't coming."

"It's already here."

⸻

Back at the house, Elena found the old journal Jeremy left for her. The pages were half-faded, but one stood out:

"The only way to destroy Valek... is to let him in first."

She stared at the line, heart thudding.

Let him in.

And then what?

Control him? Kill him? Or become him?

She didn't know.

But the fire in her veins whispered one truth louder than the rest:

She was no longer the girl who ran from the dark.

She was the dark.
And she would make the shadows obey her.