The pages turned themselves.
Mira didn't touch them, her hands stayed still on the desk, but the Rift Codex flipped as if powered by an invisible current. Every parchment shimmered faintly under the dim classroom light, curling at the edges with age. Some pages bore symbols. Others, names.
All written in the same sharp, silvery ink.
Zeke leaned over her shoulder, his face pale. "It's choosing."
"Choosing what?" Mira asked.
He swallowed. "Who it shows. Who it remembers."
The page landed on a girl.
A sketch, a charcoal outline of someone who looked disturbingly like Renna. The same curls. The same eyes. But this version looked younger… and afraid.
Beneath the portrait was a line of text:
RENNA VEY – First Shardbearer. Lost to the Rift, Status Unknown.
Mira stared. "She said the Rift remembers its own."
Zeke nodded. "She meant it literally."
"But she disappeared. That… thing took her."
"No. She entered the Rift," Zeke said. "There's a difference."
Mira looked up. "You're talking like this is normal."
"It's not. But I've read the Codex before. I've seen what happens to people who bond with it."
"People like me?"
He hesitated. "Yeah."
The hallway creaked beyond the door.
Mira froze.
Zeke snapped the book shut, the room darkening instantly.
The door handle turned.
Mira backed up, fingers buzzing with unstable energy.
But it wasn't a monster that stepped inside.
It was a girl.
Tall. Blond. Impossibly calm. Wearing a uniform Mira didn't recognize, navy, with a gold insignia shaped like a twisted key.
She closed the door behind her. "So. You're the unstable one."
Zeke swore under his breath. "Lys."
The girl smirked. "Missed me?"
Mira stepped between them. "Who are you?"
"Lysanthe Graye," she replied, tone clipped. "I was Rift-bound four years ago. Then I got out."
Zeke scowled. "You didn't get out. You broke protocol."
Lys ignored him. "You're Mira, right?"
Mira nodded slowly.
"I've been watching you."
"From where?" Mira asked.
"From the other side."
That sentence broke the air open like thunder.
Zeke moved in front of Mira. "She's lying. She's a Gatewatch defector."
Lys' lips twitched. "And you're a traitor with a burned hand and a grudge. Let the girl decide for herself."
Mira's voice shook. "What do you want?"
"To train you," Lys said simply.
Zeke snapped, "She's not ready."
"No one ever is." Lys took a slow step closer. "But she's Awakening fast. If you wait too long, the Rift will consume her like it did Renna."
Mira's heart pounded.
"You knew Renna?"
"She was my bonded pair," Lys said, softer now. "She crossed over when I couldn't stop her."
There was pain in her voice. Real pain.
Zeke shook his head. "You abandoned her."
"And what would you have done?" Lys snapped. "I didn't have the Threadlight. Mira does."
Mira took a shaky breath. "What is the Threadlight?"
Zeke and Lys both spoke at once:
"It's power."
"It's a curse."
They glared at each other.
Mira looked down at her hands, faintly glowing again, even without trying.
"I don't want this," she whispered.
Lys crouched, meeting her eye. "Doesn't matter. It wants you."
Outside, thunder cracked.
Zeke checked his phone. "They're getting closer."
"Who?" Mira asked.
"Echoes," Lys said. "Twisted shadows from the Rift. You saw one already, wearing Aldren's face."
Mira shivered.
"More are crossing now. You don't have a choice anymore."
The window behind them rattled.
A red glow pulsed through the glass.
"Too late," Zeke hissed. "They found us."
Mira's instincts flared.
The Rift Codex opened again, on its own, and the spiral on the page burned gold.
The air bent.
And then
The mirror in the classroom corner cracked.
Just like in the music room.
Zeke grabbed Mira's arm. "We have to run."
"No," Lys said. "We fight."
"But—"
"I said fight." Her eyes blazed. "You want to survive the Rift? Start acting like it."
The mirror burst open.
And the Echo stepped through.
It wasn't Aldren this time.
It was… her.
Mira.
Same face. Same hair. But her Echo's eyes were empty, and her smile was jagged, wrong.
"Hello, me," it whispered.
Mira's mind nearly split.
The Echo raised its hand.
Blue light crackled.
Lys lunged forward, summoning a staff from nowhere, threaded with silver runes, and blocked the blast with a grunt.
"You see?" she shouted. "It learns from you!"
Mira trembled.
Her Echo mimicked her perfectly, stance, voice, even hesitation.
Zeke pulled out a blade from his coat, small and etched with the same spiral, and slashed at the creature.
It vanished.
Then reappeared behind him.
"Zeke!" Mira screamed.
Her power surged.
Blue fire erupted from her palms, not sparks this time, but a pulse like lightning, and struck the Echo in the chest.
It shrieked.
The wall behind it shattered.
And the Echo dissolved into black ash.
Silence.
Zeke coughed. "Okay… you are the unstable one."
Lys looked at Mira, satisfied. "Good. You're dangerous."
Mira's knees buckled, but Lys caught her.
"Rest now," she murmured. "Tomorrow, we begin."
"Begin what?"
"Your training."
Mira looked down at her hands, now covered in black ash that used to be her own face.
The Rift hadn't just entered the world.
It had entered her.