The storm had passed.
But the air around them still felt like static, like something was waiting for one of them to speak first and crack it all wide open.
Mira sat beside Renna on the worn velvet steps of the theater stage. Neither of them looked at the other.
Zeke busied himself checking the map's integrity, murmuring calculations under his breath. Lys had disappeared into the catacombs with her blade in hand, likely checking for remaining Rift echoes.
Only the two girls remained.
And silence was a dangerous thing.
Renna's hands trembled faintly in her lap.
"I saw it," Mira said at last.
Renna flinched.
"The hallway. The way you looked at me. The way I… didn't see you."
Renna said nothing.
"I didn't know," Mira whispered.
"Would it have mattered if you did?" Renna's voice cracked. "You were always in your own orbit. Bright. Loud. Shard-destined." She looked up, finally. "And me? I was just… borrowed space."
Mira's heart tightened. "That's not true."
"I never had power, Mira. I wasn't born marked. I wasn't chosen." She touched the faint scar on her collarbone—the one Mira had never asked about. "I wanted to be useful. To matter."
Mira frowned. "You did. You do."
Renna's expression shifted, tight, unreadable.
"You don't get it," she whispered. "None of you do."
And then she said it.
"I let the Echo in."
The air stilled.
Mira stood slowly, every muscle in her back tensing. "What?"
Renna didn't look away.
"I didn't fight it. Not at first. Not when it came during the lockdown."
"Renna…"
"It offered clarity, Mira. It offered me the things you took for granted."
"You're not serious."
"I am."
Mira took a step back.
Renna's voice was quiet now. Dangerous. "You think the Rift only corrupts the weak. But that's a lie. The Rift feeds on desire. And I wanted to be seen."
Mira's Shard sparked involuntarily. Her fingers flexed.
Zeke appeared at the doorway. "Mira? What's going on"
"She let it in," Mira said, voice low. "She wanted it."
Zeke blinked. "That's not"
"Yes," Renna said flatly. "I wanted it. I still do."
She stood.
The scar on her chest shimmered faintly.
Not just a scar.
A brand.
Zeke's face paled. "That's a mark. Riftborn."
Mira's world cracked.
"No," she said. "No, you're not"
"I've been Echo-touched since the night the school locked down," Renna said, eyes glowing faintly. "But the Rift didn't break me. It gave me purpose."
"You lied," Mira whispered.
"I adapted."
"You betrayed me."
Renna stepped forward. "You think I'm the only one keeping secrets?"
Mira froze.
"What are you talking about?"
Renna smiled sadly.
"You're afraid of your own power, but you haven't even seen where it comes from. Have you ever asked yourself why the Rift responds to you? Why you don't burn out like other Shardbound?"
Mira's stomach dropped.
Zeke stared at her, then at Renna.
"Mira…"
Renna tilted her head. "You think your father was the only one hiding things?"
"No," Mira said. "You're lying."
But Renna wasn't.
She raised her hand, and the Riftmark on her chest glowed again.
"I remember what I saw when I was part of the Echo. Your memories. Buried deep. Protected."
Mira staggered.
"What did you see?"
Renna's smile turned bitter. "You were in a lab. Small. Crying. Your Shard wasn't given to you."
She stepped closer, whispering now.
"It was grown."
The floor tilted beneath her.
Zeke caught her arm, steadying her. "That's not possible."
"I don't know," Mira muttered. "I don't know."
Renna's voice sharpened. "They made you, Mira. They built you to reach the Rift. Just like they built me to break you."
The Riftmark pulsed.
Zeke pulled Mira behind him. "She's Echoing again."
But Renna didn't attack.
She just stared.
"I'm not the villain in your story," she said. "I'm the reflection. You just don't like what you see."
Then she vanished.
Gone. No trace. No scream. No riftlight burst.
Just a single word etched into the floor beneath where she stood:
"Soon."
The storm returned.
Not in the sky, but in Mira's chest.
The Rift's pulse was louder now. Hungrier.
Zeke tried to talk to her, but she didn't hear. Not really.
Because Renna's words were trapped in her head.
You were made.
It couldn't be true.
Her father had been a Shardbearer. Her mother a normal. She was natural. She had to be.
But the Echo had seen more than memory.
It had seen truth.
And now she couldn't unknow it.
She went to Lys.
Told her everything.
Lys listened in silence.
Then said, "We need to find the lab."
"What?"
"The place you were grown. Or altered. Or whatever they did to you."
Mira's hands shook. "What if I'm not real?"
Lys looked her dead in the eye. "You're standing here, bleeding, breaking, burning with light. You're real."
"But if I'm a weapon"
"Then aim true."
That night, Mira didn't sleep.
She stared at the ceiling of the theater, counting every crack like a heartbeat.
Renna was out there.
Changed.
Rift-touched.
Not lost. Not anymore.
Just on the other side.
And she knew Mira better than anyone.
Knew her fear.
Knew her rage.
And worst of all, she knew her origin.
The Rift wasn't just breaking the world.
It was turning it inside out.
And Mira had just glimpsed the thing clawing to get free.