Chapter 26: A Name She Didn't know
By lunch, Lena had absorbed exactly nothing from any of her classes.
The vision wouldn't leave her alone.
Every time she closed her eyes she saw silver light.
She saw the girl.
She saw her own face staring back at her.
And most of all she saw the wolves.
Silver.
Gold.
Green.
Circling.
Waiting.
Watching.
The final bell rang and the sound nearly made her jump.
Students flooded into the hallways.
Lockers slammed.
Voices echoed.
The academy came alive around her.
Lena barely noticed.
She was walking toward the parking lot when a strange feeling crawled down her spine.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
Recognition.
Like someone had just said her name.
She stopped.
The sensation vanished.
Students brushed past her.
Nobody seemed to notice anything unusual.
Lena frowned and kept walking.
Halfway down the front steps the feeling returned.
Stronger this time.
Her breath caught.
Someone was watching her.
Not from the crowd.
Not from the windows.
Somewhere else.
Far away.
The same feeling she'd had during the visions.
The same feeling she'd felt when the shadow turned and looked directly at her.
A chill spread across her skin.
"Lena."
She turned.
Caleb was leaning against his car.
His expression immediately sharpened.
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
He raised an eyebrow.
"You have that look again."
"What look?"
"The one you get right before something goes wrong."
Despite everything, Lena almost laughed.
"That's apparently my permanent expression now."
Caleb opened the passenger door.
"Get in."
The drive home was unusually quiet.
The sky above Blackwood Forest was gray.
Heavy clouds stretched across the horizon.
A storm was coming.
Lena stared out the window.
The trees seemed darker today.
More alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
The deeper they drove, the stronger that strange feeling became.
As if something was pulling at her.
A thread wrapped around her ribs.
Leading toward the forest.
Toward something hidden.
Toward something that knew her.
"Lena."
She blinked.
Caleb was watching her.
"You disappeared for a second."
"What?"
"You do that sometimes."
His grip tightened on the steering wheel.
"Like you're listening to something nobody else can hear."
Lena swallowed.
Maybe she was.
The thought wasn't comforting.
When they arrived home, James was still at work.
Her mother was in town running errands.
The house was empty.
For some reason that made Lena nervous.
She stepped inside.
Silence greeted her.
The kind of silence that felt too complete.
Caleb noticed too.
His shoulders tensed.
"You hungry?"
"Not really."
"Good."
She blinked.
"Good?"
"We're going out."
"What?"
Caleb was already heading upstairs.
"Ten minutes."
Lena stared after him.
"Going where?"
His voice drifted back down the hallway.
"You're about to hate me."
Twenty minutes later they were standing at the edge of Blackwood Forest.
Lena looked at him like he'd completely lost his mind.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"Absolutely not."
Caleb sighed.
"We need answers."
"We need therapy."
"We need answers more."
Lena folded her arms.
The forest stretched before them.
Dark.
Ancient.
Endless.
The same forest from her visions.
The same forest where students vanished.
The same forest where something with silver eyes waited in the dark.
Her instincts screamed at her to leave.
Now.
Immediately.
Caleb seemed unaffected.
Though she noticed he wasn't actually entering the tree line.
Not yet.
"Why are we here?" she asked.
"Because something keeps pulling you toward this place."
His eyes found hers.
"And because I think it wants you here."
That was not reassuring.
Not even a little.
The wind picked up.
Branches creaked overhead.
Leaves rustled.
The forest seemed to breathe.
Lena hated it.
Every second of it.
Then something moved.
Deep between the trees.
A flicker of silver.
Gone before she could focus.
Her stomach dropped.
"Did you see that?"
Caleb nodded.
Which was somehow worse.
"You saw it too?"
"Yeah."
The answer came too quickly.
Too casually.
Like this wasn't horrifying.
Like silver things appearing in cursed forests happened every Tuesday.
Lena stared at him.
"How are you so calm?"
"I'm not calm."
For the first time she noticed the tension in his jaw.
The tightness in his shoulders.
The way his hands were clenched.
"I'm trying not to panic."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
That actually made her feel slightly better.
Only slightly.
A sound echoed through the trees.
A girl's laughter.
Soft.
Distant.
Gone almost immediately.
Lena froze.
Caleb froze.
The forest became silent again.
Too silent.
"What was that?"
Caleb didn't answer.
Which told her everything.
Neither of them knew.
The laughter came again.
Closer.
A cold sensation spread through Lena's chest.
She knew that laugh.
She shouldn't.
But she did.
The certainty arrived without explanation.
Without logic.
Without reason.
She knew it.
The same way she knew which wolf belonged to Ethan.
The same way she knew which belonged to Liam.
The same way she'd known the shadow could see her.
Somehow she knew.
And that terrified her.
The laughter drifted through the trees one final time.
Then a voice followed it.
Soft.
Almost impossible to hear.
"Lena."
Her blood turned to ice.
Caleb heard it too.
She knew because his entire body went rigid.
The voice came again.
"Lena."
Not threatening.
Not angry.
Almost gentle.
Like an old friend.
Like someone who'd been searching for her.
The trees ahead began to glow.
Silver light spread across the forest floor.
Thin lines appeared between the roots.
Symbols.
Dozens of them.
Hundreds.
The same symbols from her visions.
The same symbols that appeared on her skin.
The same symbols burned into the missing students.
Lena stumbled backward.
The symbols brightened.
The entire forest seemed to awaken.
Silver light stretched through the darkness.
The air vibrated.
The ground trembled.
And then she saw her.
A girl standing between the trees.
Far away.
Almost hidden.
Silver eyes.
Dark hair.
Familiar face.
Her face.
Lena couldn't breathe.
The girl looked exactly like her.
Exactly.
Only older.
Stronger.
Calmer.
The same girl from the vision.
The same impossible girl.
The girl raised one hand.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
And pointed directly at Lena.
The world exploded.
Pain slammed through Lena's skull.
A vision crashed into her.
Not a dream.
Not a glimpse.
A memory.
She stood in a circle of silver light.
The wolves were there.
Three of them.
Circling.
Protecting.
Waiting.
The girl stood before her.
Close enough to touch.
Close enough to see.
And this time she spoke.
Clearly.
Directly.
No distortion.
No confusion.
No mystery.
"Lena."
The girl's silver eyes locked onto hers.
"You have to remember."
"Remember what?"
The words left Lena instantly.
Desperate.
The girl smiled sadly.
A smile filled with centuries of grief.
"Everything."
Fear twisted through Lena.
"Who are you?"
The girl stepped closer.
Close enough that Lena could see the symbols moving beneath her skin.
Alive.
Breathing.
Glowing.
The girl's hand rose.
Her fingertips touched Lena's forehead.
The moment they connected, images exploded behind Lena's eyes.
Moonlight.
Blood.
Ancient ruins.
Wolves kneeling.
Silver fire.
A throne.
A crown.
Screams.
Loss.
Death.
Power.
So much power.
Enough to shake the world.
Lena cried out.
The vision fractured.
Cracked.
Shattered.
But before it vanished completely, the girl whispered something.
A single word.
A name.
Not Lena.
Something else.
Something older.
Something impossible.
Something that made every part of her soul ache with recognition.
The name echoed through her mind.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Then she woke.
Lena collapsed onto her knees at the edge of the forest.
Gasping.
Shaking.
Barely able to breathe.
Caleb caught her before she hit the ground.
"Lena."
His voice sounded distant.
Muffled.
Like he was underwater.
"Lena, look at me."
She couldn't.
The name was still echoing.
Over and over.
Relentless.
Burning.
Ancient.
Important.
Caleb grabbed her shoulders.
"Lena."
Her eyes finally focused.
He looked terrified.
Absolutely terrified.
"Tell me what happened."
Lena opened her mouth.
No sound came out.
The name was still there.
The strange name.
The impossible name.
The name that somehow felt more real than her own.
Caleb's face had gone pale.
"What did you see?"
Lena swallowed.
Then finally managed to whisper:
"A girl."
His expression changed immediately.
"What girl?"
"The one from my visions."
The wind howled through the trees.
The symbols on the forest floor vanished.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Silence returned.
But the name remained.
Burning inside her mind.
Waiting.
Lena looked back toward the forest.
Toward the place where the girl had stood.
And for one split second she saw silver eyes staring back from the darkness.
Watching.
Waiting.
Remembering.
Then the voice came one final time.
Soft enough that only Lena heard it.
Three words.
Three words that made her entire body go cold.
"You're almost awake."