Chapter 19 My secret
Marcus Ashford's POV
Terry stood frozen beside me as the phone screen stayed dark in my palm. For a second all I heard was the river below us, slow and steady like it refused to care that my daughter was missing.
I pressed the button again. Nothing.
“Terry,” I said quietly. “It was working when you found it.”
“I swear it was,” he answered. “The message was right there. I listened to the first second. It was definitely her voice. Then the screen just… died.”
Mira rushed toward us from the path, her breath quick and sharp. “Did it go off again?”
“Again?” I asked.
She nodded. “It kept glitching when we tried to replay the message. Like something was interfering with it.”
I turned the phone over, checking the cracks on the back. The casing was scratched but not broken. No reason it should have powered down. I tried holding the button longer. Still nothing.
Lila’s voice echoed faintly from the camp behind the trees. She was calling for an update. I could not answer her. Not yet.
“Terry,” I said. “Where exactly did you find it?”
He motioned for us to follow. “This way.”
We left the bridge, following him into the shadowed part of the woods. The deeper we walked the thicker the silence grew. Even the birds avoided this place.
Terry stopped beside a fallen tree trunk. “Right there,” he said. “It was tucked against the roots.”
I crouched and touched the dirt. The soil was disturbed. Not by an animal. By a footstep. A small one.
“Selene was here,” I murmured.
Mira crouched beside me. “Look at this.” She pointed at the bark of the fallen trunk. A faint smear of dried mud streaked across it, uneven and chaotic, like something slipped. Or someone.
I swallowed. “She tried to climb over.”
“Or someone dragged her across,” Mira added gently.
Terry shook his head. “There were no drag marks. At least not that we could find.”
I stood and stared at the darkened forest ahead. The trees were too still. The air is too cold. I felt the pulse of my gift again pushing at the edges of my mind, urging me to see more than my eyes could offer.
“Marcus,” Terry said slowly. “I didn’t tell Lila everything.”
I faced him. “What?”
“The phone… When I picked it up, it wasn’t lying flat. It was standing upright. Leaning against the trunk.” He swallowed. “Almost like someone placed it there. Like they wanted us to find it.”
Mira looked uneasy. “Why would someone do that unless they were leading us somewhere?”
My jaw tightened. “Because they want me involved.”
Terry shifted. “You mean because of your—”
“Do not say it,” I cut in.
He nodded and fell silent.
I turned the dead phone over once more. The moment my fingertip brushed the glass a faint spark flickered under the surface.
Lila’s fear-filled voice echoed back in my mind.She would not survive out here alone.
“Marcus,” Mira said softly. “Did you see that? The screen flickered.”
“Yes.” I held the phone tighter. “It reacted.”
“To what?”
I did not answer.
Instead I slipped the phone into my jacket and straightened. “We need to widen the search. She moved deeper into the forest. She didn’t go toward the river.”
“How do you know?” Terry asked.
“Because she left the phone behind,” I said. “If she was running, she would have held onto it. Unless someone made her leave it.”
Mira frowned. “Or she dropped it.”
“No,” I said. “Selene would never drop it. She is cautious. Always has been.”
Terry sighed. “She is a teenager, Marcus. They drop everything.”
“Not her,” I insisted.
Mira looked at me carefully. “Then what are you saying?”
I met her eyes. “She left it on purpose.”
Terry blinked. “On purpose? Why?”
“To tell me she was alive.”
Mira straightened. “You think she left it as a signal.”
“Yes.”
“But then why is the message gone?” Terry asked.
“Because someone didn’t want me hearing it.”
We stood there in the dimness of the forest as a cold gust blew through, rustling the leaves. For a moment none of us spoke.
Then Mira pointed toward the deeper woods. “Marcus… Do you hear that?”
I listened.
A faint repeating sound drifted through the trees. A metallic clink. Slow and steady, like metal swinging softly in the wind.
Terry narrowed his eyes. “Sounds like… a chain?”
“No,” I said. “Not a chain.”
I stepped forward, following the noise. The air grew colder with each step. The trees pressed closer. The light dimmed.
Mira walked behind me. “Marcus… what if it’s a trap?”
“Then it is a trap,” I said. “But Selene might be close.”
We reached a small clearing. At the center stood an old wooden signpost leaning slightly to one side. A small charm dangled from a string tied to the post, tapping gently against the wood. That was the sound we heard.
Terry approached carefully. “What is that?”
I recognized it immediately.
A moon-shaped pendant. Silver. Small. Scratched on one side. It was Selene’s.
I reached out and lifted it between my fingers. The metal was warm. Too warm.
Mira exhaled. “So she came this way.”
“No,” I said quietly. “Someone brought this here.”
Terry stepped closer. “Marcus… look at the string.”
I did.
The string wasn’t tied in a bow or a knot. It was tied in a pattern. A loop, a twist, another loop. A symbol. The same symbol carved near the riverbank.
My stomach dropped.
“Whoever did this is leaving a trail,” Mira whispered.
“They want us to follow,” Terry added.
I closed my fist around the pendant. “Then we follow.”
Before any of us could move a sudden vibration buzzed in my jacket. I froze.
The phone.
The one that had been completely dead.
Terry stared at my pocket. “Marcus… you hear that?”
I pulled the phone out. The screen glowed faintly. Not fully on.
A single notification flashed across the dark screen.
One new voice message.
Mira inhaled sharply. “Is that—”
It began to play.
But instead of her voice, a distorted whisper filled the clearing. Not loud. Not threatening. Just quiet enough to crawl under the skin.
“Marcus… come alone.”
The message ended abruptly.
Terry cursed under his breath. “What the hell was that? That wasn’t Selene.”
I stared at the phone, at the moon pendant still warm in my hand, at the forest that suddenly felt much too aware of us.
Mira stepped closer. “Marcus… what do we do?”
I took a slow breath.
“We go deeper.”
“But the message said—”
“I know what it said,” I answered.
The phone pulsed again in my hand. Once. Like a warning. Or an invitation.
I looked into the forest.
And in the distance, barely visible through the trees, a faint light flickered once then disappeared.
A light I recognized. A light that shouldn’t have existed anymore. To everyone I was just human, a dumb human that got married to a werewolf and made an abomination. But I didn't care, I will protect my family no matter what.
I stepped forward.
Terry grabbed my arm. “Marcus. What did you just see?”
If Selene was safe, there would be no need for her to face the reality of who she truly was, but if something already happened. Then the truth is already out. She will have to figure it out, by herself.