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Chapter 113
~Valerie’s POV~
I gasped as the pulse rippled from the scroll again, stronger this time, like it had a heartbeat of its own, not loud but felt.
Ash’s arm braced around me instinctively, his free hand held the worn parchment. The glowing symbols didn’t pulse like light. They throbbed—a steady flicker, like something was alive beneath the ink.
My fingers itched to reach for it, but Ash’s grip around my wrist held firm.
"Wait," he murmured. His eyes never left the scroll. "It’s reacting to you."
My chest tightened. "To me?"
Ash nodded once, slowly. "It pulsed when you stepped closer. And when your necklace glowed, it did it again. Not for me. Only when you moved."
A cold whisper curled down my spine. My necklace. The one my Uncle said was just a suppressor, a limiter to my pheromones... but if it reacted to this—whatever this was—it meant the relic wasn’t just suppressing my heat.
It was connecting to something older.
"Do you think it’s warded?" I whispered.
Ash’s brow furrowed. "No. Not in the usual way. It’s not trying to repel. It’s trying to... test. Or maybe..." He paused, voice dropping further, "...awaken."
I swallowed hard. My eyes scanned the runes. They weren’t like the typical library seals or even the ones etched into the restricted wing’s floor. These were twisted, complex.
One looked almost familiar, like a blurred version of the sigil in my dream from the past. As soon as I recognised it, I gasped, but I shook off the thoughts immediately.
However, Ashy caught sight of it.
"You know something?"
I shook my head. "No. I just recalled I have a deadline to submit something tomorrow and completely forgot. I need to head back to the dorm," I informed him.
I leaned in, just slightly, and the necklace warmed again. Ash’s fingers tightened around my wrist.
"It’s your necklace or your bloodline," he said softly. "Has to be."
I looked at him. "You sound certain."
"I’m not. But I’ve seen this before. Not exactly this scroll, but similar reactions—only ever in artefacts meant to find descendants. Successors. Or chosen vessels."
The word "vessels" made my stomach knot.
I reached for the scroll slowly, ignoring the way my fingers trembled. My palm hovered just inches over the faded parchment. The warmth increased—not burning, but present, like sunlight filtered through glass.
Ash leaned forward, his voice a low warning. "If you touch it, it might imprint."
I hesitated. "Is that bad?"
"Could be."
"But also..." I whispered, "...could be answers."
A breath passed between us. And then I touched it.
The second my skin brushed the parchment, the pulse shifted deeper.
The scroll glowed faintly and a ripple immediately travelled up my arm to my chest, stopping right at the base of my throat where the necklace sat.
The pendant flickered lightly, with silver-gold light radiating quickly before dimming to its usual dull shimmer.
Ash stared, wide-eyed.
"You saw that too?" I breathed more like I asked.
My pendant was made by witches; as such, it reacting to things shouldn’t have surprised me.
What bothered me was, what did it react to?
"I saw everything," Ash affirmed.
The runes on the scroll shifted—moved, like ink rearranging itself. Not all of it, just a section near the corner. They twisted and reformed into a newer shape—a crest. One I had seen once in Solstice’s dusty grimoires.
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