Page 74 of Ashen Souls

A pause. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. Just… come. I have… updates.”

“Updates,” she repeated. “Plural?”

“Plural.”

“I’m grabbing my jacket, and you owe me breakfast,” she muttered. “And if this is about your kinky fuckery with that demon again…”

“Daeren,” I said.

“…I’m bringing coffee and extreme judgment.”

When she arrived twenty minutes later, I didn’t ease into it.

I told her about the sigil. About seeing it on Daeren’s wrist. About the moment the room dissolved, like stepping through a door that had always been there.

Then, I pointed to the tangle of torn red silk lying on my mattress.

Slowly, Harper reached out, lifting the fabric between two fingers, inspecting the sliced material.

“Well. I have to say, if your hallucination is buying you custom lingerie, I need to seriously rethink my dating strategy. Though he loses points for destroying it. This looks expensive.”

Harper dropped the silk. “Okay. So we’re past metaphor.”

“Yes.”

“And past hallucination.”

“Yes.”

She leaned back, scrubbing a hand over her face. “I really hoped it was metaphor.”

She looked at my wrist again. “And you’re sure this wasn’t…”

“Harp, I know the difference between a dream and being transported.”

“Ancient demon lover. Matching tattoos. Interdimensional travel. Let me guess: this is the part where you tell me Vesbridge is built on a cursed ley line.”

“I don’t know about ley lines,” I said. “But I know where we need to start. The Old City Archives.”

Harper raised an eyebrow. “The creepy stone building that looks like a mausoleum? Great. Let me grab my grave-robbing shoes.”

“Harper, I’m serious.”

“I know you are, but if I don’t make bad jokes right now, I’m going to hyperventilate.”

I exhaled. “Yesterday, I was walking past the Archive. I looked at the ironwork above the doors. It shifted into the exact shape of this brand.” I traced the lines on my wrist. “It was just an illusion, but it felt like a hook. I don't know what's in there, but this thing wants me to find it.”

“So you’re having daytime visions now? Fuck, Aveline. This is getting worse.”

“I know.”

She nodded, folding her legs beneath her. “Okay. Archive. Sigil. Demon with severe boundary issues. What’s the play? Because I highly doubt Daeren is going to hand over an informational brochure.”

“He won’t tell me anything straight,” I agreed. “I want real answers.”

“Shocker,” she muttered. “Men hate explaining themselves.”