Page 95 of Ashen Souls

I kept scrolling. “I hate this. It’s always just almost.”

Harper didn’t respond. Her eyes were fixed on the screen.

She gripped my wrist, stopping my hand on the trackpad.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“Scroll back up. Slowly.”

I nudged the trackpad. Halfway down the third row, sandwiched between a blurry stock photo and a Celtic knot, a new thumbnail came into focus.

It was a flawless match.

Every sharp angle and intersection mirrored the brand on my arm down to the millimeter. The sigil I’d been hiding under my sleeve was just sitting right there, publicly indexed on the internet.

“That’s it.”

25

Iclicked the thumbnail.

The website was minimalistic, almost old-fashioned: a cream background, clean serif fonts, and high-resolution photographs of artifacts. It belonged to a small antiquarian shop.

And there, sitting in the center of the display, was the item.

A ring.

It was cast from a dense, black alloy, resting against a backdrop of faded velvet. Its surface was matte, the edges softened by years of wear, but the flat face of the signet remained impeccably defined. Every line, every severe angle, and every mirrored intersection of my sigil had been bitten into the metal.

It wasn't a sketch in a dead archivist's notebook. It was a physical object. Someone had forged it, worn it, and now, someone was trying to sell it.

Harper reached over, her fingers tapping the trackpad to scroll down to the item description.

“‘Hand-forged, unknown origin,’” she read aloud. “‘Estimated age: indeterminate. Provenance unclear. Acquired through private estate.’”

“That’s antique-dealer speak for ‘We have no idea what this thing is, but it creeps us out.’”

“We could just order it,” I said, eyeing the purchase button.

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not?”

“Because this is either cursed, enchanted, or historically significant. Possibly all three. You don’t entrust something like that to the postal service and hope it doesn’t get lost in a warehouse next to novelty mugs.”

Fair point.

I took the trackpad back, checking the shipping estimate anyway. Standard delivery: five to seven business days.

“I don’t want to wait a week.”

“Neither do I,” Harper agreed. “Especially not when your mysterious destiny jewelry is involved.”

I scrolled past the cart icon, hunting for a location.

“It’s in Blackmere. Barely a forty-minute drive from Vesbridge.”