Chapter 26 · Her Mother's Blood Echo

The black water wasn't water.

I knew it the second my boot touched the edge and the surface didn't ripple. It just sat there, thick and still, like oil that forgot how to move. The stone platform in the center looked older than the pack house, older than anything I'd seen in Duskridge, and the air down here tasted like rust and something I didn't have a name for.

"Lila."

Mom's voice again. Coming from everywhere and nowhere, like the black stuff was speaking.

I took a step closer. My chest was tight. "You're not real."

"I'm real enough." Her voice cracked on the last word. "Real enough to tell you what they did."

I stopped. My hands were shaking. I shoved them in my pockets. "What who did."

"Ivy Grey."

The name hit me like a fist. I'd known. I mean I'd known for weeks now, but hearing it in my mother's voice, down here in this nightmare room, made it different. Made it solid.

"She framed you," the voice said. Softer now. Sadder. "The night you shifted the first time. The fire that nearly took the east woods. That wasn't you losing control. That was her.