Chapter 70: Ash Between Their Steps
"Don’t touch that." Rhett’s voice cracked through the smoke as Savannah knelt beside the scorched sigil embedded in the cavern floor. Her fingers hovered inches from the blackened stone, trembling with equal parts fear and curiosity. The moment she heard his tone, she froze, but not before sensing something old stir beneath her skin.
"It’s not just a mark," she said. "It’s humming. Like it’s alive."
Rhett stepped forward, boots scraping ash across the cracked stone. His jaw was set, the bruising on his neck deeper now, spreading like ink under skin. The confrontation with Lucia’s followers had left him wounded in more ways than one. He looked at the symbol, a blazing, jagged crest half-erased by time and scorched blood. Its edges still glowed faintly, reacting to Savannah’s nearness.
"That’s because it is alive," he muttered. "It’s part of the oath. One of the first rites performed by the Hollowfang Circle. Before Sterling silenced them."
Savannah rose slowly, brushing ash from her knees. Her gaze met his. "Then why was it buried? Why keep it hidden beneath the old watchtower unless someone didn’t want it found?"
Rhett looked away. His voice dropped. "Because it was her mark. Lucia’s."
The silence that followed felt like an avalanche settling around them. Savannah’s chest tightened.
"Your mother left this here?"
He nodded once. "They used it to bind bloodlines. Pacts older than the Syndicate. Ones we don’t talk about, not in front of outsiders, not even within the Callahan archives."
"So we’ve been fighting ghosts," she murmured. "Ghosts who still remember how to bleed."
He touched her wrist gently, grounding her. "We’re not fighting ghosts. We’re fighting a story someone tried to bury. And now it’s clawing its way back."