The Quiet Things That Break
Rae didn't know what time it was. The windows in Moonvale always looked like dusk, no matter the hour.
Nova was still asleep upstairs. Her breathing had evened out. That should've been comforting.
No, it wasn't comforting.
She sat there with the mug still full, untouched. The mark on her shoulder—it felt alive. Hot. Her pulse thumped through it like something was answering back.
Caelum hadn't come back down. Maybe he was giving her space. Or maybe he was afraid of what she might say.
She didn't blame him.
She barely trusted her own thoughts right now.
The house was too quiet. Not silent—there were sounds. But they didn't feel like they belonged to her.
A whisper in the vent.
A door creaking upstairs.
A sound in the walls like breathing that paused when she listened too hard.
The worst part was… she wasn't even scared anymore.
Just tired.
⸻
When Caelum finally appeared again, his face was drawn. His jaw was set in that same way it had been when they first met—like he was carrying more than he could afford to drop.
"You saw something," he said.
Rae didn't answer right away. She didn't want to give him the power of being right.
"Don't pretend you didn't already know," she said.
"I didn't know what would wake."
She looked down at her palm. The cut was gone. Not scabbed. Gone. Like it had never happened.
"You said you chose to be marked," she said.
He nodded.
"I didn't."
"I know."
"So why me?"
He sat on the armrest across from her. Close, but not too close. The tension between them hummed like static.
"Because someone needed to carry it," he said. "And they chose someone with nothing left to lose."
Rae flinched.
He wasn't wrong.
But that didn't make it okay.
⸻
She got up without thinking. Just moved. Sitting there made it worse.
She sank deeper into the couch and hated it. Too soft, too still. Like it knew she wouldn't move.
She got up without really meaning to, legs stiff, fingers dragging across the wall until she ended up by the fireplace.
The mantel was cold. She gripped it anyway.
Photos lined the edge. Old ones. One of a man she didn't know. One of a kid. All faded. None of them Caelum.
This place… it's not yours, is it?"
He stayed quiet. That was its own answe
"Who lived here?"
"My brother," he said. "Before the curse took him."
Rae turned.
"And the curse came from—what? Me?"
He shook his head. "Not from you. But it was waiting for you."
⸻
Upstairs, Nova made a sound.
Rae turned fast. She was already halfway to the stairs before Caelum spoke again.
"She's still marked," he said.
"What?"
"She's still tethered to you. Through the blood. Through the child."
Rae paused. "So if I break it—"
"You break her too."
⸻
She sat with Nova for a while after that. Her sister's skin was cooler now. Not fevered. But something about her eyes bothered Rae—too still behind the lids. Like she was dreaming something heavy.
There was a shape bruising its way through Rae's lower stomach again. The baby—or whatever was inside her—was moving too much. Too aware.
Rae whispered, "I'm not yours."
And it kicked.
Hard.
Like it disagreed.
She crept down once it felt safe.
No sound. No light.
And Caelum? Already gone.
Of course he was.
. Maybe outside. Maybe watching her from the dark. It wouldn't surprise her anymore.
She found the book again—the one hidden behind the drawer in her room. The journal. The one written by the woman who came before her.
Rae flipped to the last few pages.
The final entry had changed.
She hadn't noticed before, but now… the ink looked wet.
He's changing everything in me. I can't tell what's mine anymore. My blood speaks another name. I dream in colors I've never seen. I think he's inside me. Not just the baby. Him.
Rae closed the book with shaking fingers.
⸻
Epilogue Teaser:
She stood outside the house just before dawn. The trees in Moonvale leaned in like they were listening.
Behind her, Nova was still breathing.
Inside her, something else was awake.
She didn't know how long Theron had been standing there. She didn't flinch when she saw him
"There's no clean way out of this," he said.
"I figured."
He handed her something wrapped in black cloth. She didn't open it.
"They'll come for the child," he said. "Sooner than you think."
"I'll be ready."
Theron stared at her for a long moment.
"You're not just carrying it anymore," he said. "You're becoming it."
Rae didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
The mark on her skin burned like it agreed