Chapter 34: The Other Within

Ivy couldn’t breathe.

The ghostly image of her daughter shimmered under the moonlight, her golden eyes filled with knowing, ancient sorrow. But it wasn’t the girl that held Ivy frozen.

It was the figure standing behind her.

Isolde.

Smiling.

Not destroyed. Not banished.

Still there.

Inside her.

“I don’t understand,” Ivy whispered.

Her unborn daughter’s lips didn’t move, but her voice echoed inside Ivy’s mind. “You were never carrying one soul.”

“No…” Ivy’s heart thudded painfully. “I drank the reversal essence. Isla left. She left.”

“Isla left,” the girl agreed. “But Isolde stayed.”

The air around them shifted—bending and folding like paper in flame. Ivy stumbled back, but her legs refused to work. Her body was not hers. Her breath quickened as her child’s image flickered—and Isolde’s silhouette grew clearer.

Killian’s voice pierced the haze.

“Ivy!”

He rushed outside, only to find her frozen, pale and shaking.

“What did you see?” he asked, grabbing her shoulders.

But Ivy couldn’t speak.

Because something inside her had just laughed.

The following morning was a flurry of tension. Ivy remained silent, curled up on the couch with a blanket wrapped tightly around her as if trying to hide from something inside her own skin.

Aiden watched her from the corner. Guilt lined his features, but he didn’t dare approach her again. Not after what was revealed.

She hadn’t taken the reversal essence.

Isla had left on her own.

And now… Isolde remained.

“Is it possible for one body to carry two spirits?” Killian asked Aiden later, keeping his voice low.

Aiden rubbed his temple. “It shouldn’t be. Not naturally. But Ivy’s child—she’s not just human. She’s a convergence of bloodlines… ancient and divine. That might’ve made her womb a gateway.”

“A gateway for what?”

Aiden hesitated. “For resurrection.”

Killian’s fists clenched. “Then we need to get Isolde out. Whatever it takes.”

Ivy spoke from the couch without looking at them. “She’s not just inside me. She’s feeding off me.”

Killian turned. “What do you mean?”

“She’s getting stronger. Every time I feel joy, hope, or love… she twists it. Turns it into pain. She’s using my emotions to grow.”

Desperate for answers, Aiden revealed one final secret he’d been holding back.

“There’s one place we haven’t searched,” he said. “The Codex Vault. It’s where my order stored forbidden knowledge… the kind erased from existence. If we’re going to save Ivy, we need to break every rule we’ve ever followed.”

Killian looked at Ivy. She nodded weakly.

“I’ll go,” Killian said.

“So will I,” Ivy whispered, her voice steadier now. “This is my body. And I won’t be a prisoner in it.”

The Codex Vault was hidden deep in the forest, guarded by a labyrinth of enchantments meant to drive intruders mad. But Aiden had the key—one that cost him everything to obtain.

They passed through illusions of fire, torment, and loss. Ivy saw her mother weeping, her father dying, and Killian bleeding in her arms. She pushed through each one with trembling resolve.

At the centre stood a door made of black stone, etched with hundreds of tiny marks.

“They’re names,” Ivy whispered. “Of those who were sacrificed to create it.”

Aiden placed his hand on the stone. “Let’s hope we’re not next.”

The door groaned open.

Inside was a single pedestal, and atop it, an obsidian book.

Killian approached. “This is it?”

“The Soul Split Codex,” Aiden confirmed. “It’s our last chance.”

Back at the safehouse, Ivy read the ancient script with shaking hands.

There was a way.

A ritual that could draw the parasitic spirit from her body and trap it in a mirror—a reflection of truth, untainted by illusion.

But there was a catch.

The host had to willingly surrender… everything.

Memories. Emotions. Love.

She had to become hollow, a shell, for the spirit to detach.

“If we do this,” Ivy said, looking at Killian, “I won’t remember you. Or our child.”

Killian’s face contorted with pain. “There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t,” Aiden said solemnly. “This is the only way to separate her from Isolde.”

Ivy took Killian’s hand. “Then promise me… you’ll remind me who I am.”

His voice cracked. “I swear it.”

The mirror was placed in the centre of a salt circle. Ivy sat across from it, legs crossed, palms up.

Killian and Aiden stood outside the circle, watching with bated breath.

Ivy closed her eyes.

And let go.

Memories unravelled.

Her first kiss. Her mother’s lullaby. The moment she realized she was pregnant.

Gone.

Isolde stirred.

“Yes,” the voice inside her hissed. “Open the door.”

The mirror darkened.

Smoke coiled around the glass.

A shape began to form—tall, thin, elegant.

Isolde’s reflection.

She smiled. “So easy to steal a soul when it’s already broken.”

Suddenly, a gust of wind shattered the circle.

Aiden shouted, “She’s trying to break free—outside the mirror!”

The salt lines scattered.

The mirror cracked.

And then… Ivy’s eyes snapped open.

But they were no longer hers.

Isolde had taken control.

“I’ve waited so long,” she said through Ivy’s lips. “To be more than shadow. To become.”

Killian drew a blade. “Let her go.”

Isolde only smiled. “Strike me, and you strike the one you love. Isn’t that always the tragedy of heroes?”

She turned to Aiden. “You were always clever. But never smart enough to realize you were the key.”

Before either man could react, she moved impossibly fast—seizing Aiden and plunging her hand into his chest.

“No!” Killian cried.

But it was too late.

Isolde ripped something from Aiden—an orb of light—and swallowed it.

He fell to the ground, lifeless.

Killian ran to him, shaking his body. “Aiden! Aiden!”

But Aiden didn’t move.

Isolde, still wearing Ivy’s face, laughed softly. “The Ritual of Mirrors had a loophole… and you gave me exactly what I needed.”

She turned toward the mirror—and stepped into it.

Vanishing.

Killian held Aiden’s body, grief strangling him.

Then he heard a gasp.

Ivy.

She lay on the floor, blinking rapidly—her eyes clear but empty.

“Ivy?” he whispered.

She looked at him, confused. “Who are you?”

His heart shattered.

And outside the mirror… in the shadows…

Isolde walked free.