Chapter 17: The Cursed Ridge
By the time they reached the base of the Cursed Ridge, even the air felt... wrong. Not just cold—dense, like trying to breathe through cloth that had soaked up too many secrets. The trees here didn't grow so much as writhe. Their trunks twisted at unnatural angles, leaves glinting like slivers of broken glass.
Noah had given up pretending any of this made sense. He just followed Lyra and Riven up the jagged slope, staying close, fingers never far from the Veil Coin clipped to his belt.
"So," he said, aiming for casual and missing. "Why's it called the Cursed Ridge?"
Riven let out a dry laugh. "Because 'The Ridge Where You Probably Die Screaming' doesn't fit neatly on maps."
Lyra, leading the way, didn't look back. "It used to be alive. A creature made of land and stone. A guardian. When the Veil fractured, it froze mid-motion—corrupted by the echoes. Now we walk across its bones."
Noah looked down. And yeah... now that she mentioned it, the ridgeline did look like something ancient. Rib-like rocks jutted from the sides, and the ground beneath his boots seemed to pulse faintly—like the aftershock of a heartbeat long gone.
"So it might wake up?" he asked.
"Hopefully not while we're standing on its spine," Lyra muttered.
Halfway up, the wind changed. It stopped whispering.
It started laughing.
Not loud—just a faint, echoing chuckle. Like a memory. Noah froze. "Okay. That's not just me, right?"
"You're hearing it," Lyra said. Her voice was tight. "This is where the Echo Fog begins."
She wasn't kidding.
The mist rolled in fast. It shimmered like oil on water, cutting visibility to maybe ten feet. The laughter grew louder, now joined by faint footsteps that didn't match their own.
Riven spun a dagger in his fingers and pulled his coat tighter. "They're close."
"They?" Noah asked, trying not to sound like he already regretted asking.
"Echoborn," Lyra whispered. "Shadows given shape by the echoes. They mimic people—try to confuse you, trick you. Don't talk to them. Don't follow. And whatever you do, don't believe them."
But it was already too late.
Shapes stirred in the fog.
One stepped directly in front of Noah—and his stomach dropped.
It was him.
Same hoodie. Same scar. Same tired eyes.
But something was off. The face was too still. The eyes—wrong. Pale. Empty.
"Noah Vale," it said, with his voice. "You're not the hero. You're just the shadow."
Noah stumbled back. "No. That's not me. That's not—"
Riven's blade sliced clean through the figure. It shattered into mist like broken glass. "Illusions," he said. "Keep moving."
But more kept coming.
One looked like Lyra's brother. Another, Riven's own face, smirking.
Noah ran.
The laughter wasn't around him anymore—it was inside his head. The fog pulsed with memories he couldn't stop: his parents walking away, the counselor who said he'd never matter, Mortimer's voice warning him that few survive the Sight.
He tripped on a root and nearly went down—but a hand grabbed him.
Not an echo.
Lyra.
She looked pale, furious, alive. "Hold the shard," she said. "Now."
Noah fumbled into his pouch and pulled out Kael's shard. It was warm. Vibrating. Alive somehow. And when he held it close, the mist recoiled—not vanishing, but shrinking back.
It hated the shard.
They didn't talk after that. Just climbed, slowly, through fog and shadow and memory.
At last, when the sky cracked open and light spilled down like fire, they reached the summit.
Below, a massive ruin lay sprawled in a circular valley.
Floating above it—untethered, humming with power—was the third shard. It spun slowly, like a dying star holding on.
But they weren't alone.
Dozens of figures stood between them and the ruin.
All of them Noah.
Each one smiling that same, wrong smile.
Lyra swore under her breath. "They've multiplied."
"Correction," Riven said, both blades out. "They're guarding it from you."
The echoes looked up as one. Their mouths opened—too wide—and they began to scream without sound.
Noah took a breath. Felt the shard. The Coin. The fire rising in him like it had been waiting.
"Then we take it back."
And they charged.