Chapter 28 Maren
MAREN
Sage pulled Maren upstairs to show her the flower collection she'd been organizing.
"This one's for happy," the little girl explained, holding up a dried daisy. "And this one's for brave." A sprig of lavender. "Mama says you need brave flowers right now."
"Your mama's smart." Maren sat on the floor, letting Sage arrange flowers in her lap. "What's this one for?"
"That's for when you're scared but you do it anyway." Sage placed a small bundle of rosemary carefully on Maren's knee. "Papa has one like it. From before he met Mama when he was alone."
Maren touched the rosemary gently. "Thank you, sweetheart."
Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Freya appeared carrying two mugs of tea. "Sage, baby, let Maren breathe for a minute."
"But I'm teaching her about flowers."
"I can see that. You're doing excellent work." Freya handed Maren a mug. "How are you holding up?"
"Better. Clearer." Maren sipped the tea, grateful for the warmth. "I'm staying. Whatever happens with the Council, I'm done running. I have to be."
"Good. Because running never fixed anything." Freya settled against the wall, watching Sage arrange more flowers. "Kieran should be back soon. He went to check on Elias at the construction site but the storm's getting worse."
The temperature dropped suddenly.
Not gradual. Not natural. One moment warm, the next cold enough to see breath fog.
Maren's shadows recoiled violently, pressing so close they nearly disappeared. Her mug slipped from numb fingers, tea splashing across floorboards.
The doppelg?nger materialized in the doorway.
Solid this time. No flicker, no smoke, no wavering at the edges. It stood tall and perfect, wearing Maren's face like a mask stolen and claimed. Silver eyes glowed too bright. Black veins crawled beneath pale skin, pulsing with something that looked like blood but moved wrong.
"Hello, sister." Its voice layered, multiple whispers wrapped around Maren's tone. "Did you miss me?"
Sage screamed.
The sound was pure terror, the kind that went straight to bone. Freya grabbed her daughter, pulling the child behind her, green light already sparking around her fingers.
"Get out," Freya said, voice steady despite the child crying against her legs. "You're not welcome here."
"I go where she goes." The doppelg?nger pointed at Maren. "We're connected. Blood and shadow and fear. Everything she is, I am. Everything she'll be, I already am."
"You're nothing." Maren stood slowly, shadows spreading wide despite their terror. "A construct. A copy. Not real."
"I'm more real than you every day." The creature stepped forward. Veins pulsed darker, spreading across its cheeks like cracks in porcelain. "The town believes in me. Fears me. That makes me solid. You? You're just the ghost they want gone."
Sage's crying intensified. Downstairs, the bell over the shop door chimed. Voices rose, urgent and overlapping.
"What's wrong?"
"Heard the child screaming—"
"Is someone hurt?"
The doppelg?nger smiled with Maren's mouth. "Perfect. An audience."
Footsteps pounded up the stairs. Thomas Wells appeared first, followed by three others. All armed. All ready.
They saw Maren standing near Freya and Sage. Saw the doppelg?nger wearing Maren's face. Saw the child crying and Freya's protective stance.
"She's torturing the kid," Wells said, already moving. "Grab her—"
"That's not me!" Maren pointed at the construct. "That thing is what's been causing the incidents. It's using my face to frame me."
"Sure it is." Wells raised his club. "You’ve been using your twin here as a distraction to think you aren’t around when dangerous things happen. We know the truth!"
"Thomas, stop." Freya's voice cut sharp. "Use your eyes. Look at the veins. Look at how it's standing. That's not human."
"Neither is she," someone else said.
The doppelg?nger laughed, the sound like shattering glass. "They've already decided, sister. You can't argue with fear. Can't reason with hate. All you can do is run."
Sage's crying turned to hiccupping sobs. Maren's shadows reached toward the child instinctively, trying to comfort.
"See that?" Wells pointed. "Shadow magic near the girl. She's doing something to her."
The construct's smile widened.
It dissolved into smoke, dispersing through cracks in the floorboards. Gone in seconds, leaving Maren alone with armed townspeople and a terrified child.
"I didn't hurt her," Maren said, backing toward the window. "I would never hurt Sage."
"You were using magic on her," Wells said. "We all saw it."
"My shadows were trying to calm her down. That thing appearing scared her, not me."
"Convenient excuse." Wells moved closer, club raised. "You're coming with us. Council can sort out which one's real after we've got you locked up."
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
"Then we do this the hard way."
Maren's shadows exploded outward, not attacking, just creating barrier. Darkness filled the room, cold and absolute. She used the cover to reach the window, yanking it open despite the storm howling outside.
"Maren, don't—" Freya started.
"Keep Sage safe." Maren climbed onto the sill. "And tell Tristan I'm sorry."
She dropped into the alley below, landing hard in snow that cushioned impact but grabbed at her legs. Behind her, shouts erupted. The mob organizing, spreading out, hunting.
Let them hunt.
She was done hiding. Done letting the doppelg?nger control the narrative while she cowered and hoped for mercy that would never come.
If it wanted to frame her, wanted to wear her face and destroy her life, it could do it in the open.
Maren ran toward Moonmirror Lake, her shadows spreading wide, making herself visible, obvious, impossible to miss. The storm battered her from all sides, snow and ice cutting exposed skin. Her lungs burned. Her legs ached.
She kept running.
Behind her, the mob gave chase. Voices calling her name, some angry, some frightened, all certain they were pursuing a threat instead of someone trying to protect them.
The forest appeared through white curtains. She plunged into bare branches, not bothering to hide tracks. Let them follow. Let them see.
When the doppelg?nger came, when it showed itself for the construct it was, they'd have to believe. Would have to see the difference between shadow witch and shadow monster.
Or they wouldn't. And she'd die trying to prove something that should've been obvious from the start.
Either way, she was done running.
The lake emerged ahead, black ice visible beneath fresh snow. This was where her mother had hidden the locket, where the water remembered, where shadows slept beneath the surface. She knew it now.
This was where it ended.
Maren stopped at the shore, chest heaving, shadows spread wide in challenge. "I know you're here," she called into the storm. "I know you can feel me. So come on. Face me without hiding behind witnesses and fear. Just you and me. Let's finish this."
Wind howled. Snow fell. The lake sat silent and waiting.
Then the temperature dropped again, and darkness materialized across the ice.
The doppelg?nger stood twenty feet away, solid and terrible and smiling with her stolen face.
"Finally," it said. "Finally you understand."
"I understand you're using my mother's locket to exist." Maren's voice stayed steady despite everything. "I understand you feed on fear and chaos. And I understand that destroying the locket destroys you."
"Good luck finding it." The construct opened its arms. "Your mother hid it well. Somewhere in this lake, yes. But where? How deep? Under what stone?" Its smile widened. "You'll never find it in time."
"Maybe not." Maren's shadows coiled tight, preparing. "But I can keep you busy while someone else looks."
The doppelg?nger's expression flickered. "You can't fight me. Your magic feeds me."
"Then I won't use magic."
She grabbed a fallen branch, ice-covered and solid, and charged.