Chapter 4 What The Thread Won't Hold

• The thread snapped somewhere between the dining hall and my dorm room.
• I felt it the second it happened, a small give at my collarbone, and my hand shot up before I could stop it, catching the amulet just as the chain slid loose from my collar. My heart lurched into my throat.
• "Whoa, you good?" Kian asked, stopping mid-sentence about the food in the dining hall being somehow worse than his old school's.
• "Fine," I said, too fast, closing my fist around the amulet and shoving it back under my shirt. "Dropped something."
• He gave me a look that said he didn't quite believe me, but he let it go, which I was grateful for. We kept walking, the hallway quieter now that most students had scattered off to their rooms, moonlight cutting pale strips across the floor through the tall windows.
• I needed somewhere to sit down and fix this properly, not just shove a loose thread through a cracked clasp and hope for the best. My hands were already shaking at the thought of another night like the one after dinner, that flash of blood and stone floor pressing at the edges of my mind every time I let my guard down.
• "You've gone quiet," Kian said.
• "Long day."
• "Fair." He slowed his pace to match mine. "You know, for someone who just met Rhett Calloway and lived to tell about it, you don't seem thrilled."
• "Should I be?"
• "Most people would be talking about it nonstop. He doesn't usually approach anyone first." Kian tilted his head, studying me the way he had back at the front hall, like he was still trying to solve something. "What did he say to you?"
• I hesitated. Careful who you trust here. Not everyone in this school is who they seem. It sat heavy in my chest, half a warning and half something else I couldn't name yet.
• "Nothing important," I said.
• Kian didn't push, but I could tell he wanted to. We reached my dorm door, and I fumbled the key out of my pocket, my fingers still unsteady.
• "Hey," he said, before I could open the door. "This is going to sound strange, but that necklace you keep touching. You've had your hand on it like ten times tonight."
• My stomach dropped straight through the floor. "It's nothing. Just a habit."
• "Okay." He held his hands up, not pushing, but his eyes stayed on me a beat too long. "I just noticed the clasp looked kind of messed up earlier. If you need help fixing it, I'm pretty decent with that stuff. My mom used to make me fix her jewelry all the time."
• Part of me wanted to say no immediately, to shut the door and deal with this alone the way I always had. But the thread had already snapped once tonight, and my hands weren't steady enough to trust with a needle, not with the images from earlier still crawling at the edges of my thoughts.
• "Okay," I said, surprising myself. "Just the clasp. It's not a big deal."
• We sat on the small couch in the dorm's common room downstairs, since Dahlia still hadn't come back and I didn't want anyone in my actual room. I unclasped the amulet with careful fingers and set it in his palm, resisting the urge to snatch it right back.
• Kian turned it over, examining the crack running along the delicate metal loop. "This is old work," he said. "Like, really old. Not something you'd find in a regular shop."
• "It was my mom's."
• Something in his expression softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"
• "It's fine." I wrapped my arms around my knees, watching him work. "She died when I was eight. It's the only thing I have left of her."
• He didn't say anything for a moment, just kept turning the amulet gently in his fingers, tracing the hairline crack with his thumb. "There's something carved on the inside of the clasp," he said slowly. "Real small. Have you ever noticed that?"
• My whole body went still. "No."
• "Looks like a symbol. Some kind of rune, maybe." He squinted at it under the lamp light. "I've seen something like it before, actually. In one of the old texts in the library archive. Professor Hale had us studying bonding marks for healer training last semester."
• "Bonding marks?"
• "Yeah. Old pack magic, mostly gone now. Used to link two bloodlines together, or seal something between people. Family oaths, that kind of thing." He looked up at me, curiosity plain on his face now, no longer just casual concern. "This is a strange thing for a regular necklace to have."
• My mouth had gone dry. I hadn't known there was anything carved into the clasp at all, not in ten years of wearing it every single day.
• "Can you just fix it," I said, quieter than I meant to. "Please."
• Kian studied me for a second longer, and I could see him deciding whether to push or let it drop. He chose to let it drop, threading a fresh piece of wire through the clasp with careful, practiced fingers.
• "There," he said finally, handing it back. "Should hold for a while. Might want to get a real jeweler to look at it properly though, someone who knows old work like this."
• "Thank you," I said, fastening it back around my neck immediately, relief flooding through me the second it settled against my skin.
• Kian leaned back against the couch, still watching me with that same unreadable curiosity. "Wren, whatever this thing is, it's not just jewelry. You know that, right?"
• I didn't answer, because I couldn't lie to his face and I wasn't ready to tell him the truth.
• He didn't push further, but as he said goodnight and headed for the stairs, I caught him glancing back once, like he was already turning the pieces over in his mind, already close to an answer I wasn't ready to give him.