Page 118 of Stormvein

Ellie shifts beside me, her breath catching. Her body goes rigid.

“What did you say?” Her voice comes out shocked.

I turn my head to look at her. The dream’s fading, but the name is still stuck in my mind.

“Elowen.”

Her lips part slightly, the color draining from her face. Her chest rises with a sharp intake of breath that she doesn’t release straight away.

“That’s …” She trails off, tongue sweeping over her lips. “That’smyname. Myfullname. No one here knows that.” Her fingers twist into the blanket. “No oneanywhereknows it anymore. I haven’t heard anyone say it since I was—” She swallows. “How could you possibly know that?”

I push up onto one elbow and twist to face her.

“I had a dream.” I talk slowly, rebuilding it in my head. “There was a tower. Covered in symbols I didn’t recognize. A woman with silver hair. She said that the crystal wasn’t a weapon, it was a window.”

Ellie stays quiet.

“She said the nameElowen, and told me to find her.”

She stares at me. “I … I don’t understand how that’s possible.”

“She showed me a child standing in the rain. A silver bracelet around her wrist.”

Her lips part again, eyes widening. “I had a silver bracelet when they found me.”

“Foundyou?”

She looks away, drawing her legs up so she can wrap her arms around them, her voice flattening as if distance can dull the memory.

“They said I was left in a church confessional.” Her voice takes on the practiced tone of someone who’s told a story so many times it’s become a recitation rather than a memory.“Wrapped in a blue woolen blanket, with a handwritten note and a silver bracelet on my wrist.”

She draws in a slow breath, gaze fixed on a point beyond the room. “No name, except Elowen. No last name, no birthdate, nothing that hinted to who I might be. Just the bracelet.” Her fingers trace the shape of it over her wrist. “The priest who found me took me to a group home, and that’s where I grew up. The quiet girl. The strange one.” Her lips quirk up into a stiff smile. “People don’t line up to adopt the girl who barely speaks.”

I don’t ask what a group home is. I don’t ask her to explain, she doesn’t need interruptions. I can guess what she means without needing her to describe it further.

“I lost the bracelet when I was six. There was a storm. Lightning hit a tree outside the house. One of the carers found me on the porch just as lightning struck again … right at my feet. They said the bracelet was acting like a conductor. It was dangerous, so they took it away.”

“What happened to it?”

She frowns, then shakes her head. “I don’t remember.”

The name. The dream. The bracelet. They’re threads of a pattern I still can’t see, but it’s there, lurking beneath the surface.

“You said you dreamed of a woman.”

I nod. “It’s not the first time. I’ve seen her before, when I was close to death.”

“I’ve dreamed of her, too.” The words are soft, so low I almost miss them.

“A woman with silver in her hair?” I sit up fully now.

“Yes.” She draws her knees closer to her chest. “She’s been in my dreams since I arrived here. Always watching. I thought they were just dreams. My brain trying to process being in a different world, creating a guide or something.”

“They’re not.” I’m certain of that now, pieces of a puzzle I didn’t know I was solving clicking into place. “What did she say to you?”

“Nothing that ever made sense, but I always wake up with this feeling that they’re important.”

“And your name is really Elowen?” I keep my voice gentle, watching how the sound of it affects her. This name she’s buried for so long.