Amanda woke with a jolt, her breath sharp in her throat. For a moment she thought the dream had followed her into waking, the silver wolf bowing, the whisper of Luna-born echoing in her bones. But this time it wasn't the dream, it was real. The locket around her neck was glowing. A soft, silvery pulse, faint at first, then stronger, spilling across her sheets like liquid moonlight. Amanda scrambled upright, clutching it in her fist. The metal burned hot against her palm, though not enough to hurt, more like it was alive, thrumming in rhythm with her heartbeat.
Her chest tightened.
"What are you?", she whispered into the empty room.
The glow dimmed slightly, then flared again, as if answering. Amanda yanked it off and dropped it onto her desk. The silver crescent spun once before settling, still glowing faintly. She pressed her hands over her face.
This isn't happening.
This isn't happening.
She chanted in her head but it was. She couldn't deny it anymore.
---
By the time daylight crept through her curtains, Amanda had her laptop open, eyes glazed over from scrolling through endless tabs. Werewolf lore, human myths, half truths and strange websites that looked like they were made in the early 2000s. She chased every thread that might explain what the rune stone, and now the locket had done. Her searches spiraled beyond werewolves: humans with mythical abilities, moon blessed mortals, silver marked bloodlines, I mean her stepbrother was a werewolf, anything goes right?
Most of what she found was garbage: message boards where people claimed to turn into owls, blog posts about crystals and moon energy. But buried between the noise were fragments that made her pause. Some humans, born of unusual parentage, could wield fragments of the supernatural. There were once priestesses who channeled moonlight, humans whose power rivaled even the strongest of wolves. They were rare, feared and hunted. She sat back, her stomach churning. It was ridiculous. She was human, ordinary, she'd grown up in New York with her mom, barely scraping by in a tiny apartment. No glowing stones, no magic necklaces, certainly nothing supernatural. So why were these strange things happening to her?, a small voice whispered inside her.
She slammed the laptop shut.
"I'm normal", she whispered fiercely, as if the words could make it true.
"I'm just… me", she added but even as she said it, her gaze drifted back to the locket. It still pulsed faintly in the morning light.
---
At school, the whispers hadn't died down. If anything, they'd grown sharper. Amanda kept her head down, ignoring the way conversations dropped when she walked past, ignoring the way eyes followed her. By lunch, she was ready to scream. Instead, she found Stacie sitting at their usual table, waving her over with a bright smile.
Amanda slumped down across from her. "Don't tell me you haven't heard", she said as she sat down.
Stacie had not gone on the field trips for reasons she had told Amanda but she must have forgotten with everything else going on. But Amanda knew she was lying right now.
"Heard what?", Stacie asked, feigning innocence, but her eyes darted nervously.
"Everyone thinks I bewitched the rune stone, or Skylar, or both", she answered simply.
Stacie winced.
"Yeah, people talk", she agreed softly, her voice almost apologetic.
Amanda rubbed her temples.
"You know this is all insane, I'm not like you guys, I'm human and I certainly don't have, whatever they think I have", she said frustratedly.
Stacie leaned in, lowering her voice.
"But you can't tell me you aren't the least bit curious, aren't you? About why it happened?", she asked.
Amanda froze and hesitated, the memory of the locket glowing flashed through her mind.
"It's a mystical thousand years old stone, Amanda", she added.
Her throat tightened,
"…maybe", she admitted finally.
Stacie hesitated, then glanced around before speaking.
"Look, Amanda… I like you, like really really like you. I want to be your friend, I haven't had much of that all my life. But if you're going to start digging into things you don't understand, I wouldn't be much of a good friend if I don't at least warn you to be careful", she said.
Amanda frowned.
"Careful how?", she asked.
"You know how the pack feels about witches, that's bad enough. But if there's one thing we fear more than witches… it's the unknown. Something we can't explain", Stacie said softly.
Her words hit Amanda like ice water.
Stacie sighed.
"If the stone reacted to you, people will try to find a reason. And if they can't… they'll make one. So don't give them more to whisper about. Don't let them catch you researching or… glowing", she advised.
Amanda swallowed hard.
"Glowing?", she asked nervously.
"Just- Don't tell me you haven't noticed anything weird. You look… different, like something's humming around you", Stacie bit her lips.
Amanda's hands curled into fists under the table.
"I don't want this, I didn't ask for any of this", she said.
"I know, but wanting doesn't change what is", Stacie's voice softened.
Amanda looked away, fighting the burn in her chest.
---
That night, Amanda sat at her desk again, the locket was glowing again, faintly on the wood. She stared at it, at the way it pulsed like it had its own heartbeat. Stacie's warning echoed in her ears. If there's one thing they fear more than witches, it's something they can't explain. Amanda lifted the locket and let it dangle from its chain. Silver light shimmered across her walls. For the first time, a thought crept in that she'd been pushing away since the ridge.
What if I'm not fully human? Her father's absence, her mother's secrecy, Samuel's probing questions all of it pressed down on her. The locket pulsed once more, as if answering the question she hadn't dared to ask out loud.
Amanda shivered.
And for the first time in her life, she wasn't sure who or what she was.